OUR TEAM

Dr. James Lee has extensive experience in both the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. He is the founder of Tulex Pharmaceuticals as well as the founder of Magnifica Inc. with accomplishments including FDA approvals of APIs, optimization of chemical synthesis for various pharmaceutical compounds, and development of Rx-to-OTC pharmaceutical products. He previously worked with Karl Storz Endoscopy Inc. for new product launches; successfully obtained FDA clearance/approval for over 25 various medical surgical device sets and drug device combination products via 510(k)s or PMAs. He also previously worked with Pharmaports as President, and at Baxter International. He received his PhD degree in Chemistry and Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from University of Southern California and earned his BA in Biochemistry from Columbia University.

Dr. Tu is the initial founding member of Tulex Pharmaceuticals, taking charge of the build-up of its cGMP pharmaceutical operations in New Jersey. He brings over 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in product development, regulatory submission, and manufacturing operation. Throughout his career, he has authored 25+ patents in the drug delivery arena, gained FDA approval of many NDA and ANDA products, and he is the inventor/co-inventor of many innovative technologies. Prior to joining Tulex Pharmaceuticals, he was at Tris Pharma for 13 years, spearheading the research and development operation and contributing to the significant growth of the then start-up company. His experience also extends to Celltech, Medeva, Solvay, and Fisions, where he cumulatively spent 10 years in formulation development. Dr. Tu obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from National Taiwan University and holds a PhD. degree in Pharmaceutics from the University of Iowa.

Ashok has been with Tulex Pharmaceuticals since the inception of the company in Cranbury. He brings 15+ years of pharmaceutical experience in formulation and serves as the head of product development activities at Tulex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Tulex, Ashok worked as Director of Product Development at Tris Pharma, where he authored patents and contributed to the commercialization of many marketed products. Ashok was involved in the development process from concept-to-market, project management, process development, clinical management, and regularly submissions. His vast pharmaceutical experience has resulted in numerous generic and 505(b)2 product approvals. Before working at Tris Pharma, Ashok worked at Par and Sun Pharmaceuticals, where he spent roughly 6 years as the formulation scientist. Ashok earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy and his Master of Science degree in Pharmaceutics from MGR Medical University, India.

Venkat joined Tulex in April 2016 as a Senior Director of Quality Assurance. He has over 16 years of pharmaceutical industrial experience covering both R&D and commercial drug products. Before joining Tulex, he worked for Novel Labs Inc. NJ, a subsidiary of Lupin, for 7 years at various management roles. His previous position at Novel was Director, QA in which he closely worked with the FDA inspections and responses of all the R&D and commercial quality functions. He was responsible for various departments including Quality Assurance, Compliance, Regulatory Inspections, Complaints, Pharmacovigilance, and other Quality systems. Prior to that he was working at Kali Labs Inc. a subsidiary of Par Pharmaceuticals, NJ and NY for 7 years in QC and Analytical R&D at various roles including Supervisor and Manager. In that position he oversaw testing and release of commercial and R&D products, raw materials release, investigation, stability and validation departments. Prior to that he worked for Sun Pharmaceuticals, India for 2 years as an R&D scientist. Earlier in his career he worked as a academician for more than 3 years. He is a certified Quality Auditor (CQA) and Manager (CQM) from the American Society of Quality. He is also a certified QA professional from NJPQCA. He is a licensed pharmacist in the state of New Jersey holding Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Pharmacy from the Tamilnadu Dr. MGR Medical University in India.

Dr. Furong Liu joined Tulex in March 2020 as VP of Analytical Labs. She brings over 17 years of pharmaceutical industrial experience. Prior to joining Tulex, Dr. Liu worked as a Sr. Director of Analytical R & D at Kashiv BioSciences for almost 9 years, where she was responsible for quality control, pre-formulation, method development/validation, CMC regulatory submission and FDA inspection. Before working at Kashiv BioSciences, Dr. Liu worked as a manager of Analytical R & D at Teva Pharmaceuticals/Barr Laboratories for more than 8 years with increasing responsibilities. Dr. Liu received her Bachelor degree in Chemistry from Peking University in China and Ph.D degree in Chemistry from New York University.

Brian LaBar joined Tulex Pharmaceuticals as Sr. Director of Business Development in January 2017. Prior to that he was a consultant providing assistance and advice in material sourcing and business development for Tulex’s R & D program for 2 years. Brian has brought to Tulex an extensive 30+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He has held positions with increasing responsibilities in quality control, supply chain management, chemical sales, material sourcing and procurement during his careers in Warner Lambert (Warner Chilcott and Parke Davis Divisions), ZetaPharm, Helm New York, Watson and Actavis. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Pennsylvania Military College and MBA’s in Management/Pharmaceutical Marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University.