Dr Apu is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at TAMUK. Dr. Apu joined TAMUK in Fall, 1999. At the end of 2005, he took a leave of absence from TAMUK and served as the Global R&D Head and Senior Vice President) in Dr Reddys Laboratories in India. Dr. Reddys is one of the largest generic pharmaceutical company with R&D and manufacturing spanning all across the world including USA, Europe SE Asia, Mexico and Canada. He provided leadership and strategic direction for the global R&D (consisting of more than 700 Ph.D. Chemists and Engineers) and serve on senior R&D staff that is responsible for ensuring effective and innovative product development. After two and a half years sabbatical Dr Apu returned to TAMUK in Fall 2008. Dr Apu has over twenty years of experience in Pharmaceutical industry in the areas of drug delivery and drug development (prior to TAMUK) including Merck (8 yrs), Hoechst (8 yrs), Bristol Myers Squibb (2 yrs), and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in India (2 yrs). At Merck, he discovered Finasteride or “Prsocar” (a multi-billion dollar drug for enlarged prostate and prostate cancer). and the hair growth drug “Propecia”. At Hoechst, he developed a process for “Cromolyn Sodium” (for asthma), “Gd/Lu Texaphyrin” (agent for MRI imaging agent for photodynamic therapy of cancer) S-ibuprofen (non-streroidal antinflammatory). At Bristol Myers Squibb, as a director of Process R&D, he led the efforts to develop Nucanzole, another important antifungal drug from BMS. At TAMUK he developed a one step synthesis for Tylenol.

Dr Apu’s research interests include Pharmaceutical Process Research and Development and Environmentally Benign Processes in Organic Synthesis.