Benjamin Mayes

Dr. Mayes has worked in the biopharmaceutical industry since 2004. Prior to joining SynDevRx in 2015, he spent 11 years at Idenix Pharmaceuticals working in the field of direct-acting antivirals for the treatment of HBV, HIV and HCV. As director of chemistry, manufacturing and controls, he was responsible for a wide range of activities, including API process R&D, solid-state chemistry, API production, formulation development and CTM manufacturing to enable the rapid progression of Phase 1 and 2 studies. Additionally, he was responsible for leading a focused discovery program into novel nucleosides and nucleotide prodrug inhibitors targeting HCV NS5B polymerase.

Dr. Mayes is the principal inventor of the prodrug technology for IDX21437 (now MK-3682), the key asset within an anti-HCV portfolio for which Idenix was acquired by Merck for $3.85 billion in 2014. He obtained his M.Chem. and D.Phil. (Ph.D.) degrees in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Oxford under the supervision of Professor G.W.J. Fleet. He is co-author or co-inventor on many journal articles, presentations and patent applications.