David Houck, PhD
Vice President, Chemistry Manufacturing Controls
Dr. David Houck, Vice President of Chemistry Manufacturing Controls, joined Escient Pharmaceuticals in July 2022. Dr. Houck has over 35 years of pharmaceutical-industry experience in regulatory affairs, formulation development, manufacture, and quality control of pharmaceutical products. His accomplishments include submission of numerous INDs/NDAs to the US FDA, developing regulatory strategy, and liaise with FDA. Previously, Dr. Houck was chief development officer at Aptinyx Inc and held various senior research and development positions at Merck, Sterling Winthrop, Sanofi, OSI Pharmaceuticals, and Scynexis. Under his leadership, he developed CMC programs for oral, inhaled, topical and parenteral dosage forms which contributed to the advancement of several clinical and marketed pharmaceuticals (simvastatin, imipenem, novel cyclosporins, antibiotics, rapastinel). Most recently, he provided strategic, technical, and regulatory direction to emerging pharmaceutical development companies.
Dr Houck was trained in biochemistry and medicinal chemistry, completed degrees at Alma College (B.S.), Purdue University (M.S.), and Ohio State University (Ph.D.), and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.