Chief Scientific and Strategy Officer (CSSO)

Dr. Praveer Gupta is the Chief Scientific and Strategy Officer of Manotri Pharma Private Limited, providing scientific leadership across peptides, polymers, and complex molecular platforms. He is an experienced medicinal chemist with strong expertise in drug discovery, complex drug substances, scale-up, and regulatory-ready execution, and is known for building integrated and commercially relevant R&D capabilities.
Previously, Dr. Gupta headed the Complex Specialty Products portfolio at Alembic Research Centre, Hyderabad, where he led programs in peptides, non-biological complex drugs (NBCDs), novel chemical entities (NCEs), and advanced nano-delivery systems. He established Alembic’s Complex API R&D laboratory and built a multidisciplinary team of over 50 scientists, including 15 PhDs, spanning synthesis, analytical development, pilot operations, and technology transfer.
He played a key role in setting up Alembic’s commercial peptide manufacturing facility in Vadodara, contributing to facility design, capacity planning, and talent development. His leadership enabled multiple peptide programs to advance from development to commercialization, resulting in successful US Drug Master File (DMF) filings and product approvals. He was also involved in the in-licensing of a nanoparticle-based drug delivery platform, gaining hands-on experience with US FDA regulatory requirements.
In parallel, Dr. Gupta led drug discovery initiatives, generating high-value patents and seeding a spin-off company progressing toward clinical development. Earlier, he led a DBT-funded drug delivery project under the Biotech Ignition Grant Scheme in collaboration with The University of Queensland, Australia.
Dr. Gupta earned his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from The University of Queensland under Prof. David Fairlie, contributed to the rational design of selective HDAC inhibitors, and later completed a Pfizer-funded postdoctoral program on GLP-1 peptides. He has authored 15 peer-reviewed publications and is a co-inventor on two international patents.