David Laffan carried out his PhD under the supervision of Ian Paterson on the synthesis of the macrocyclic skeleton of erythromycin At Cambridge, after which he started work in the fine chemicals industry with Lonza in Switzerland. After six years he moved from the CDMO industry to the pharmaceuticals industry by joining Zeneca (now AstraZeneca) Process R&D.  At AstraZeneca he has led the chemical development of numerous compounds from initial selection through to marketing submission, launch and post approval change.  As Senior Director Chemical Development at AstraZeneca his group had responsibility for all of the late stage development of New Modalities (Oligos, Peptides, ADCs etc).  He retired recently from that role and has joined with former colleagues as part of AlphaLyncis in providing Drug Substance development expertise.