While growing up, a young Subas would stand in a field in Nepal, eyes fixed on a distant jet streaking across the sky. He’d run with his arms outstretched, pretending to bank left and right, convinced that one day he’d be the one at the controls, soaring above the clouds, free and in command.
Today, that boy is Subas Sakya, Chief Scientific Officer at BioDuro. The childhood dream was to fly, and while his career ultimately took a different direction, the mindset never left him.
Instead of piloting aircraft, Subas now leads teams that guide molecules through the intricate journey of discovery, helping BioDuro’s partners move from idea to clinic with confidence. His path to this role, however, has not been without turbulence: personal challenges, a major career transition after 22 years in drug discovery at Wyeth, Pfizer, and finally, a move across continents have all shaped how he approaches science and builds teams.
That instinct to keep moving forward through uncertainty, rather than be defined by it, is what ultimately led him to BioDuro and to a new kind of mission: helping build a discovery organization in China that supports partners advance meaningful therapies to patients as a true extension of their own R&D. In this edition of ‘The People Behind the Science’, we share Subas’s reflections on his journey, how his large‑pharma training has shaped the way he builds and leads teams at BioDuro, and how integrated science is shaping the future of drug discovery.
Subas’s early fascination with aviation was rooted in the same qualities that would later draw him to drug discovery: precision, responsibility, and the challenge of getting from point A to point B under imperfect conditions. Over time, that fascination shifted from the mechanics of flight to the mechanics of molecules.
“What changed things for me was moving to Thailand,” he recalls. “In high school, I had two incredible teachers - one in biology and one in chemistry - who showed me how to look at science in a different way.”
A scholarship to Coe College deepened that shift. “I explored computers, chemistry, and economics, but it was my chemistry professor’s depth and passion that really drew me in,” he says. Later, his doctoral work ultimately put him on track to work in pharmaceutical industry, which is where he learned how to navigate drug discovery efforts.
Curiosity about how things work at a fundamental level evolved into a desire to apply science to real-world problems. Drug discovery, he understood early on, brings together disciplines like chemistry, biology, and pharmacokinetics, and real progress happens when those areas are connected rather than siloed.
A major chapter in Subas’s career was his 16-year tenure at Pfizer, preceded by six years at Wyeth, where he worked across multiple therapeutic areas, including antibacterials, immunology, metabolic diseases, and central nervous system targets.
“At Pfizer and Wyeth, you learn very quickly what it means to do drug discovery at scale,” he says. “You’re operating in a highly structured environment with clear decision points and milestones with rigorous data expectations, and strong cross‑functional collaborative teams that have to gel and move in tandem to achieve the goals.”
Those years trained him in what he calls the “large‑pharma mindset”: how to think about risk and evidence, how to design experiments that truly inform go/no‑go decisions, and how to align chemistry, biology, DMPK, and safety around a single development path.
This foundation would later become central to how he shaped BioDuro’s discovery team.
Behind Subas’s calm, structured approach to leadership is some defining moments. One of them came after more than a decade and a half in Pfizer, when a career transition prompted him to rethink where he wanted to be and how he wanted to contribute. Around the same time, his family needs required him to relocate across continents.
These experiences were more than career events; they were inflection points that reshaped his perspective on risk, resilience, and responsibility. Moving to Asia and joining BioDuro was not simply a change of employer; it was a deliberate choice to be closer to family while continuing to build in an environment where science, speed, and adaptability all mattered.
Those years gave him a renewed appreciation for non-linear paths. They reinforced the idea that careers in science rarely follow a straight line, and that the ability to adapt may be just as important as technical expertise.
When he joined BioDuro, Subas didn’t see it as leaving his large‑pharma training behind; he saw an opportunity to use that experience to shape a discovery organization that could function as a true extension of a client’s R&D, particularly for companies operating in or with China based labs.
“In large pharma, the scientific challenges are often about depth and complexity within one portfolio,” he explains. “In a CRO, you add another layer: you need that same level of scientific rigor, but you also have to be highly responsive to different partners’ priorities, timelines, and constraints.”
At BioDuro, he has focused on bringing a Wyeth and Pfizer‑trained mindset into a right‑sized CRDMO with core discovery focus being an agile and highly efficient integrated drug discovery (IDD) engine, with co-location of services with quality data and rapid DMTA cycle. In order to fulfil needs of our large pharma and biotech parters, he helped build and expand capabilities in peptide discovery, nucleotide therapeutics, and high-potency labs so they align with what both large pharma and small biotechs needs.
What excites Subas most about the future of drug discovery is the pace and direction of innovation. New modalities are expanding what’s possible - from complex peptides to RNA‑targeted therapeutics - while AI‑driven discovery and in silico profiling are becoming powerful tools, especially as more companies pivot toward precision medicine and smaller, better‑defined patient populations. At the same time, he is realistic: there is still a great deal to learn, and progress remains a balance of insight, iteration, and careful validation.
At BioDuro, the focus is on staying at the forefront of these developments - bringing together the right capabilities and expertise so partners can move programs forward with greater speed and confidence, from early discovery through IND‑enabling studies. “We’re in a very competitive space, so helping our clients reach that next milestone more quickly than they could elsewhere is a goal that motivates me. It’s incredibly rewarding to see our clients succeed, whether they’re a biotech preparing to sell an asset to a pharma partner or moving it into clinical trials.”
When he speaks to young scientists, his advice is simple but hard-earned: stay curious and be open to non-linear paths. Some of the most valuable experiences, he says, come from stepping into areas you didn’t initially plan for. Those experiences often shape how you think and how you approach problems in the long run, much like a childhood dream of flying can quietly evolve into a life spent guiding scientific journeys instead.
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