Biography – David Emiabata Smith
Dr David Emiabata Smith is a Director in Pharmaceutical Development at Vertex
Pharmaceuticals Inc., Boston, USA. He received a Ph.D in organic chemistry from the University
of Cambridge and joined the Chemical Development division at GSK (UK) in 1992. David spent a
19 year career at GSK leading ground breaking projects in laboratory automation, statistical
experimental design and Quality by Design, building a global team of experts across five GSK
sites. In 2008, he took on leadership of the API continuous manufacturing initiative, working
with a large multidisciplinary team to demonstrate GSK’s first fully continuous end-to-end
process on a pilot plant scale. In 2012, David accepted a position at Vertex Inc. to lead the
highly innovative drug product continuous processing project, working with key partners to
establish continuous manufacturing capability for breakthrough therapies.