PhD · Synthetic Organic Chemistry
Loveland, Colorado
Profile
David Hennings is a synthetic organic chemist who spent the first half of his career making molecules and the second half making sure they could be manufactured. He is President and Founder of R&B Pharma Consulting, which he started in 2017 and has run continuously ever since, and Senior Vice President of Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls at Sudo Biosciences.
His doctoral work with Professor Viresh Rawal produced a body of palladium-catalysed coupling chemistry that is still cited today — two papers alone account for more than 350 citations. He then spent fourteen years at Array BioPharma, rising through four titles to Senior Research Investigator and Senior Group Leader, building the interdisciplinary CMC teams that carried oncology, antibacterial and pain programmes forward.
Since then he has led CMC at Cortexyme, where he was responsible for drug substance and drug product supporting a first-in-class Alzheimer's candidate through clinical trials, and now at Sudo Biosciences, where the programmes target the TYK2 pseudokinase domain. At Array he was senior team leader on varlitinib (ARRY-543) and the p38 inhibitor ARRY-797, and led the spin-out of Array’s CMC group that became Avista Pharma Solutions. He is a named inventor on four patented inventions — the most recent published in 2025.
Career
From process chemistry at the bench to running CMC for clinical-stage biotech — with R&B Pharma Consulting running alongside since 2017.
Education
A doctorate that followed its advisor across two universities, and a post-doc on one of the harder total-synthesis problems of the era.
With Prof. Robert M. Williams. Research project: the asymmetric total synthesis of mureidomycin.
With Prof. Viresh H. Rawal. Thesis: Synthesis of Heterocycles and Biaryls via Anion-Accelerated Palladium-Mediated Coupling Reactions.
Began doctoral work in the Rawal group at Ohio State, and moved with the laboratory when it relocated to Chicago in 1995.
Then named Northeast Missouri State University; renamed Truman State in 1996.
Research
Nine peer-reviewed works in synthetic and medicinal chemistry. Each structure below is the core motif of that paper. Citation counts from OpenAlex, August 2026 — Scopus and Web of Science index different citing sources and report slightly higher figures.
Intellectual property
Named inventor on four distinct inventions spanning kinase inhibitors, antibacterials and formulation — filed across roughly eleven patent documents worldwide.
Perspective
Invited as the subject-matter expert in Outsourced Pharma’s series on how CMC actually gets done.
Beyond the bench
Missouri roots — an Excelsior Springs Tiger, class of 1988, who played football, basketball and baseball before Truman State and the long road west.
A dedicated league bowler — the one arena where a perfect result is a 300, and the hardest variable to control is the lane oil.
Golf, and the Colorado Front Range on the doorstep — Loveland has been home for most of two decades.
A lifelong fraternity man: Regional Governor for the Greater Denver Region, and president of his undergraduate chapter’s housing corporation.