Primary Job Title Scientific Founder & Board Member Primary Organization
Turning Point Therapeutics
Location San Diego, California, United States Regions Greater San Diego Area, West Coast, Western US Gender Female Also Known As 崔景荣, Cui Jingrong, Jingrong Cui, Jingrong Jean Cui
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J. Jean Cui, Ph.D. is a renowned oncology drug designer with more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery and project management at Big Pharma and biotech companies (Pfizer, Pharmacia/SUGEN, etc.). Jean is the lead inventor of Pfizer’s precision oncology medicine, crizotinib, brand named XALKORI®. She created the drug’s novel chemical
scaffold based on co-crystal structure and designed the final clinical compound crizotinib. XALKORI® was fast track approved by US Food and Drug Administration on August 26, 2011 for ALK positive late stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In addition to the invention of crizotinib, Jean worked on several other oncology projects, including SUTENT®. She also created the clinical c-MET specific inhibitor PF-04217903 and designed the ALK second generation clinical compound PF-06463922. Her exceptional achievements in drug discovery and development have earned her many prestigious awards which include: the 38th National Inventor of the Year by Intellectual Property Owners’ Association (2011); Woman Worth Watching by Diversity Journal (2012); American Chemical Society Hero of Chemistry (2013); Pfizer Worldwide R&D Achievement Awards (2006 and 2012); Pfizer Innovation Award (2011); CABS K. Fong Award for Life Sciences (2013). Her story of crizotinib invention was featured in a Wall Street Journal article titled “Drug Discovery Gets an Upgrade” on April 16, 2012.


