Executive Q&A With Randall Guthrie, Vice President, Xcelience

Randall Guthrie has over 29 years of experience in the pharmaceutical service industry. In his current position, he oversees all business development and marketing activities for Xcelience, a Tampa, FL-based pharmaceutical contract research organization.

Prior to joining Xcelience, Guthrie served as VP of business development and VP of strategic development at MDS Pharma Services and Phoenix International, which was acquired by MDS in April 2000. He was instrumental in creating the sales department and helping launch Lancaster Laboratories, where he held the position of manager of pharmaceutical development services. Guthrie also spent 11 years involved in research and drug development, bulk drug production, and corporate quality assurance (QA) at Johnson Matthey. Through this experience, he has become well versed in the drug development continuum and the needs and requirements of the formulation development process.

Guthrie received his BSc degree in biology from Gannon University. Over the years, he has taught several quality improvement programs. He is currently on the planning committees for the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy's Bioanalytical Conference and its Conference on Drug Metabolism/Applied Pharmacokinetics.

In this interview, Guthrie tells us how Xcelience got started and also provides some background on the services they provide and how their services differ from others in the market. He also offers insight on how the Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) and the 21 CFR Part 11 regulations has affected the company.