Dr. rer. nat. Werner Wessling was born in 1951 in Rhede, Westphalia, Germany. He began his academic training with a Pharmacy Apprenticeship at the St. Georgius Apotheke in Bocholt, Germany, from 1970 until 1972, and studied Pharmacy and Food Chemistry at the Rheinisch-Westfälische-Technische Hochschule, Aachen, and at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn, between 1972 und 1978. In 1976 he successfully stood his University State Examination in Food Chemistry and in 1978 he also completed his State Examination in Pharmacy. In 1978, Dr. Wessling also received his Approbation as Pharmacist.

From 1978 until 1981, he worked as Research Assistant at the Department of Toxicology of the Friedrichs-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn. In 1981, Dr. Wessling was awarded his Ph.D. Degree with the thesis Synthesis of Methaqualon metabolites and analysis of same. His Doctorate Supervisor was Prof. Dr. rer.nat. S. Goenechea.

In 1981 Dr. Wessling moved to Hamburg and worked in the pharmaceutical industry for the German company Beiersdorf AG. In the department for Clinical Research he held responsibility for in house R&D projects, mainly in the indication area hypertension.

In January 1984, Dr. Wessling moved to the German company Altana AG, located in Constance. There he headed a group in the international market research and licensing department with the main focus on the field of antiasthmatic drugs.

In April 1987 Dr. Wessling joined LTS Lohmann Therapie-Systeme GmbH & Co KG and became Head of Project Planning and Coordination.
Since 1990, Dr. Wessling has been in charge of the worldwide Business Development activities of the LTS group which he also established, in 1990. During that time, many of the today’s successfully commercialized products of LTS have been started as projects either by acquisition or mainly in cooperation with pharmaceutical companies.

In 1999 Dr. Wessling became Head of Corporate Development of LTS and in this position is even more focused on the strategic issues of the LTS company group.

In 2004, Dr. Wessling was elected, due to his broad skills in Business Development, Corporate Affairs as well as in R&D, as Chairman of the Commission for Innovation of the Bundesverbandes der Pharmazeutischen Industrie (BPI), the Association of the German pharmaceuticals companies. He was re-elected in 2006.

Since July 2006, Dr. Wessling also holds the position of Managing Director of the CRS Clinical Research Services.