Therapeutic strategy meets business development at BioPharm America™
Game changing developments that are reshaping the bio-pharma landscape can suddenly turn a small agreement into the deal of the year, or destroy much of the value expected from headline grabbing mega mergers.
How do you know whether your next deal will head your organization in the right direction?
Informed partnering makes the difference, according to Ed Saltzman, the President and Founder of Defined Health, organizers of the Therapeutic Insight track to be featured at BioPharm America™ 2010. These sessions mix business development with science in a unique series of panel discussions.
Ed Saltzman
“In the life science industry, there are purely scientific meetings, and then there are pure dealmaking events, yet intelligent business development requires elements of both,” said Saltzman.
“The Therapeutic Insight program creates an intersection for these two tracks, putting together experts in emerging therapy strategies with experienced executives who are leading entrepreneurs,” he said.
The clash of ideas and resulting debates among industry leaders, clinicians and Defined Health consultants are thought-provoking, providing participants with unexpected insights and fresh intelligence that affect how they approach meetings during the intensive partnering activity at BioPharm America.
After building a strong following for a stand-alone Therapeutic Insight meeting over the past nine years, Defined Health formed an alliance with EBD Group to integrate their in-depth discussions into the highly successful BIO-Europe and BioPharm America partnering conferences organized by EBD Group.
“Increasingly participants at Therapeutic Insight were looking for greater partnering opportunities within the event, so we sought a partnering facility that could complement our content rich discussions,” said Ginny Llobell, VP of Defined Health.
“EBD Group is in our experience the leader for partnering events in life sciences, and we knew they were looking to expand the scope of their conference program, so it became a natural alliance to join our events,” said Llobell.
At BIO-Europe Spring® 2010 held in Barcelona the Therapeutic Insight sessions drew a total of more than 350 participants.
For BioPharm America 2010 in Boston Defined Health is featuring four panel discussions for the Therapeutic Insight track:
Antibiotics: A Revival of Fortunes?
“We are entering a period where innovation is sorely needed for so-called ‘bug drugs’ to combat the emergence of novel pathogens,” said Tim Joslin, Managing Director for Europe at Defined Health and moderator of the Antibiotics session at BioPharm America 2010. Joslin added that there has been a revival of dealmaking interest in this area as a result of a critical need for new drugs in a time of strong advances in the science underpinning antibiotics.
Joslin will moderate the discussion among panelists Stefan Fischer the CEO of FAB Pharma; Peter Hammann who is Head External Opportunities for sanofi-aventis Deutschland’s group for TSU Infectious Diseases, and Georg Buchner the VP of Corporate and Business Development for Novacta Bioscience.
Frailty: Growth Opportunities for Senescing Pharma Franchises?
“This is a market that fundamentally does not exist in a form we can recognize but that presents an expanding constellation of medical needs across a large and growing older population” said Michael Rice, Senior Consultant at Defined Health who has spoken several times on this topic at industry events and major pharma companies. “The opportunity begins with addressing known conditions such as bone or muscle loss, with interest continuing as we work backwards all the way to maintaining independence, avoiding complications and improving outcomes.”
Rice will facilitate a panel featuring speakers Helen K. Edelberg, the Senior Director for Therapeutic Strategy Unit on Aging with sanofi-aventis, Alan Ezekowitz, the Senior VP and Franchise Head for Bone, Respiratory, Immunology & Dermatology with Merck & Co., Inc. and another as yet unconfirmed panelist.
New Therapies for Diabetes: Getting to the Heart of the Matter
“Type II diabetes is expected to see explosive growth in the coming years and while there are a tremendous number of drugs now in mid to late development, there is an increasing requirement for a pharmaco-economic justification, especially with respect to concerns over the ability to address macrovascular complications of the disease,” said Vasantha Malladi, a Consultant at Defined Health. Malladi’s panel will be populated with confirmed speaker Charlie Tobler, VP Global CV/Metabolic Franchise Leader, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America and others invited and to be announced.
Proof of Relevance: The New Standard for Partnering
Defined Health’s President and Founder Ed Saltzman will lead a session that focuses on a new concept for facilitating early partnering of biotech assets. “In very short order the world of early drug development changed dramatically for both the buyers of development assets, which are typically the large pharma companies, and for the sellers, which are the biotech firms creating those assets,” said Saltzman.
“Where reaching proof of concept with a validated science was once the key milestone for a biotech, today the bar has been set very high with a new emphasis on establishing an indisputable clinical relevance and commercial value for compounds, and a requirement that this proof is demonstrated very early, often ahead of the proof that their science is valid,” he said.
Related Posts
- Powerful growth of BIO-Europe Spring meets industry need for productive partnering
- High-powered partnering in Boston at BioPharm America™
- Alzheimer’s remains Holy Grail for drug development