7:15 am Breakfast Presentation (Sponsorship Opportunity Available) or Morning Coffee
8:00 Chair’s Remarks
8:05 Summaries from Roundtable Moderators
8:35 A Novel Approach to Drug Development for Neglected Diseases
Dale A. Cumming, Ph.D., Director, Scientific Evaluation, International Consortium on Anti-virals; Acton Biotech Consulting
The not-for-profit International Consortium on Anti-Virals (ICAV: www.icav-citav.ca), together with its cognate Foundation (the Foundation for Anti-Virals – FAV) represents an innovative spending, drug development and IP management model that harnesses academic discoveries and accelerates their development through to the patient. Encompassing 250 participants from 28 countries, ICAV is focused on a range of neglected, emerging and re-emerging viral diseases. A case study on a Product Development Partnership (PDP) for anti-virals against dengue virus infection will be presented.
9:05 CTSA Pharmaceutical Assets Portal: Matching Academia and Industry for Drug Repositioning
Kate Marusina, Ph.D., Manager, Industry Alliances, CTSC, University of California, Davis
The CTSA Pharmaceutical Assets Portal aims to improve information and expertise exchange between pharmaceutical companies and the academic network regarding drugs that may be available for academic repositioning with a specific emphasis on the investigational compounds discontinued at the clinical stages. Via the Portal, CTSA academic community and NIH intramural researchers will be able to match their scientific interests with the repositioning needs of the industry. Integration of the academia into the repositioning efforts would substantially increase the knowledge base and the pool of methodologies available for proof of concept studies. This interaction would undoubtedly result in an increased number of approved drugs for new indications, and thus in considerable public benefit.
9:35 A Model for Research Partnerships to Accelerate Drug Discovery for Neglected Tropical Diseases
Debra Hanna, Ph.D., Senior Principal Scientist, Antibacterial Research Unit, Pfizer, Inc.
A key research need for many of the neglected tropical diseases is quality lead matter for new drug development. Pfizer is leveraging our company’s proprietary chemical matter and drug discovery resources with the pathogen biology and disease expertise of a network of external partners to enable screening approaches that prioritize “druggable” new targets. The involvement of post-doctoral scientists from developing countries working in Pfizer’s research laboratories also helps to build capacity for drug discovery research in developing countries.
10:05 Networking Refreshment Break, Poster and Exhibit Viewing
10:45 The Role of the Developing World in Improving R&D Productivity and Efficiency for Neglected Diseases
Rashmi H. Barbhaiya, Ph.D., CEO & Managing Director, Advinus Therapeutics Pvt Ltd, A Tata Enterprise
Return on investment is a key issue for R&D on neglected diseases. Developing countries can provide a cost-effective solution for discovering and developing new medicines. There are a variety of issues, however, that must be addressed in order to create novel and creative collaborative models for discovery of new chemical entities that can serve unmet clinical needs. There is the potential to couple such efforts with public/private partnerships in some developing countries to carry projects forward into full clinical development. There needs to be collaboration between developed and developing countries in order to improve productivity, efficiency and success rates for the R&D effort. In addition, developing countries with the disease burden must have a role in the solution to these global public health issues.
11:15 Leveraging Immunomics: Designing Vaccines for Infectious Diseases and Training Developing World Scientists
Denice Spero, Ph.D., Research Professor & Co-Director, Institute for Immunology and Informatics, University of Rhode Island
The mission of the Institute for Immunology and Informatics (I-Cubed) is to improve human and animal health by applying the power of immunomics (informatics, immunology and genomics) to design better vaccines and therapeutics. A new translational immunology center funded by a 13M dollar NIH U-grant is housed within the I-Cubed and its goal is to accelerate vaccine discovery and development for infectious diseases through the use of immunoinformatics tools. An additional goal is to train scientists from the developing world to use this technology.
11:45 Supporting Healthcare in Developing Countries with Revenues from the Developed World
John Garrett, Ph.D., Co-CEO, Glycosyn, Inc.
Typically, the struggle against endemic, neglected diseases in the developing world has been funded by a small number of charitable organizations: too few organizations with too little money chasing too large and costly problems. Glycosyn is developing a unique, broad-based therapeutic and prophylactic against infectious diarrhea, the largest killer of babies and children in the developing world. We will be funding this work largely through the development, distribution and sale of a wide range of products in the developed world. The strengths and weaknesses of this approach, and how it might be applied to fund work on other major health problems in developing countries, will be presented.
12:15 pm Lunch on Your Own
1:45 Chair’s Remarks
1:50 The Role of Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies in Developing and Commercializing Therapies for Diseases with Reduced Profitability
Lydia Pan, Ph.D., Director, Science Policy, Pfizer, Inc.
The pharmaceutical industry has a shared responsibility to conduct research on diseases that disproportionately affect people in the developing world. Whereas individual companies are limited in the ability to solve such universal health problems, multi-sector solutions are needed such as public-private partnerships. These collaborations are essential to making progress on this front, with each partner contributing unique assets and expertise toward the common goal.
2:20 Collaborative Approaches to Facilitating R&D for Neglected Diseases: Navigating the Complex Interface among Diverse Stakeholders
Jacqueline B. Fine, Ph.D., Associate Director, Asset Management and Out-licensing, External Scientific Affairs, Merck Research Laboratories
The challenges we face toward significantly impacting global health, particularly in the developing world, are too complex for any single entity to solve alone. Partnership, as a critical pillar of Merck’s global access strategy will be highlighted, with emphasis on depictions of how robust collaboration among individuals and organizations with diverse backgrounds and capabilities joined together by the mutual goal of improving human health can lead to true innovation. The route to achieving mutual goals may vary from partnership to partnership with respect to specific strategies, targets and needs of the parties; however, we believe the agreements supporting these collaborations should be aligned with current and evolving best practices that include ensuring access on a sustainable basis. A spectrum of activities will be described, from licenses facilitating development of Merck assets for neglected disease indications by public-private partnerships, to a first-of-its-kind joint venture designed to be a sustainable R&D organization that operates like a business – but with a not-for-profit model – aimed at developing new vaccines in areas of unmet need and optimizing existing vaccines for resource-limited settings.
2:50 Open Lab Drug Discovery at GSK for Diseases of the Developing World
Nicholas Cammack, Ph.D., Senior Vice President & Head, Diseases for the Developing World, Medicines Development Campus, GlaxoSmithKline SL (Spain)
GSK’s Open Lab model will be described, including what it is and how it will work. The strategic value of sharing data will be emphasized, particularly as it relates to the benefits for drug discovery for neglected diseases. The question of what are the best models for Pharma companies to collaborate in the area of neglected diseases will also be addressed.
3:20 Networking Refreshment Break, Poster and Exhibit Viewing
3:45 Advanced Vaccine Development for Tropical Disease: Dengue
Gustavo Dayan, Ph.D., Director, Clinical Development, Sanofi Pasteur
Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease that is endemic in some of the world’s most impoverished tropical regions. Dengue affects more than 2.5 billion people, and approximately 90 percent of patients that develop the most severe symptoms are under 15 years old. Currently, the only preventative measures available are individual mosquito protection or mosquito eradication programs, but that is about to change. Experts from Sanofi Pasteur will discuss promising innovations in Dengue vaccine development and the implications for global health.
4:15 Novartis’s Approach to Neglected Diseases in the Developing World: A Malaria Case Study
Brigitta Tadmore, Ph.D., Vice President, Global Head, Diversity & Inclusion and Health Policy, Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research
The Novartis research strategy is driven by medical need and scientific understanding rather than commercial considerations such as market size. This approach enables us to discover and develop medicines for diverse patient populations, including minorities and otherwise underserved groups, as well as people with rare or neglected diseases. This talk focuses on the approach Novartis is taking to address neglected diseases in the developing world, using malaria as an example.
4:45 Improving Treatment of Neglected Diseases in Developing Countries
Muhammad Yunus, Professor, Founder & Managing Director, Grameen Bank; Chairman, Grameen Healthcare Trust; 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
5:15 Close of Conference