Overview | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Download Brochure | Breakout Discussions

MAIN CONFERENCE

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25

7:15 am Registration Open and Morning Coffee

8:45 Plenary Keynote Introduction 
Kathryn Lowell, Deputy Secretary, Life Sciences, California Business Transportation & Housing Agency

8:55 PLENARY KEYNOTE 
Therapy Development in a Networked World
Jay M. Tenenbaum, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Scientist, CollabRx, Inc.
A new paradigm for translational research will be described that combines the integrative and collaborative power of the Internet with personalized molecular analysis to slash the time and cost of therapy development. A key element is the creation of Health Commons, an open web-based ecosystem of researchers, clinicians, patients, pharma/biotechs, and service/technology providers that can be rapidly mobilized to develop targeted therapies for disease subclasses. This ecosystem will stimulate the same radical increase in efficiency for therapy development that ecommerce brought to business in the 1990s, ushering in a new age of collaborative, personalized medicine where every patient can afford custom therapies and discovery is driven by collectively interpreting the outcomes across all patients.

9:40 Grand Opening Refreshment Break in the Exhibit Hall

INTEGRATED R&D – DRIVING PRODUCTIVITY, INNOVATION & MANAGING RESOURCES & COSTS

11:00 Chairperson’s Remarks
Kevin Davies, Ph.D., Chief Editor, Bio-IT World

11:10 Scientific Workflows as Productivity Tools for Drug Discovery
John Shon, MD, Ph.D., Site Head, In Silico Sciences, Roche 
Traditionally, most informatics investments are made to increase the efficiency of drug discovery. The introduction of do-it-yourself scientific workflow platforms enables research informatics organizations to shift their efforts towards scientific innovation. Unlike most scientific data and application integration approaches, researchers apply scientific workflows for in silico experimentation and exploration, leading to scientific hypotheses and discoveries. Productive scientific workflow environments enable researchers to share their scientific workflows, further increasing productivity. Examples of applications of scientific workflows in pharmaceutical research will be shown.

11:40 The Role of Informatics and Genomics to Drive Innovation in Pharma 
Jakob DeVlieg, Ph.D., Global Head Molecular Design & Informatics, Molecular Design & Informatics, Schering-Plough
Bioinformatics and genomics are well-established scientific disciplines in pharmaceutical research. The availability of complete genome sequences and vast amounts of structural information on targets and target-ligand complexes have stimulated many efforts to rationalize the drug design process. It is believed that ‘omics’ and informatics may create many opportunities to speed up the multidisciplinary drug discovery process, and provide novel approaches to the design of drugs otherwise not possible. However, low productivity and high late stage attrition continue to challenge the pharmaceutical industry. Integrated R&D research approaches and genomics-based methods are needed to address the attrition problem and to increase productivity. The role of translational sciences and advances in bioinformatics, cheminformatics & genomics technologies in drug discovery and development will be discussed. This includes: IT to bridge research and development in pharma, bio and cheminformatics to increase output of higher quality hits, leads and development candidates and incorporate translational research to reduce late stage attrition.

12:10 pm Evolution of an Innovation Model to Support Pharma R&D
Martin D. Leach, Ph.D., Executive Director, MRL IT Basic Research & Biomarkers, Merck & Co. Inc.
There is a constant thirst for new technology for use in Pharma R&D. In a number of cases the technology is adopted before the problem it is solving is fully defined. We will describe the culture of innovation in Merck IT and the innovation process that identifies the needs and the process that fosters and transitions innovative IT technologies into the Merck Research Laboratories.

1:10 Walk & Talk Luncheon in the Exhibit Hall 

INTEGRATED R&D (cont).

2:15 Chairperson’s Remarks 
Kevin Davies, Ph.D., Chief Editor, Bio-IT World

2:20 Resource Management Strategies Impacting Systems Integration in R&D
David M. Sedlock, Ph.D.. Senior Director, R&D Systems, Millennium Pharmaceuticals The TAKEDA Oncology Company
The development of integrated data management systems creates considerable cost related to systems documentation, support and maintenance, and changes to the environment. We have developed several approaches to deal with these costs in a systematic way, including architectural network mapping, system lifecycle management, development of a non-GLP validation strategy, and service catalog creation. These approaches have allowed us to reduce system costs significantly during the past several years as we have increased our data integration network.

2:50 Democratized Serendipity: Leveraging Consumer-Oriented Technologies into Better R&D and Better Health Care Decisions
Joseph A. Cerro, President, The Schooner Group, LLC
The combination of (1) ubiquitous consumer electronic devices, (2) flexible, inexpensive manufacturing capabilities, (3) easy to use “Web 2.0” interfaces, and (4) an increasing willingness of individuals to manage aspects of their own health care creates an unprecedented opportunity to collect patient data in the field in near real time. Analyzing such data has the potential to transform the way pharmaceutical companies manage clinical development programs and may create new opportunities for theranostic development, biomarker validation, and, most importantly, individualized care management. Several such projects will be discussed in this session.

3:20 Executive Panel: Integrated R&D, How Far Have We Come?
Moderator: Susan J. Ward, Ph.D.,Executive Advisor, Biotechnology & Pharma 
Panelists: All of the above speakers

4:20 Reception in the Exhibit Hall

5:00 Breakout Discussions in the Exhibit Hall
Translational Informatics
Moderator: Kevin Davies, Ph.D., Chief Editor, Bio-IT World 

• When you’re new to the translational informatics game, where’s the best place to start?

• If you’re well into a project, how are you measuring results?

• What organizational barriers and what technology challenges should you expect?

• What’s the best approach for getting budget for new products?

• How much of the enabling technology (hardware and software) can you buy and how much do you have to build yourself?

• Does anyone have favorite tools in use today, and what make them effective?

Knowledge Management 
Moderator: Susan Ward, Ph.D., Executive Advisor, Biotechnology & Pharma

• How to capture, integrate, and make data accessible when and to whom it is needed

• Capture and integrate gene-related information, & distribute the data across the company

• Optimal or realistic decision making 

Effective Integration Strategies
Moderator: Joseph A. Cerro, President & Founder, Schooner Group LLC

• Driving Productivity

• Driving Workflows

• Managing resources

• Managing costs

6:00 Close of Day

Overview | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Download Brochure | Breakout Discussions

For questions or suggestions about the meeting, please contact:
Edel O'Regan
Cambridge Healthtech Institute
250 First Avenue, Suite #300
Needham, MA 02494
Tel: 781-972-5423
Fax: 781-972-5425
email: eoregan@healthtech.com 

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Carol Dinerstein
Tel: 781-972-5471 
email: Dinerstein@healthtech.com 
OR
Jon Stroup
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