Ask The Board: What Is The greatest insight gained From Attending This Year's BIO International conference?

Q: What is the greatest insight gained from attending this year’s BIO International conference?

A: The most important insight for me was the shocking number of new faces and companies and the resulting number of new meetings this caused. Clearly the entrepreneurial spirit and state of innovation is alive and well when you look at all the conversations happening between new people with life-changing drug assets and new leaders with bold partnering mandates. Partnering assets with companies capable of completing late-stage development and commercialization of drugs with novel mechanisms (first-in-class targets) is my sole purpose for attending, and I had to work harder than ever to fit everything into my schedule.

ALEX CHANG, PH.D.
Director, Global Licensing & Business Development, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Inc., USA.

Q: What is the greatest insight you gained from attending the Abuse Deterrence Formulation (ADF) Summit?

A: To obtain ADF (abuse-deterrent formulations) labeling, companies must spend years and millions of dollars demonstrating bio-equivalence and efficacy of the new formulation. Yet without market exclusivity or favorable prescribing positions, the financial returns are insignificant. The conclusion reached at the summit is that abuse deterrence formulations may create barriers to the external manipulation of opioids; however, the motivated abuser will simply resort to ingesting multiple tablets to achieve the euphoric effects. This realization is forcing companies to rethink their abuse deterrence platforms and redirect development efforts to overdose protection when multiple pills are taken in an abbreviated period of time.

RON GUIDO
President of LifeCare Services and CEO of ExxPharma Therapeutics, a drug development and delivery company dedicated to formulating drugs to reduce abuse and overdosing.

Q: What is the greatest insight gained from attending a recent conference and how do you intend to use it in your current role?

A: At the American Society Of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, guest speaker Dr. Michael Porter, a Harvard economist, spoke on creating a value-based healthcare system. I was left thinking that the core challenge is really twofold: (1) how well we sort, analyze, and translate data into knowledge, and (2) our ability to work collectively ensuring diversity of input. The ability to respond to complex challenges creatively, whether one is designing a new drug delivery, building the factory-of-the-future, or creating a valued-based healthcare system, will require both competencies.

SANDRA POOLE, P.ENG, M.A.SC. CHE
Executive VP, technical operations at ImmunoGen