Conference Program
The 2012 conference program offers a series of formal keynotes and panel discussions, addressing key issues facing the industry today.
When Healthcare meets Pharma!
The lines between the industry and its clients – the payers and patients are blurring! No longer can a drug be developed and there be a guaranteed market for it. So if you haven’t done the right thinking at the beginning of the process and truly understood what the unmet need is; what your new therapy replaces; and most importantly of all, what the value proposition is, it might not be worth starting at all! After all it doesn’t matter what you develop, if it can’t or won’t be paid for!
A dynamic industry
The last few years have seen some radical rethinking about R&D performance and the structures that underpin it. In the quest for new and effective drugs that reach the right patients profitably and safely, many different approaches have been taken. From GSK’s approach to re-organizing into therapeutic area-focused Centers of Excellence and AZ’s Innovative Medicines Units which look at early stage development to Pfizer’s approach of looking at molecules when they have reached proof of concept or post Phase II, and Novartis’ who have focussed on links with academia and biotech.
In this session we ask how things are panning out and what their experience to date has been? Just how easy have these changes been and what effect are they having on the business and industry dynamics as a whole.
Anyone for Russian roulette?
Conventional financing has dictated that when an asset comes along a company is formed to develop it. This traditionally means a “C Suite team” with admin support plus a building and all that goes with it. The new business is generally financed by VC’s, investment banks, Angels, personal wealth and so on and the business plan looks to cover costs and create wealth. Yet when the survivability of the good idea is no more than 30% and the world is in economic turmoil, this model is just not viable.
So what is the new asset development model going to look? Will small companies disappear altogether and be subsumed by the bigger players, or are the traditional funders developing new models. In this session we hear from the big, the small, the investors and the mavericks who will discuss their perspective of how the model is changing and what needs to happen for success to take off.
“If you build it, WILL they come?”–“The challenge of ensuring payer coverage and payment for new products”
With blockbusters becoming a phenomenon of the past, the focus is moving towards developing personalized medicines or products that address niche markets where there are previously unmet needs. To do so successfully not only requires compelling safety and efficacy data for FDA and EMEA approval, but also economic value data to demonstrate to public and private payers compelling cost-effectiveness within target populations. Understanding how you are likely to be reimbursed should guide drug development from the very start of the process.
Our panel considers the payers’ perspective–what they want to know about a product’s utility, comparative effectiveness within targeted populations, and what makes a new indication viable – and explores what companies need to think about as they begin development.
Growing companies for the future
With a shrinking IPO market, VC’s with an eight year fund cycle, and big pharma becoming more risk averse, working out how to stay in business, let alone grow your business from a start up to a fully fledged pharma co is looking increasingly challenging. So how will the companies of the future be created? What does a successful company look like and need to do to make the leap to being a fully integrated R&D company.
There are shining examples who have made this leap, but does their strategy hold up in today’s turbulent times, we ask those who have made it what they would do differently if they were starting out today or if they would do something completely different.
Stratified medicine – A collaborative future
With an estimated $60-$85bn being wasted each year due to failures during the drug development process, is it any wonder that the industry is considering many options to improve both productivity and profitability. One approach, now gaining momentum is stratified medicine, which is forcing the majors to reconsider their futures as they move from blockbusters to a broad portfolio of drugs. Not only will the approach to R&D change, business collaborations across the whole of healthcare industry will play a part in whether a new drug gains approval and for whom.
In this session we look across the sector at the business and scientific case for change and explore the new collaborations that are being made by businesses across the healthcare landscape.
