CHI Announces Leaders in Precision Medicine Symposium

NEEDHAM, Mass. - Jan. 21, 2014 - PRLog -- Cambridge Healthtech Institute announces its Leaders in Precision Medicine symposium, which will be held at the Moscone North Convention Center in San Francisco, CA on February 13-14. Many believe that personalized medicine technologies, such as next-generation sequencing, have propelled us to the tipping point of a new era in healthcare - precision medicine. Stakeholders are now faced with the perplexing economic and regulatory issues of balancing the promise of new genome-driven medicines with the associated trade-offs of longer and higher development risk for Rx and CDx innovators, increased evidence standards for regulators, reimbursement concerns for patients, and unclear value for payers. This symposium will feature discussions from drug/diagnostic innovators, regulators, providers, payers, patient advocates and leaders from medical groups to discuss major challenges and potential pathways for delivering precision medicines.

Agenda at a Glance:

February 13:

• Precision Medicine Economics: Breakthrough or Breakdown?
Mark Trusheim, Executive in Residence & Visiting Scientist, MIT; former Special Government Employee, FDA

• Collaborative Models for Rx/Dx Partnering and Impact in the Immunology Therapeutic Area
Mark Curran, Ph.D., Vice President, Systems Pharmacology & Biomarkers, Immunology Therapeutic Area, Research & Development, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

• CASE STUDY 1: A Systems Approach to Pharmaceutical R&D
Robert J. Mulroy, President & CEO, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals

• Demonstrating Clinical Utility & Evidence Generation
Mara Aspinall, President and CEO, Ventana Medical Systems, Inc.

• The Role of LDTs Before and After the Approval of a Companion Diagnostic
Terry Robins, Ph.D., former Global Director, Biomarker R&D, Quest Diagnostics

• Turbulent Change and the Reimbursement of Companion Diagnostics
Bruce Quinn, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Health Policy Specialist, Foley Hoag, LLP

• PANEL DISCUSSION: Precision Medicine Opportunities with Legacy Drugs
Moderator: Bruce Quinn, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Health Policy Specialist, Foley Hoag, LLP

Panelists:

-Mark Curran, Ph.D., Vice President, Systems Pharmacology & Biomarkers, Immunology Therapeutic Area Janssen, Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
-Mara Aspinall, President and CEO, Ventana Medical Systems, Inc.
-Mark Trusheim, Executive in Residence & Visiting Scientist, MIT; former Special Government Employee, FDA

• PANEL DISCUSSION: Adaptive Licensing: Evolving Regulation to Enable Precision Medicine
Moderator: Mark Trusheim, Executive in Residence & Visiting Scientist, MIT; former Special Government Employee, FDA

Panelists:

-Hans-Georg Eichler, M.D., Senior Medical Officer, European Medicines Agency (EMA)
-Kenneth Oye, Ph.D., Associate Professor Political Science & Engineering Systems, MIT
-Edmund Pezalla, M.D., Ph.D., National Medical Director for Pharmacy Policy and Strategy, Aetna
-Thomas Unger, Ph.D., Executive Director, Worldwide Regulatory Strategy, Pfizer, Inc.

February 14:

• CASE STUDY 2: Kalydeco – Targeting the G552D Population in Cystic Fibrosis
Peter Mueller, Ph.D., CSO & Executive Vice President, Global Research & Development, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

• Demonstrating Clinical Utility/Health Technology Assessment
Naomi Aronson, Ph.D., Executive Director, Technology Evaluation Center, Blue Cross Blue Shield

• Bringing Comprehensive Molecular Information into Routine Clinical Care
Josephine N. Harada, Ph.D., MBA, Director, Strategic Alliances, Foundation Medicine, Inc.

• The "$1000 Genome": Panacea or Pandora's Box?
Kathryn Phillips, Ph.D., Professor, Health Economics and Health Services Research, University of California, San Francisco

• PANEL DISCUSSION: The Promise of Patient Data in Healthcare

Panelists:

-Peter Mueller, Ph.D., CSO & Executive Vice President, Global Research & Development, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
-Naomi Aronson, Ph.D., Executive Director, Technology Evaluation Center, Blue Cross Blue Shield
-Kathryn Phillips, Ph.D., Professor, Health Economics and Health Services Research, University of California, San Francisco
-Josephine N. Harada, Ph.D., MBA, Director, Strategic Alliances, Foundation Medicine, Inc.
-Michael Christman, Ph.D., President and CEO, Coriell Institute for Medical Research

To view the detailed agenda for this symposium and to register, visit bit.ly/1f0AZMN

About Cambridge Healthtech Institute (http://www.healthtech.com)

CHI is the preeminent life science network for leading researchers and business experts from top pharmaceutical, biotech and academic organizations. CHI's portfolio of products includes Cambridge Healthtech Institute Conferences, Insight Pharma Reports, Cambridge Marketing Consultants, Barnett Educational Services, Cambridge Meeting Planners and CHI's Media Group, which includes news websites and e-newsletters including Bio-IT World and Clinical Informatics News.

About Molecular Med Tri-Conference (http://www.triconference.com)

The 21st International Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference is the industry's Preeminent Event on Molecular Medicine, focusing on Drug Discovery, Genomics, Diagnostics and Information Technology. Spanning six days this year, the Tri-Conference includes an expanded program that includes 6 symposia, over 20 short courses, and 15 main programs. For the first time in over 10 years we're bringing back a dedicated conference on sequencing. As many will recall this event's infancy was heavily devoted to the Human Genome Project and we are excited to reintroduce sequencing to this event.