Asthma & COPD 2015: Genentech to provide a new perspective on targeted therapy for severe asthma

LONDON - Feb. 10, 2015 - PRLog -- Genentech will provide a new perspective on targeted therapy for severe asthma at the upcoming Asthma & COPD conference, taking place for the 11th year on the 13th-14th April in London, UK.

Asthma & COPD 2015 will provide progressive insights into recent developments and explore the future of therapeutics, diagnosis and care in the respiratory arena. The event will feature over 20 case study driven presentations, speakers representing both industry and academia, an interactive workshop, a round table discussion, plus over 3 hours of networking.

Highlights of the event will include an address from Genentech Associate Director, Dr Joseph Arron. The talk will discuss asthma heterogeneity, biomarker selection hypothesis and new developments into asthma phenotypes.

Speaking about the conference, Dr Joseph Arron, Associate Director - Biomarker & Discovery, Genentech Inc said:

"At conferences like this, I always look forward to hearing what academic clinicians are thinking about - they are closest to the patients and generate key insights that help those of us in drug development think differently about how to approach disease."

Dr Arron, who leads a laboratory-based biomarker discovery group at Genentech, also said:

"Biomarker-guided patient selection strategies have already contributed to positive outcomes in clinical trials for new candidate therapies for asthma. As I will discuss at the conference, recent successes with antibodies targeting interleukin (IL-)5, IL-13 and related type 2 inflammatory pathways have demonstrated the value of using predictive biomarkers to select patients most likely to benefit."

On how he envisioned the future of respiratory disorder treatment, he commented:

"As more highly targeted molecular therapies are developed, we need to move away from empirical symptom-based treatment algorithms toward biologically-informed decision-making tools. Ideally, if we are able to successfully treat one subtype of asthma and/or COPD we can focus our efforts on identifying new therapeutic targets in the subtypes that do not benefit from these interventions."

To read the full interview visit the download page at http://www.smi-online.co.uk/goto/2015asthma-copd39.asp

Other Key Speakers Include:

• Sebastian Johnston, Professor of Respiratory Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London
• Robert Niven, Senior Lecturer in Respiratory Medicine, Manchester University
• Neil C Thomson, Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Glasgow
• Joseph Arron, Associate Director, Biomarker Discovery, Genentech
• Dirk Smith, Scientific Director, Amgen
• Roland Kolbeck, Senior Director, Respiratory, Inflammation & Autoimmunity, MedImmune
• Hector Ortega, Medical Director, Respiratory R&D, GSK
• Maria Buxton, Consultant Respiratory Physiotherapist, London North West Healthcare NHS Trust

For more information or to register visit http://www.smi-online.co.uk/goto/2015asthma-copd39.asp

Asthma & COPD 2015
13th-14th April 2015
Holiday Inn Regents Park Hotel, London UK
http://www.smi-online.co.uk/goto/2015asthma-copd39.asp

-------------------------- END --------------------------

About SMi Group:
Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the worlds most forward thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found at http://www.smi-online.co.uk