Allergan and CMO at Altheos to speak at Ocular Drug Discovery conference Feb 27-28, 2012 Las Vegas

Dec. 30, 2011 - PRLog -- David Woodward, Senior Director of Biological Sciences at Allergan and Barbara Wirostko, Chief Medical Officer at Altheos will give a joint featured presentation entitled “Critical Success Factors in Approving Ophthalmic Drugs: Prostaglandins for Glaucoma/OHT as a Case Study: What Next?” at the 4th Ocular Diseases and Drug Discovery Conference taking place on February 27-28, 2012 in Las Vegas, NV.

The success factors for successful drug discovery may be reflected by the past and present scenario for anti-glaucoma prostanoids. The first in class, latanoprost became a successful drug despite a high incidence of iridial & periocular hyperpigmentation, ocular surface hyperemia, lash lengthening and even occasional and rechallenge episodes of inflammation (CME). Although they were approved, Pharmacia/ Pfizer had to collect 5 year safety data to support the ocular safety and determine the “long” term outcome of the iridial hyperemia.

More recently prostanoid EP2 receptor agonists have taken center stage. These do not appear to have advanced beyond clinical efficacy studies to date. In looking at the next IOP lowering agent, the hurdle will be high not only for ocular and systemic safety but also for efficacy. Safety has always been but is even more so paramount to the approval process.

David Woodward is a Senior Director at Allergan. His main research foci are ocular diseases, hair growth, and inflammatory diseases. He is the author of 165 peer reviewed papers and invited reviews. He is inventor of 83 published patents, with numerous other applications in process. He was appointed as an ARVO fellow in 2010 and was awarded the inaugural Allergan Distinguished Scientist Award.

Barbara Wirostko, a board certified Ophthalmologist, is Chief Medical Officer of Altheos, a biotech company developing a ROCK inhibitor for glaucoma. She maintains an academic research and clinical affiliation with the University of Utah, Moran Eye Center, as a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor in Ophthalmology.   She serves on the Grant Review Working Group for CIRM, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and is on the editorial board of Acta Ophthalmologic and World Journal of Ophthalmology.  She consults for several companies including SKS, Merck, Macuclear and iVeena. Prior to her most recent position, she was Senior Medical Director within the Clinical Development and Medical Affairs division at Pfizer in NY. She oversaw the development of pipeline glaucoma strategy and global medical / clinical programs for Xalabrands. She was the team lead for a successful Phase 3 regulatory filing to the European regulatory agency (EMA) for a pediatric glaucoma indication.  

GTC’s 4th Ocular Diseases and Drug Discovery Conference will bring together a 50-50 mix of academic and high-level industry experts from leading affiliations to discuss and collaborate on the latest research and discovery, safety assessment, and development of drugs for combating and curing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, uveitis and other eye diseases. Leading scientists and researchers include key experts such as M. (Ken) Kengatharan, Barbara Wirostko, David Woodward, Henry F. Edelhauser, Ken Mandell, Bala Ambati, etc. The last annual conference was well attended with representation from key R&D professionals from GSK, Pfizer, B&L, Allergan and Alcon and this year is showing promise of being even bigger and better.

This conference is part of the Targets and Strategies in Drug Discovery Summit and runs concurrently with three other tracks:
1) 3rd Cancer Targets and Therapeutics
2) Oncology Partnering & Deal-Making Conference
3) 2nd Ubiquitin Research and Drug Discovery

For more information, please visit www.gtcbio.com