Flowmetric is proud to be sponsoring a series of virtual panel discussions, hosted by Life Sciences PA (LSPA). The title of the series is “Phase to Phase: The Guide to Drug Development”. The idea for this series came about through a discussion between Renold Capocasale, Vice Chair & Founder of FlowMetric and Chris Molineaux, President & CEO of LSPA. The recent acquisition of FlowMetric by KCAS highlights the consolidation trend in the contract research organization (CRO) sector and specifically highlights over 50 years of combined experience between FlowMetric and KCAS. The wealth of knowledge and experience represented in their support of pharma and biotech client’s discovery through Phase III clinical trials was the impetus for the series. The idea was just a perfect opportunity at the right time for LSPA. After agreeing on the idea,and asking FlowMetric if they would like to host the 4-part series, the title “Phase to Phase” was agreed upon, as well as the decision to hold one session per quarter.
About the Series with LSPA
The first session – which was just held late last week during the Life Sciences Future Biopharm Conference – revolved around the principles of drug discovery /target validation/ lead generation & optimization. This series was made available to the almost 900 members of LSPA. In addition to Ren, there were two guests: Mark Tornetta, MS, Vice President of Lead Discovery, Tavotek Biotherapeutics, and Dominic Warrino, Ph.D., Senior Scientific Adviser, KCAS Bioanalytical & Biomarker Services.
The idea of the series is to go through the phases of drug development and discuss the challenges, best practices and suggestions on how to navigate the process from discovery through preclinical and then on to clinical drug development – all from the perspective of scientists and CRO professionals who have been doing drug development for decades. The initial presentation and Q&A session was set up to detail the very beginning of the process: Drug Discovery. It focused on the “do’s” and “don’ts”, the types of motivations throughout some of the initial decisions that must be made, and the way one should go about identifying targets, weeding out targets, and the assays and processes that should be implemented to support getting to a lead. After discussing lead optimization, we had effectively summarized about three and a half years of the development process and selectivity in establishing a lead, which takes the process to the point of preclinical development.
We had over 150 attendees who tuned in for the scheduled hour of presentation & panel discussion. It moved into a virtual breakout room where people could stay and then ask specific questions about our discussion. It was a wonderful time, and we enjoyed the lively engagement and opinions. It went off without a hitch and “we feel the event was very well received”. Life Science PA corroborated that there was a lot of very positive feedback. and we look forward to the next steps.
For the next “phase” of this series, we will be inviting more professionals from all over the industry to join us with the same format of three to four people as we move on to discussing some of the preclinical decisions necessary before filling an IND.
For more information about the series, please visit here to sign up: https://life-sciences-pennsylvania.ticketleap.com/phase-to-phase-the-guide-to-drug-development-oct7/details