GSK Offers Grants to Nonprofits Making an IMPACT on Health Outcomes
GlaxoSmithKline has honored 10 Philadelphia nonprofit organizations that offer youth mentoring, housing, legal aid, education, and other critical services that help foster a healthier region.
The 10 winners of the GSK IMPACT Awards each will receive $40,000 to help further their efforts to improve health in a region where GSK has had roots for some 180 years. The IMPACT Awards are unrestricted, meaning nonprofits may use them for any purpose furthering their work.(PV)
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Awards
AZ’s Pascal Soriot Honored
The Harvard Business Review (HBR) has selected AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot among the Top 100 Best Performing CEOs in the world for 2019, and one of only three CEOs from a biopharmaceutical company. HBR’s ranking is based on a CEO’s financial performance as well as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings. Unlike rankings that are based on subjective evaluations or short-term metrics, the CEO 100 list relies on objective performance measures over a chief executive’s entire tenure, according to HBR.
Eversana Honored as Great Place to Work
Eversana, an independent provider of commercial services to the life-sciences industry, has been certified as a Great Place to Work by the global authority in workplace culture. The company ranked in the top 15% of more than 6,000 organizations worldwide that have submitted for the coveted certification.
NeuBase Therapeutics Recognized
NeuBase Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing next-generation antisense therapies to address genetic diseases, announced that one of its core technologies, the Janus Base, has been recognized by The Scientist as a Top 10 Innovation of 2019. The bi-specific Janus nucleobases allow NeuBase to develop short oligonucleotide drugs targeting rare genetic diseases that can reach and bind double helixes in the human genome and RNA secondary structures.
Syneos Health Wins SCRS Eagle Award
Syneos Health, an integrated biopharmaceutical solutions organization, has been awarded the Society for Clinical Research Sites (SCRS) Eagle Award in the CRO category for a third consecutive year. The site-nominated award recognizes the CRO that best exemplifies a site-focused approach to clinical trial management, demonstrating outstanding leadership, professionalism, integrity, passion and dedication to advancing the clinical research profession through strong site partnerships.
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PharmaVOICE 100 News
TPRA Celebrates Milestone
The Patient Recruitment Agency (TPRA) is celebrating a major milestone: a 20-year anniversary. Founder Lance Nickens has led TPRA since the company’s inception in 1999. TPRA’s strategic focus derives from Mr. Nickens’ creative energy, client orientation, drive for accountability and passion for creating and developing unique technological solutions. He has produced more than 500 television and radio commercials specifically for clinical trials.
Mr. Nickens is a 2011 and 2018 PharmaVOICE 100.
Julie Ross Honored by HBA
Julie Ross, president of Advanced Clinical, received the 2019 Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Chair Award for her work on the advancement of women in healthcare and her impact on the HBA global organization, chapter operations, members, and corporate partners. The HBA is a global nonprofit committed to achieving gender parity in the healthcare industry.
Ms. Ross has served as a director-at-large on the HBA global board since 2015 and was just re-elected to serve another two-year term. Over the past several years, she has led key initiatives to design progressive organizational change for gender equality in the healthcare industry.
Ms. Ross is a 2014 and 2016 PharmaVOICE 100.
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PharmaVOICE @Industry Events
CNS Summit Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary
CNS Summit founder Amir Kalali, M.D., curated four days of exceptional content at this year’s CNS Summit, which celebrated its 10th anniversary. Dr. Kalali, who is a PharmaVOICE Red Jacket honoree, says CNS Summit is a diverse gathering of life-science and technology leaders who care and want to make a difference; participants are a critical part of the experience. The diverse group of thought leaders are part of a community that is passionate about shaping the future.
Dozens of sessions explored relevant topics that are expected to have a positive impact on the success of industry. This year, more than 500 individuals convened in Boca Raton, Fla., to elevate the summit’s mission to serve patients by developing new treatments.
The 2020 CNS Summit will be held at the Boca Raton Resort & Country Club, Boca Raton, Fla., Oct. 29 – Nov. 1. To learn more, visit https://cnssummit.org/
Exponential Medicine: Reimagining The Future Of Medicine
Dr. Daniel Kraft, 2013 PharmaVOICE 100, kicked off this year’s Exponential Medicine’s four days of intense content by illuminating how technology is converging, and enabling the reinvention of health and medicine across the care continuum. Exponential Medicine is a unique experience that gathers world-class faculty, innovators, and organizations from across the biomedical and technology spectrum to explore and leverage the convergence of fast moving technologies in the reinvention of health and medicine. More than 650 participants and 56 startups from 38 countries gathered at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego to explore topics ranging from AI to robotics to big data and deep learning to virtual/augmented/extended reality, to the neobiological revolution to the digital age of health, and more. The 2020 Exponential Medicine Conference will be held Nov. 9-12, 2020, in San Diego. For more information, visit exponential.singularityu.org.
2019 HBA Leadership Conference
Nearly 900 women and men convened in San Diego for the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association’s Annual Conference. The two-day conference, filled with dozens of workshops designed to address leadership development and industry trends, was punctuated by several main stage standout sessions, including Nancy Giordano (pictured), a strategic futurist, and Mary Stutts, a leader and innovator with a career that reflects a track record of accomplishments in global Fortune 200 companies. Panel discussions included 2019 HBA Woman of the Year Sharon Callahan, chief client officer, Omincom Health Group, and CEO, TBWA\WorldHealth (2017, 2019 PharmaVOICE 100) with Melinda Richter, global head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS (PharmaVOICE Red Jacket), and Joe Wilkins, principal advisor, TRG Healthcare; and 2019/2020 HBA Chair Rebecca Vermeulen, head, customer strategy and patient partnership, global medical affairs, and 2019 HBA Mentor Peter Anastasiou, executive VP and head, North America, Lundbeck.
The 2020 HBA Annual Conference will be held Nov. 17-19, 2020, in Chicago.
For more information, visit hbanet.org.
2020 SCOPE Summit
Celebrating its 11th year, SCOPE Summit 2020 takes place February 18-21 in Orlando, Fla. Over the course of four stimulating days of in-depth discussions in 20 different conferences, three plenary keynote sessions, the annual Participant Engagement Awards, and the ever-popular interactive breakout discussions, the programming focuses on advances and innovative solutions in all aspects of clinical trial planning, management, and operations, including: site selection and management, patient engagement, recruitment and retention, protocol optimization, feasibility, data strategy and analytics, sensors and wearables, project management, outsourcing, forecasting, budgeting and contracting, resource management, quality (QbD) in trial conduct, risk-based monitoring, artificial intelligence, post-marketing studies, observational research, accessing and generating RWD, clinical biomarker strategy, clinical supply chain, precision medicine, clinical biomarkers and biospecimens, and central lab solutions, and an all new track on medical device clinical trial operations and regulations.
SCOPE attracted more than 2,000 leaders in clinical operations and research in 2019. For more information, visit https://www.scopesummit.com.
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Innovation Corner
Astellas Pharma Invests in Cell and Gene Therapy Incubators
Astellas Pharma will invest nearly $13 million into two innovation incubators operated by LabCentral. This initiative, combined with the more than $1 billion Astellas has previously committed to driving innovation in Massachusetts, contributes to the Boston-area life-sciences community’s ongoing efforts to accelerate the discovery and development of potential breakthrough therapies in areas of significant unmet need.
Astellas will invest $12.5 million to become the only pharmaceutical/biotechnology company among five founding sponsors of a new incubator, which will feature a core lab space where companies can easily conduct process development studies and a non-GMP pilot plant, being developed by LabCentral. The new incubator is expected to be operational in 2021. Astellas also will invest at least $450,000 over three years to become a Gold Sponsor of LabCentral’s existing incubator.
Lilly Winner of Digital Health Innovation Challenge
Eli Lilly’s first digital health open innovation challenge, Transforming IBD Care: Better Disease Monitoring, Management, and Care for People with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, has concluded. HealthVoyager, an application developed by Boston Children’s Hospital and Klick Health, was named the winner. The idea leverages a highly customizable software platform for doctors to create a personalized and immersive educational experience for patients living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). HealthVoyager will have the opportunity to potentially co-develop its solution with Lilly and secure $50,000 to further develop the idea.
Novartis Launches Innovation Prize for Assistive Tech
The Novartis Innovation Prize: Assistive Tech for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) identifies and embraces technology that aims to improve mobility and daily life for people living with MS. To develop its innovation, the first-place winner will receive a $250,000 prize and the second-place winner will receive $50,000.
To launch this initiative, Novartis is proud to work with WIRED Brand Lab, alongside other key collaborators such as Techstars, Shift.ms, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and more.
Sarepta Announces Recipients Duchenne Scholarship Program
Sarepta Therapeutics has announced the recipients of Route 79, The Duchenne Scholarship Program. This is the second year of the scholarship program, which was created to recognize exceptional individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy as they pursue their post-secondary education. Twenty-three recipients were chosen by an independent panel.
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Pipeline Novelty
IDEA Pharma’s first annual Pharmaceutical Invention Index takes a focused look at the breadth and depth of novel agents currently being developed within the most innovative pharma pipelines. The index consists of four key metrics: the proportion of pipeline to marketed drugs, the number of trials investigating novel agents, the proportion of ‘novel’ regulatory designations, and an assessment of the companies’ R&D investments.
1. AstraZeneca
2. Celgene
3. Eli Lilly
4. Novartis
5. AbbVie
5. Vertex
6. Bristol-Myers Squibb
7. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
8. Daiichi Sankyo
9. GSK
10. Biogen
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Podcast:
Partnering to Develop and Implement a Global Risk Management Plan — What You Need to Know
Sponsored by: UBC
Webinars:
Selecting and Implementing Mobile Sensors to Collect Clinical Trial Endpoint Data
Sponsored by: Signant Health
OnDemand: Understanding the Interplay Between Medicaid and 340B
Sponsored by: Manatt Health
