Event Review: The NGP Summit

The Next Generation Pharmaceutical R&D Summit held at the luxurious El San Juan Resort in Puerto Rico was a huge success – and for many, a welcome break from the cold days of February.

Held February 6-8, the Next Generation Pharmaceutical R&D Summit offered three information-packed days of networking, workshops, panel discussions, keynote speeches and golfing set against the beautiful backdrop of Puerto Rico.

Attracting more than 90 leading executives from the top pharmaceutical companies, the Summit brought together diverse and insightful perspectives from across the industry to take part in thought-provoking discussions on critical issues related to drug discovery.

The summit kicked off with a casual cocktail reception to give attendees the opportunity to introduce themselves, followed by the opening gala dinner with Fredric Vinick, SVP of Drug Discovery at Genzyme, who served as an entertaining guide to the evening as Master of Ceremonies. The highlight of the night was an inspirational and touching keynote speech from Brad Margus, the CEO and Co-founder of Perlegen Sciences, who told the story behind his company and his own personal efforts to find a cure for a lethal genetic disease that had severely affected his family.

Day two

Day two of the summit included an array of interesting and dynamic workshops with a variety of delegates and topics that garnered lots of interest as indicated by the strong attendance numbers. Such workshops as Fredrick Vinick, SVP of Drug Discovery at Genzyme’s “Discovering New Drugs: Time for a Paradigm Shift?” and Parimal Desai, VP of Analytical and Quality Sciences at Wyeth’s “Managing Drug Attrition – Discovery to Pre-Clinical” were among the most popular and well-received sessions.

An exciting working lunch roundtable exploring the topic of “Biomarkers and Pharmacogenomics in Discovery” was one of the main highlights of the day. Scott Patterson, Executive Director of Medical Sciences at Amgen, served as a brilliant moderator over a panel that included such distinguished executives as Anthony Ford-Hutchison, EVP of Research Medicine at Merck who delivered an exceptional, invigorating presentation along with David Cox, CSO of Perlegen Sciences, who offered some great insights as well. Other panelists included Alain Van Gool of Organon, Mark Fidock of Pfizer, Andres Negro-Vilar of Ligand and Tina Settineri of Applied Biosystems sitting in as a vendor.

After a full day of thought-provoking discussions, attendees unwinded by enjoying a lovely dinner outside under the historical Indonesian Banyan Tree while taking in the night’s keynote speech by Rick Sefecka of Microsoft, who spoke on the topic of “Re-thinking information technology to enable the next wave of life sciences innovation.”

Day three

Day three included another stellar lineup of workshops covering hot topics such as pharmacogenomics, biomarkers and RNAi, all of which received overwhelming positive feedback. Attendees heard exceptional insights from David Cox of Perlegen, who shared his expertise in the area of Pharmacogenomics, Michael Shi of Novartis who spoke on biomarker development, Martin Woodle of Intradigm and Eric Lader of Qiagen who conducted a joint workshop on emerging siRNA therapeutics, and Mark Linesch of Open Grid Forum who presented on how cutting-edge grid technology is a key enabler to pharmaceutical innovation.

In the working lunch roundtable, Michel De Wilde of Sanofi-Pasteur moderated an engaging and stimulating panel discussion on the topic of “Future Tools and Technologies for Driving Drug Discovery and Development,” which garnered a high level of participation from both the panel and the audience. Other panelists who joined in the lively debate included John Ferguson of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Berta Strulovici of Merck, Jianling Wang of Novartis, Parimal Desai of Wyeth, John Elliott of GlaxoSmithKline and David Smoller of Sigma-Aldrich, who served as the vendor panelist, sharing his expertise from his R&D background.

R&R

For those who wanted to get a round in to top everything off, Friday offered a golf outing sponsored by Corning at the Hyatt Derado Beach. A handful of delegates, including David Pompliano of GlaxoSmithKline and Mike Luther of Merck, had the opportunity to exercise their swing on the amazing beachfront course overlooking an azure Caribbean.

Aside from the golfing event, attendees also had the opportunity to take advantage of a variety of leisure activities including San Juan’s many nightspots, a beachfront view and a casino (part of the great venue). Gorgeous 85-degree weather made the event all the more enjoyable.

Since the summit, attendees have shared a great deal of candor and enthusiasm reflecting on their personal experiences and provided an overwhelming amount of positive comments. Lynn Buchanan of MDS Nordion summed up her experience by saying, “The executive delegates were top caliber – most generous and gracious in sharing their experience and views on major issues and challenges facing pharmaceutical R&D. The summit provided a unique forum to interact, exchange ideas and learn from industry experts, and afforded excellent networking opportunities. Again, I commend [the organizers] for their friendly and efficient organization of this fast-paced event.”

Plans are already in place for the next summit scheduled for 5-7 September 2007 at The Boulders Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. The second Next Generation Pharmaceutical Discovery and Development Summit of 2007 will focus on bridging the gap between discovery and development, once again bringing together the industry’s most well respected leaders and associations to discuss how to effectively manage costs and drive efficiency.