Posts tagged ‘Oncology New Products’
We are delighted to announce the public launch of our annual “New Products MBA” program that involves custom monthly case studies and 1:1 coaching. Previously by private request only, this program is designed for senior executives with responsibility for new product development or those involved with strategic decision making in this area.
How does the coaching program work?
This is an individual program and lasts for one year during which 10 monthly case studies are undertaken on topics selected by the participant. These could be on a tumor type, pathway, indication or topic related to drug development e.g. the science and commercial challenges around chimeric antigen receptors. Case study topics are typically focused around the sponsoring company portfolio to enable learnings to be applied.
Each case study includes a 10-15 page written paper with background, analysis, insights and key strategic questions. Additional material in the form of scientific papers to read and videos to watch is also provided. The commitment required is equivalent to undertaking an Executive MBA.
Following review of the case study and accompanying material, a 1 to 1.5 hour 1:1 coaching session takes place by telephone with Sally Church, PhD in which key learnings are discussed.
Importantly, the program does not discuss confidential or proprietary information, it is focused on helping participants ask the right questions, not making a key decision for them.
Why is a new products coaching program necessary?
In recent years, oncology has become a fast changing environment where it is increasingly important to be able to see the scientific connections between pathways and tumor types, understand the emerging impact of new competitors with novel mechanisms of action, as well as biomarkers and companion diagnostics, and be aware of the evolving landscape for next generation immunotherapies.
What do participants gain from this program?
The result of this coaching program will be an increased scientific understanding that enhances the ability to ask the right strategic questions of New Product Development and Brand Marketing teams and enable more in-depth strategic collaboration at the both the senior and middle management level.
What level of staff is this program aimed at?
This program was originally developed for a board level senior executive at a global pharmaceutical company. Based on its success we are making it publicly available in 2013 to a limited number of participants. We anticipate that it would benefit those at the Senior Director to Executive VP level who are involved with a range of oncology new products.
How much does this coaching program cost?
The program is comparable in cost to attending an Executive MBA, please contact us if you would like to learn more.
The annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), held in Chicago earlier this month, is one of the most important meetings of the year for cancer scientists, pharma/biotech drug development and new products professionals.
Bill Sellers, in the AACR plenary session, described how Novartis are using the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) in conjunction with the Broad Institute to identify promising new compounds.
As Sally Church, PhD noted on Pharma Strategy Blog in her post on the highlights of AACR 2012:
“What made the meeting exciting for me was the sheer number of new compounds emerging from late preclinical to early phase 1.”
Two of the many promising new drugs in early stages of development were highlighted on Biotech Strategy Blog:
AZD3514 (AstraZeneca), a selective androgen receptor down regulator (SARD) in phase 1 clinical trials for castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).
ABT-199 (Abbott), a new Bcl-2 inhibitor (that improves on navitoclax), in phase 1 drug development for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
There were many noteworthy posters presented at AACR particularly from young researchers
e.g. “Overcoming resistance to EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy in non-small cell lung cancer” was a poster that suggested the prospect of future drug development targets.
During the high quality poster and oral sessions, we met numerous people including CEOs of baby biotechs, young researchers and clinicians with an interest in translational research, including Laura Strong, Ph.D President & COO of Quintessence Biosciences (@scientre), David Woessner who was presenting his PhD research (@pinfoto) and Philippe Aftimos, MD from Belgium (@aftimosp), all of whom were actively sharing their observations during numerous sessions via Twitter during the conference.
The annual meeting is not just about basic science though, but also drug development strategy and emerging research trends, such as the automation of preclinical drug discovery, as well as the collaboration between academia and Pharma/Biotech in combination clinical trials using two novel compounds from different companies. This last trend, I am pleased to say, has already begun and will hopefully continue apace in the future.
If you were not able to attend AACR, then Sally Church aggregated all the #AACR tweets from the meeting on Pharma Strategy Blog. AACR also have webcasts of some of the sessions available, including some with free access.
We’re already looking forward to AACR 2013 in Washington, DC and the timing of the meeting means it should take place when the renowned Cherry Blossom are in full bloom. Hopefully, this will provide a great opportunity for another Pharma Strategy Blog video!
November 10, 2011 is the second worldwide neuroendocrine (NET) cancer awareness day. Pancreatic NET is what Steve Jobs sadly succumbed to.
In recognition of NET Cancer Day, Sally Church has written an insightful post on Pharma Strategy Blog about pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and new treatment options. It is well worth reading!
Sally highlights two new therapies for pNET approved by the FDA this year:
- everolimus (Afinitor) from Novartis that targets mTOR, downstream of the PI3K/AKT pathway
- sunitinib (Sutent) from Pfizer, a multikinase inhibitor
Both showed a benefit over placebo with an increase in progression free survival (PFS). They do, however, have some challenges associated with their side effects.
Sally concludes that “in the future, we may well see sequencing studies emerge as well as other targeted therapies to prolong outcomes for patients with this rare disease.”
We hope that the Neuroendocrine Cancer Awareness day achieves its goal of raising awareness about this disease. You can read more on Pharma Strategy Blog.
The favorite scientific meeting of Sally Church, PhD is the American Association for Cancer Research AACR-NCI-EORTC Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics international conference that alternates each year between Europe and the United States.
This year it is being held in San Francisco from November 12-16, 2011, and already AACR has announced that a lot of new data will be presented on early stage new products in development.
On Pharma Strategy Blog, Sally notes the “luminaries” in personalized medicine that she is looking forward to hearing from in San Francisco.
You can read more about the fall cancer conferences that Sally will be attending on Pharma Strategy Blog.
Pieter Droppert on Biotech Strategy Blog also mentions the Molecular Targets conference and his interest in the plenary session chaired by Frank McCormick on “rational cancer drug development for targeted drugs.”
The potential for academia to facilitate combination trials with drugs from different companies was highlighted in Sally Church’s recent video interview with Gordon B Mills, MD PhD from UT MD Anderson Cancer Center.
If you have plans to be in San Francisco for the Molecular Targets conference do let us know. In addition to hearing about great science – networking and meeting people is one of the big reasons to attend.
Sally Church, PhD writes about cancer drug development on Pharma Strategy Blog where she brings science to life.
This week she wrote about the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) international conference on “Frontiers in Basic Cancer Research” that has been taking place in San Francisco.
Meetings such as these are important because it is through understanding basic biology that the next generation of cancer drugs will evolve. Two presentations on pancreatic cancer stood out at the AACR conference.
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death in the United States and has a poor prognosis – the median overall survival for those with metastatic disease is 6 months!
Sally discusses the research presented in San Francisco by Barbara Gruener that “EGFR plays an “unappreciated’ central role in the carcinogenic process.”
What does this mean for those with pancreatic cancer? Sally’s analysis is that “EGFR therapy might be a logical approach for early pancreatic treatment than is currently undertaken” for those with metastatic disease.
Sally in her insightful blog post also discusses data presented at the conference by Dana Haddad who did work at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) on the potential for treatment of pancreatic cancer with an oncolytic virus (GLV-1h153).
You can read more on Pharma Strategy Blog about the potential impact of this research on new product development in pancreatic cancer.
Source: NIH
Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog has published a thought-provoking piece that discusses why targeted and focused new therapies will lead to higher rather than lower costs of drug development.
Cost drivers include the need to develop biomarkers, undertake more translational medicine and the potential use of combination therapies.
Sally highlights the cost of recently approved drugs such as Yervoy, Adcetris and Zelboraf as examples of how costs are increasing, not decreasing.
Contrary to the opinion of Harpal Kumar, CEO of Cancer Research UK, Sally believes that:
“specialized treatment based on the underlying biology will ultimately cost more, not less, in the long run in terms of research and development, diagnostics/biomarkers and treatment costs of every smaller subsets.”
Is this sustainable in the long-run? Industry, government and payors have yet to tackle this issue. It’s a problem that is not going away.
You should read Sally’s thought provoking op-ed on “the spiraling costs of cancer research and treatment” on Pharma Strategy Blog.
One of our areas of focus at Icarus Consultants is helping pharma, biotech clients with their commercial strategy to bring new products to market. Sally Church worked in oncology new products at Novartis and brought Gleevec to market in the United States, so has first hand experience of what it takes to make this happen.
Key to new product success is understanding the market opportunity, and focusing your drug on targets that have both commercial and clinical justification. We spend a lot of our time writing powerpoint presentations that help clients make strategic new product development marketing and commercial decisions.
On Pharma Strategy Blog, Sally Church takes a look at the market for PARP inhibitors such as iniparib, olaparib and veliparib. She’s been writing about them since 2006!
Sally discusses the clinical trials that have taken place, and how poor trial design has contributed to the lack of success. You can read Sally’s in-depth review of what’s happening with the clinical development of PARP inhibitors on Pharma Strategy Blog.
A venture capital firm in Boston yesterday bet $40M in first round financing that Dr Druker and his partners can repeat the success of Gleevec/Glivec with a new Boston/Cambridge life sciences start-up company, Blueprint Medicines.
If Daedalus had money to invest, a wager on Dr Druker would be as good as any in the biotechnology industry. After the successful development of Gleevec/Glivec, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that Drs Druker & Lydon were instrumental in developing with Novartis for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), it’s hard not to believe that they cannot do it again.
Icarus Consultants’ Sally Church worked closely with Dr Druker while at Novartis Oncology. Starting in oncology new products she saw the potential of STI-571, and subsequently took the product to market in the U.S. market as Gleevec. We wish him well, and should Blueprint Medicines need any commercial, marketing strategy consulting services, we hope he’ll call us 
.
You can read more on Biotech Strategy Blog.
At the recent annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Icarus Consultant’s oncology expert and social media guru generated video highlights for Pharma Strategy Blog; a first for Sally and no mean feat to shoot a video blog (vblog) after a full day at a conference.
In case you missed the videos, you can watch them below:
Day 1 highlights of the AACR Annual Meeting by Sally Church, PhD include how to use Twitter to keep in touch with breaking news at a meeting such as AACR, and what Sally thinks will be hot news.
Day 2 highlights of the AACR Annual Meeting by Sally Church, PhD include commentary on the plenary presentation by Dr Harold Varmus of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), exciting phase II data on GDC-0449, a hedgehog pathway inhibitor for the prevention of basal cell carcinoma in basal cell nevus syndrome (BCNS) patients, and the launch of a new journal, Cancer Discovery, by AACR.
You can read more about the AACR annual meeting on Pharma Strategy Blog.
Greetings from sunny Orlando and the AACR 102nd annual meeting 2011, one of the highlights of the year for those interested in the science of cancer and emerging new products.
For those of you who couldn’t afford a last minute Continental flight from Newark (does it really cost $600 to fly to Orlando?), Pharma Strategy Blog has a Covert it Live widget that aggregates all #AACR tweets.
While this is no substitute for actually attending, it does provide a window into what’s happening. Sally Church also plans to provide a daily video update, so watch Pharma Strategy Blog for the hot news from the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.