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The Essential Steve Jobs for Today’s Pharmaceutical Executive |  |
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Posted by sandiegobiotech October 6th, 2011 .
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Drug Discovery, Featured, SDBN Blog, Uncategorized »
Virtual Biotech Part 1: What We Learned About Effectively Outsourcing a Drug Discovery Program |  |
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Posted by Lara July 28th, 2011 .
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The first in our Virtual Biotech series, our July 19th event was a success. Thanks to our participants – some of San Diego’s leading virtual drug discovery scientists and CROs – for sharing their valuable insights and advice for scientists managing or considering how to manage an outsourced drug discovery project.
We’ve compiled some of the key tips and highlights of the night including:
- What activities should you outsource?
- Finding the right CRO for your objectives
- Managing your CRO relationship successfully every time
- Virtual tools to help manage and build your CRO network
- Finding the funding and resources you need for your virtual drug discovery projects
What Activities Should You Outsource?
Our panelist Scott Struthers, Founder & CSO of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, summed up this topic with a simple, “…what you’re good at, you do in-house; what you can afford you do in-house.”
Struthers’ team looks to outsourcing when dealing with capital- or labor-intensive projects and this was the consensus among panel members. By focusing on the activities your team does best, your efficiency and productivity are maximized – all else can be outsourced.
Finding a CRO to Become Part of Your R&D Network
Finding a CRO you can trust is critical. Here are some tips and practices from our panelists for finding the perfect CRO for your project:
- Seek recommendations from colleagues and friends. Whether referrals are from scientists within your long-term network or a colleague in your current company, peer reviews are incredibly valuable for obvious reasons. These recommendations can also help you distill your initial CRO options down to a few, making the search more manageable.
- Leslie Hickle, VP Business Development at BioAtla, LLC, identified the following three key areas to consider when determining if a CRO will be a fit for your project:
- Quality – Do they have referrals?
- Cost – Are their services cost-effective for this project?
- Speed – Do they deliver on time?
Hickle also notes that you will need to clearly determine your own expectations for each of these categories so you can easily compare CROs.
- Once a CRO is a fit, never, ever, ever – ever – let them go. They are now part of your Virtual R&D Network.
Managing Successful CRO Relationships
While several elements comprise a successful strategy when managing a CRO, this statement truly sums up the hallmark characteristic of successful, long-term CRO relationships:
“…the really successful projects are the ones where we become like an extension of the project team, where we’re looked on as collaborators.”
- Panelist Diana Wetmore, Vice President of Business Development at Emerald BioStructures
Manage your CRO relationship as if it were another branch of your existing team. Speakers note that this extends to all areas of a project. To successfully manage a CRO relationship, a strategy is required that consists of:
- Partnership – Viewing your CRO as a member of your team will optimize your project’s productivity and overall success; CROs will give you input and documentation to help you with your budget, your strategy, and many other areas of your project.
- Communication -
- High frequency especially at the beginning of a project is important
- Milestones and goals are clearly identified so no grey area exists
- Virtual tools are extremely helpful throughout the entire project, and online video tools were identified as especially useful when establishing a new relationship
- Problems or issues are communicated and handled as team
- Dedicated Management – A dedicated person who manages the virtual meeting and collaboration process is essential. This person leads and organizes the virtual meeting space, including: communications, coordinating attendee schedules, managing the call itself, gathering and sharing any relevant documents, following up with attendees, tracking the project and managing online communication platforms for team
- Alignment – Be On the Same Page: To achieve success, both the CRO and the client need to be on the same page. Know what you want and expect, and have the conversations early to establish the foundation for your relationship and ensure consistent successes.
Global or Local?
Resoundingly, the quality of the relationship, not where the CRO was located, seemed to be the most important ingredient. However, here are some pros and cons of global vs. local CROs listed by our participants:
Global Pros
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Global Cons
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Local Pros
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Local Cons
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Best Virtual Tool to Help Manage Outsourcing
Participants appreciated the abundance of online tools and resources available to help build their global networks of outsourced R&D. Useful tools included:
- Virtual meeting spaces – Online video and audio programs allow easy, inexpensive, and (most importantly) frequent communication.
- Virtual file-sharing spaces - Sharing content quickly and securely helps to increase efficiency
How to Find Funding and Resources
Our participant, Jim Hauske, President and Founder of Sensor Pharma, notes four key questions that need to be answered to obtain funding, or the possibility of funding:
- Who owns the company?
- What is the therapeutic, or technology focus?
- What, if anything, has been accomplished?
- What is the IP estate?
And where to find that funding?
- VCs
- Pharma
- SBIR grants (Small Business Innovation Research) – low hurdle for startups
- Disease organizations
- Patient Advocacy groups
- High net worth individuals and their non-profit organizations
- Self funded
- Micro-funding (individuals, small private groups)
Resources: In addition to finding funding, resources are available for virtual drug discovery companies, such as San Diego Entrepreneur’s Exchange. SDEE is a virtual incubator and social networking tool for San Diego startups. This site allows scientist’s access to resources such as equipment and lab space and helps teams find other scientists with which to collaborate and potentially partner.
How are “risk sharing” deals really structured?
CROs can help to shoulder some of the risk involved with a project. For example, Diana Wetmore explained that her CRO may determine the structure of a risk-sharing deal by assessing a project, then binning into one of three levels – low- , mid- , and high-risk projects. Varying levels of commitment are proposed by the CRO, according to perceived probability of success.
In an extreme example of sharing the risk burden Richard Lin, moderator and President and CEO of Explora BioLabs, emphasized flexibility and creativity when assessing a risk-sharing deal. He explained that his CRO performed an entire project for no fee, and received double the normal payment when the client achieved Phase I funding – a risk, but a clear win for both sides.
Bottom Line
You and your CRO are on the same team. Utilize your network and online tools to find your CRO. Then build a successful relationship by defining your expectations, communicating frequently, and including your CRO partner in all processes along the way.
We hope these tips and practices will help you to effectively manage your Drug Discovery outsourcing.
If all of your questions weren’t answered here, stay tuned for more in our Virtual Biotech series or leave a question or comment below.
Or, are you a CRO or virtual drug discovery scientist with some insights our community could use? We’d love to hear from you!
Thanks to Our Virtual Drug Discovery Participants:
Jim Hauske, President and Founder,Sensor Pharma (Bio)
Virtual Drug Discovery panelists:
Leslie Hickle,VP, Business Development, BioAtla, LLC (LinkedIn)
Daniel Holsworth,Co-founder/Board of Directors, ODIN Therapeutics AS(LinkedIn)
Richard Lin (Moderator), President and CEO, Explora BioLabs (LinkedIn)
Ajay Madan, Senior Director of Development, Neurocrine Biosciences (LinkedIn)
Scott Struthers, Founder & CSO,Crinetics Pharmaceuticals (LinkedIn)
Diana Wetmore, Vice President of Business Development, Emerald BioStructures (Bio)
More...Drug Discovery, Headline, SDBN Blog, SDBN Events, Uncategorized »
SDBN July 19th Event: Virtual Biotech Part 1: How to Effectively Outsource a Drug Discovery Program |  |
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Posted by Mary Canady July 1st, 2011 .
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Changes in the drug discovery landscape have presented many tough challenges for our region, including downsizing for larger companies and a dearth of VC funding for startups. With these challenges come opportunities, however, because drug companies are hungry for drug candidates to fill their pipelines. Additionally, the abundance of drug discovery contract research organizations (CROs), the ability to manage them remotely, and the ability to find partners and tools more easily on the internet presents an interesting opportunity.
Our July 19th event is our first in a series of Virtual Biotech events this year, and we’ve brought together those who have successfully outsourced drug discovery programs as well as some of the CRO providers. We’ve asked them to discuss the ‘howtos’ of managing an outsourced drug discovery project, and we think they’ll have some great insights, both at a high level and in the day to day details of the processes. In this hands-on event, we’ll take questions from you beforehand so that the resulting presentation and discussions will benefit you the most, and we’re open to what we should cover in future events. In addition, at this event some of our CRO sponsors will be providing credit for services at the event so we’re hoping you go home with some great deals for your projects. Register here.
| Time | Activity | Participants |
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| 5:30-6:20 | Networking, Dinner, Sponsor Tables | All |
| 6:20-6:45 | Short Sponsor Presentations | Sponsors |
| 6:45-7:30 | Feature Presentation: “A Tale of Two Companies: Drug Discovery’s Best and Worst of Times” | Jim Hauske, President and Founder, Sensor Pharma (Bio) |
| 7:30-8:15 | Outsourcing/CRO Panel | Leslie Hickle,VP, Business Development,BioAtla, LLC (LinkedIn) Daniel Holsworth,Co-founder/Board of Directors, ODIN Therapeutics AS (LinkedIn) Richard Lin (Moderator),President and CEO, Explora BioLabs (LinkedIn) Ajay Madan, Senior Director of Development, Neurocrine Biosciences (LinkedIn) Scott Struthers, Founder & CSO, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals (LinkedIn) Diana Wetmore, Vice President of Business Development, Emerald BioStructures (Bio) |
| 8:15-9:00 | Networking, Sponsor Tables | All |
Sponsors
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Our generous sponsors have provided the following promotions exclusive to event attendees, come for a chance to win!
Special Event Giveaways
- Millipore: $500 credit for Select Services
- Explora BioLabs: 1 free mouse or rat small molecule pharmacokinetic (PK) study free (worth ~$3500) per standard Explora 24 hr PK design protocol (including bioanalysis).
- Imgenex: 2 additional compounds added to screen of potential inflammatory and TLR agonists or antagonists using IMGENEX TLR/NF-κB SEAPorter™ HEK 293 stable cell lines. $5,000 value.
- BioTox Sciences: a free 3 day in-life Dog PK study, up to $4,500.00 in value (not including bioanalysis).
- Emerald BioStructures: iPad! ($500 value)
- GenScript: $500 off $3000 (or $1000 off $5000) service discount on non-molecular biology services.
If you want more details on the promotions, or have a promotion to offer to attendees, or want to sponsor contact us.
Event Details
Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology Network July 19th Event:Virtual Biotech Part 1: How to Effectively Outsource a Drug Discovery Program
When: Tuesday, July 19th 2011, 5:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey Street, San Diego 92109 (Directions below)
Cost: $25 Standard/$20 Academic/$50 Recruiter, dinner provided, cash bar
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/july
Directions: From the North: South on Interstate 5, Exit Balboa Ave, Straight to 4th Traffic Light then left on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. From the South: North on Interstate 5, Exit Grand/ Garnet Ave, Straight to 3rd Traffic Light then right on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. Park on the street or in the structure just past (south of) Tango del Rey. DO NOT park in the Science Center lot.
Headline, SDBN Blog, SDBN Events, Uncategorized »
SDBN March 15th, 2011 Event Featuring Senomyx | |
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Posted by Mary Canady February 23rd, 2011 .
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Senomyx is a very interesting local biotech focusing on developing flavor enhancers using processes that have parallels to those used in drug discovery such as high throughput screening and GPCR modulation, see their recent publications. They have collaborations with several of the leading food, beverage, and ingredient companies, and one of the aims is to help companies improve an item’s taste while improving its nutritional profile. Guy Servant, Senior Director of Assay Development & HTS at Senomyx (Bio), will give a presentation titled “A Biotech Approach to Flavor Discovery.”
As always, there will be lots of time for networking, and dinner will be served with a cash bar. Register now and bring your business cards!
Sponsors
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Sponsorships for this event are available, contact us!
Event Details
Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology Network March 15th Event Featuring Senomyx
When: Tuesday, March 15th 2011, 5:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey Street, San Diego 92109 (Directions below)
Cost: $25/$20 Academic, dinner provided, cash bar
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/march
Directions: From the North: South on Interstate 5, Exit Balboa Ave, Straight to 4th Traffic Light then left on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. From the South: North on Interstate 5, Exit Grand/ Garnet Ave, Straight to 3rd Traffic Light then right on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. Park on the street or in the structure just past (south of) Tango del Rey. DO NOT park in the Science Center lot.
Headline, SDBN Blog, Uncategorized »
SDBN January 18th Speed Networking Event: Reach Your Destination In 2011 | |
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Posted by Mary Canady December 23rd, 2010 .
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Where do you want to be in 2011? Participating in our speed networking event January 18th will help you to meet biotech professionals who may be able to help you reach your destination. We hold this event twice a year and always get a big crowd. You’ll not only get lots of great contacts from the meeting, but you’ll also fine tune your elevator speech and learn about what opportunities exist.
**Update: We’ll have Kristie Grover from Biocom speaking about the BRIDGE program, an excellent opportunity for biotech training. Also, Mary Canady from Comprendia will give a review of the SDBN 2011 survey and a mini LinkedIn/online networking workshop.**
Event Details
Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology January 18th Speed Networking
When: Tuesday, January 18th, 5:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey Street, San Diego 92109 (Directions below)
Cost: $25/$20 Academic. Includes dinner, there is a cash bar.
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/january
Directions: From the North: South on Interstate 5, Exit Balboa Ave, Straight to 4th Traffic Light then left on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. From the South: North on Interstate 5, Exit Grand/ Garnet Ave, Straight to 3rd Traffic Light then right on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. Park on the street or in the structure just past (south of) Tango del Rey. DO NOT park in the Science Center lot.
Featured, SDBN Blog, Uncategorized »
Happy 2nd Birthday SDBN! How Should We Celebrate? | |
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Posted by Mary Canady October 13th, 2010 .
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It’s hard to believe it, but two years ago in November of 2008, we had our first SDBN event featuring Sapphire Energy at Rock Bottom in La Jolla. We soon outgrew that venue and have found a nice home at Tango del Rey, a one-of-a-kind location in PB which we feel is amenable to networking. To facilitate interaction, we’ve also tried to keep the cost of the events as low as possible, and to have interesting events which draw a nice crowd.
We started the SDBN to foster communication between biotech professionals and companies locally, and it is here to serve your needs in this area. We are very grateful to all of the wonderful people who have participated in these two years, let’s celebrate by hosting an event for you in early December. We polled you in late 2009 to learn about what you wanted in 2010, and perhaps this is a good time to get your pulse on what you want and need from the SDBN. Let’s ‘crowdsource’ our this event by voting and getting ideas from you. To get you started, here are some ideas we’ve kicked around for the event:
- Social Media Panel or Presentation
- Virtual Biotech Company Panel
- Ultra Quick Pitch, Open to All (5-10 minute presentations, consultants, co.’s, etc.)
- A Party, Plain and Simple
- Insert Your Idea Here
Here’s how to cast your vote. I’ve listed the choices as comments below, vote for your favorite (click on the thumb below your choice). Have a new idea? Leave a comment below with your idea, and it will be ‘in the running’ as people will be able to vote on it too. Let’s use the honor system, and realize that if we get a lot of requests for a company to sponsor, that the company will need to defray some of the costs of the event.
To share this post easily, cut and paste: Happy 2nd Birthday SDBN! How Should We Celebrate? http://sdbn.org/celebrate
More...Drug Discovery, Headline, SDBN Blog, SDBN Events, Uncategorized »
SDBN October 26th Event Featuring Trius Therapeutics | |
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Posted by Mary Canady October 5th, 2010 .
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Trius Therapeutics is a great local company which recently had an initial public offering (IPO), quite a feat in this economy. What is the secret to their success? They focus on antibacterials for life threatening applications, and have used a creative combination of licensing and funding to build a strong portfolio in that area. Working with bacterial proteins helps Trius to leverage structure-based drug design (SBDD) technologies to efficiently optimize lead compounds. Dr. John Finn, Trius’ Chief Scientific Officer (bio), will present a talk titled “Innovative Antibacterial Drugs by Design; The Trius Therapeutics Story,” and as always you’ll have plenty of time to talk with him and others from Trius. Register here.
Sponsors
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Sponsorships are available and affordable, with a speaking option available, contact us!
Event Details
Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology August Event Featuring Trius Therapeutics
When: Tuesday, October 26th, 5:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey Street, San Diego 92109 (Directions below)
Cost: $25/$20 Academic
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/october
Directions: From the North: South on Interstate 5, Exit Balboa Ave, Straight to 4th Traffic Light then left on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. From the South: North on Interstate 5, Exit Grand/ Garnet Ave, Straight to 3rd Traffic Light then right on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. Park on the street or in the structure just past (south of) Tango del Rey. DO NOT park in the Science Center lot.
Uncategorized »
Bio: Michael Cooke | |
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Posted by Mary Canady August 18th, 2010 .
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Michael P. Cooke received his Ph.D in Biochemistry from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1991 working with Dr. Roger Perlmutter where he studied the role of the src-family kinase, fyn in T cell development and activation. He did postdoctoral work with Dr. Chris Goodnow at Stanford University where he studied molecular mechanism of immune tolerance. From Stanford he went to the hematopoietic stem cell company SyStemix Inc. in Palo Alto, Ca where he was Director of Functional Genomics. He joined the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in 1999 and is currently Director of Immunology. He is responsible for oversight of immunology research at GNF leading a team of more than 40 scientists to discover targets and develop therapeutics to treat autoimmunity and boost vaccines. He has published more than 40 papers in top journals including Cell, Science, and Nature and serves as a member of the research management team at GNF. His own research includes the application of genomics tools and chemical screens to study the biology of hematopoietic stem cells and the adaptive immune system and the translation of these findings into novel therapeutics to treat immune disorders and improve HSC transplant outcomes.
More...Drug Discovery, Headline, SDBN Blog, SDBN Events, Uncategorized »
SDBN August 18th Event: The Human Genome 10 Years Later: What Does it Mean for San Diego Biotech? | |
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Posted by Mary Canady July 23rd, 2010 .
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June 2010 marks the 10th anniversary of the sequencing of the human genome. As Francis Collins has pointed out, “we invariably overestimate the short-term impacts of new technologies and underestimate their longer-term effects.” As a member of the community for 14 years, I can tell you that this is true for San Diego, as the expectations in 2000 were likely too high, but the last ten years have brought unexpected progress in many areas.
San Diego has a great ecosystem to take advantage of these exciting longer-term benefits, ranging from our expertise in creating cutting edge research tools, to ground breaking drug discoveries, to new classes of diagnostics, to the exciting new field of synthetic genomics. Of course, Craig Venter has given us a big vote of confidence by relocating here. Let’s bring together experts in an interactive environment August 18th to discuss how we can take advantage of these exciting opportunities. Register here.
Panelists:
Michael Cooke, Ph.D., Director of Immunology Discovery, Genomics Institute of the Novartis Foundation (GNF) (Bio)
Kelly Frazer, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of Genome Information Sciences for the UCSD Department of Pediatrics (more info)
Tom Novak, Ph.D.,, SVP of Research, of Fate Therapeutics (Bio)
Aristides A. N. Patrinos, Ph.D., President, Synthetic Genomics (more info)
Emily Winn-Deen, Ph.D.,, Vice President, Diagnostics Development at Illumina (Bio)
Moderators:
Scott Markel, Principal Bioinformatics Architect, Accelrys, and Paul Flook, Senior Director, Life Sciences R&D, Accelrys
Here are some seed questions for the discussion, and as always feel free to submit your questions as comments below:
- How will the direct to consumer genomics market impact our economy?
- How is genomics being used in drug discovery, and what therapeutic areas have the most promise for San Diego?
- Will the continuing affordability of sequencing affect the landscape of companies?
- What are the best adaptations we can make to take better advantage of the opportunities?
Sponsors
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Event Details
Who: Biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology August Event: The Human Genome 10 Years Later: What Does it Mean for San Diego Biotech?
When: Wednesday, August 18th, 5:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Tango Del Rey, 3567 Del Rey Street, San Diego 92109 (Directions below)
Cost: $25/$20 Academic
Contact: http://sdbn.org/contact
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org/august
Directions: From the North: South on Interstate 5, Exit Balboa Ave, Straight to 4th Traffic Light then left on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. From the South: North on Interstate 5, Exit Grand/ Garnet Ave, Straight to 3rd Traffic Light then right on Bunker Hill St. Building directly ahead 3 blks. Park on the street or in the structure just past (south of) Tango del Rey. DO NOT park in the Science Center lot.
More...Channels, Drug Discovery, Featured, SDBN Blog, SDBN Feed, Uncategorized »
#SBS10 Day 3 – Smart mice and blowing House, M.D.’s mind: Drug discovery in epigenetics |  |
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Posted by Dr. Gunn April 14th, 2010 .
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At the afternoon session of the Society for Biomolecular Science in Phoenix, it’s all about epigenetics, the study of heritable changes that don’t involve changes in genetic sequence. Epigenetics explains why identical twins turn out a little different and even clones won’t be exactly identical.
Manfred Jung from Freiberg kicked off the session giving an overview of recent developments in epigenetics and presented what would become the central theme of the afternoon: Here are some diseases which haven’t received the amount of attention they deserve, here are some enzymes and proteins that cause the diseases when there’s something wrong with them, here’s how to target those enzymes. Go get ‘em, boys! (more…)
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