Attending Biotech and Pharma
Speaker Profiles
Dr Penelope Ward, President, Clinical Research + Development, Chief Medical Officer,
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd
Dr Penelope Ward is President, Clinical Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer based in the Oxford UK Center of Excellence in Drug Development of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, a research driven global integrated company headquartered in Mumbai. Dr Ward joined Glenmark from her position as Chief Medical Officer of Novimmune SA, a swiss biotechnology company dedicated to development of treatments for autoimmune disease. During her extensive industry career, during which she occupied positions of increasing seniority at Pharmacia and Upjohn, Hoffman-La Roche and GSK, Dr Ward has been responsible for the clinical development programs of multiple novel therapeutics (including both small molecules and biologicals) and her work has resulted in the approval of 9 novel therapies for the treatment of infectious diseases, osteoporosis and autoimmune disorders in the US, EU and Japan.
Dr Nuala Brennan, VP Clinical Trial,
PanGenetics BV
Nuala leads Clinical Operations at PanGenetics, a biopharmaceutical development company specializing in therapeutic antibodies. Prior to joining PanGenetics she has 17 years experience running international clinical research programmes in both small and large pharmaceutical companies including Cambridge Antibody Technology, Chiroscience, SmithKlineBeecham and Fisons Pharmaceuticals. For the last 10 years she has worked exclusively with outsourced models for clinical development.
Dr Karen Maubach, Franchise Leader, and Group Manager of Prorject Management,
BTG plc
Karen Maubach has more than 15 years of experience in the global drug development from early exploratory to clinical in a variety of therapeutic areas. Karen currently leads the Pain and Inflammation Franchise at BTG International Ltd based in London, UK and also heads their project management function.
She joined BTG in March 2006 with responsibility for developing a portfolio of novel drugs through clinical development in the neurology and oncology areas. Before joining BTG, Karen spent 9 years with Merck based at their Merck Sharp & Dohme site in Harlow, UK directing numerous research programs in the neuroscience therapeutic area. She has a proven track record in the timely and successful delivery of drug candidates and their development. Karen has a degree in Pharmacology (1992) and a PhD in Neuroscience (1995) from the University of Oxford.
BTG is an international specialty pharmaceuticals company that is developing and commercialising products targeting critical care, cancer, neurological and other disorders. The company is also seeking to acquire new products to develop and market to hospital specialists, and is building a sustainable business financed by revenues from sales of its critical care products and from royalties and milestone payments on partnered products.
Dr Tamzin Blagbrough, European Outsourcing Coordinator,
Lilly UK
Tamzin has worked for Lilly for 20 years in a variety of roles, starting in the analytical labs, progressing to be a project manager and most recently as part of the outsourcing group. In this role she is responsible for placing all phase I work outside of the US. In addition she is the relationship manager for the phase I strategic relationship with Covance. She has a degree and PhD in Chemistry.
Dr Anthony Walker, CEO,
Alacrita Consulting
Anthony Walker, PhD leverages 12 years of building and managing a biotechnology company together with over 10 years as a management consultant to the chemical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. His experience includes due diligence, technology/market appraisal, business planning, licensing, raising venture capital finance, and M&A.
Prior to forming Alacrita, Anthony was CEO of Onyvax, a company he co-founded in 1997, raising over £35 million from blue chip life science investors including 3i and SR One. Before that, he spent ten years as a management consultant, specialising in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He consulted to Big Pharma and biotech, and also produced Expert Reports for five IPOs.
Dr John Shillingford, Global Head, Clinical Operations,
Averion International
John Shillingford, PhD is Senior VP in Clinical Operations of Averion International, with responsibility for New Projects initiations in North America and Europe. John is located in Averion’s German office close to Frankfurt. John has had the opportunity to both live and work in a number of European Countries and in the USA. A major focus of the last 10 years has been to successfully commence and manage Operations in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
John has over 30 years of Pharmaceutical and Contract Research industry experience. He has worked in all phases of drug development and has managed clinical research projects in Eastern and Western Europe, and in North America on behalf of clients from Japan, the USA and Europe. Prior to Averion, he has held senior positions in Management, Clinical Operations and Project Management for PRA International and Imform GmbH.
Dr Rob Williams, Head of Non Clinical Ops & Chief Development Scientist,
Cancer Research UK
Dr Rob Williams is Head of Non-Clinical Operations & Chief Development Scientist at Cancer Research UK where he oversees a development portfolio of over 30 novel small molecule and biological agents. Dr Williams is currently also Chairman of the UK Society for Medicines Research. A pharmacologist by training, Dr Williams received his BSc from the University of Birmingham in 1983 and a PhD from the University of Aston in 1986. Dr Williams has worked in drug discovery and development for over 20 years holding pharmaceutical industry positions with Glaxo and Rhone Poulenc Rorer and spending 4 years in the biotechnology sector before joining Cancer Research UK in 2004.
Dr Eric Hurden, Associate Director, Global Clinical Operations, Oncology,
Biogen Idec
Eric is currently responsible for driving the global expansion of oncology trials within Biogen Idec. Eric holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of London. He joined the drug development industry as a CRA for Parke Davis UK in 1981. Since then, Eric has held a number of increasingly global clinical roles within pharma and CROs including Marion Merrell Dow, Barnett International/Parexel, Covance, Icon and Astellas. He has worked with the top pharma companies performing process and change management consulting and training. His roles have included extended periods of work in France, the Netherlands and the USA. For the last 10 years he has focused on oncology drug development, most recently with Cancer Research UK.
Dr Marc Caron, Outsourcing & Project Manager,
Debiopharm
PhD in Biology
Post Docs: 1st: Sports Anti-doping; 2nd: Drug Residues in Food
13 years at Covance Central Laboratory
 10 years in Project Management – Last 3 years as Director of Global Project Management
 3 years as Head of Process Improvement (Six Sigma) and Member of the Global Operational Committee
Since 2007 at Debiopharm Group:
 Project Manager for 2 drugs in Development
 Outsourcing Manager for the corporation: Leader in defining & implementing the outsourcing strategy
Dr Lola Tome, Senior Regulatory Affairs Manager,
Antisoma
Lola Tome is Head of Regulatory Affairs at Antisoma, a biotechnology company specialising in the development of novel drugs for the treatment of cancer. Prior to joining Antisoma, Lola has worked in a number of regulatory affairs roles as a consultant, in pharmaceutical industry and at the Spanish Medicines Agency. In her role she is responsible for the regulatory strategy and overview of regulatory activities of a number of products ranging from small molecules to antibodies.
Dr Andrew Wood, Director,
Idfac Limited
Andrew Wood trained in medicine. In the pharmaceutical industry Andrew has 18 years experience of clinical development and registration of new therapeutics at Eli Lilly & Co. - initially in relation to neurological and psychiatric disorders, and has subsequently managed both clinical and preclinical discovery organisations across multiple therapeutic areas in Europe and in Asia. Latterly he was leader of Lilly’s inlicensing/business development organisation in Europe and has gained experience of evaluating a broad range of drug and technology development projects and of structuring collaborations with external scientists in the biotechnology sector and in academia.
Andrew retired from Eli Lilly in February 2010 and now works as an independent consultant to the pharma and biotech sectors in relation to clinical development and business development projects.
Dr Andrew Baxendale, Development Director,
Fulcrum Pharma
Andy has had a number of discovery and development roles in the pharmaceutical industry, joining the Product Development Consultancy Team of Fulcrum in September 2008. In his role as Development Director, Andy has responsibilities for development planning and leading global multi-disciplinary development projects from candidate selection through proof of concept and full development. With over 20 years experience in pharmaceutical research and development, Andy’s roles and experience span a range of discovery and development phases from candidate selection, through early development (including proof of concept) and full development. Andy’s broad knowledge and understanding of drug development has been gained from development and project leadership roles in GSK, Daiichi Sankyo and UCB.
Dr Sheila Weir, Head, Project Management,
Newron Pharmaceuticals SA
Sheila W. Weir Ph.D has been the Head, of Project Management, Newron Sp A since 2007 overseeing Newron’s CNS drug development.
She received her university education in the UK. For over 22 years, Dr. Weir has worked in international research and development (R&D) departments of major pharmaceutical companies, including Ciba-Geigy (Switzerland) and Sandoz/Novartis (Switzerland/United States). She started her career 1985 as a research scientist and in 1988 she worked as a clinical project manager in international clinical R&D at Sandoz AG. In 1990 she took a corporate role as International Project Manager, overseeing development of CNS products. In 1996, she was the Head of Project Management and a member of the management board at Genetic Therapy Inc. (USA) a Sandoz/Novartis company. In 1998, she was appointed the Global Head of Project and Portfolio Management at Novartis Consumer Health (Switzerland) which included responsibility of both nutritional and over the counter (OTC) product development. She also served on the EMEA Regional Management Team. In 2004, Dr. Weir was the Head of Contract Manufacturing for Novartis Pharmaceuticals AG. In this latter capacity, she was responsible for the management of the global third-party supplier network for Pharmaceutical Operations in collaboration with support functions.
During her tenure in the pharmaceutical industry Dr. Weir has worked in all phases (pre-clinical through to Phase III) of drug development as well as in product commercialization (phase IV) and out/in licensing. Overall, she has had responsibility for the development of numerous products in several therapeutic and category areas. She has been involved in numerous investigational new drug applications, and international new OTC applications/notifications. In addition, she has also contributed to the scientific literature.
Key Sponsors
Gold CRO Sponsors
Silver CRO Sponsor
Exhibition Sponsor
Media Partner
