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11/24/24: Xiaorong He on Boehringer Ingelheim’s Investments in AI, Broader Applications in Pharma
At the 2024 BioFuture conference held in October in New York City, GEN sat down with Xiaorong He, PhD, Senior Vice President, Site Head Development U.S. and Head of Global Development Sciences, Boehringer Ingelheim, to discuss her perspective on applications of artificial intelligence in pharma. During the meeting, He participated in a panel that explored some of the evolving uses of AI within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, and the potential impact of the technology on various applications in the space from drug discovery to clinical trials.
During the conversation with GEN, He highlighted several investments that Boehringer Ingelheim has made in AI-based tech. About a year ago, the company announced a multi-target drug discovery collaboration with Ten63 Therapeutics. Ten63’s computational drug discovery engine uses generative AI and physics-based models to find drugs for difficult targets. Also last year, Boehringer announced an agreement with Phenomic AI to find important targets in stroma-rich cancers. Read more
10/31/24: BioFuture 2024: FDA eases the way for cell and gene therapy companies
Cell and gene therapy companies are the beneficiaries of positive changes along the regulatory path that the U.S. FDA is paving for them, according to a panel of executives who spoke at the BioFuture 2024 conference in New York. The agency is trying to set up cell and gene companies for success and that’s a very different agency than what it was years ago, said Paul Bresge, CEO of Ray Therapeutics Inc.
The FDA initiated a call with Ray to determine what data it would consider clinically meaningful, Bresge said, with a tone of slight surprise in his voice. The company is developing optogenetics, an approach that deploys adeno-associated virus gene therapy to deliver a light-sensitive, highly bioengineered protein found in nature to retinal cells. Read more
10/31/24: BioFuture Notebook: Struggling With Innovation, Financing And Reimbursement
Panels at the recent BioFuture conference focused on the next breakthroughs in areas such as oncology and neurodegenerative diseases, continuing challenges to GLP-1 agonists, financing and how use of AI is taking shape.
The BioFuture conference in New York featured panels that got into the nitty-gritty of drug development – from using artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of drug development, to finding investors, and eventual issues with the ability and willingness to pay for them, as is affecting the GLP-1 agonists. Panelists offered a range of viewpoints on these and other hot topics. Read more
10/29/24: BioFuture 2024: Charting the future for GLP-1s
While there is tremendous enthusiasm for GLP-1 drugs for use in obesity, and 80% of the U.S. population is eligible to use the therapies, tremendous obstacles continue to block their access. The blockages include high prices that consumers currently cannot afford coupled with employer health plans that don’t offer the new treatments. A panel discussing the future of GLP-1s at the BioFuture 2024 conference in New York said the next five years will see enormous changes in the way these drugs are prescribed by physicians and used by patients. Read more
10/29/24: PBMs, FTC and IRA: Experts Tackle Pharma’s Tough Acronyms At BioFuture Conference
Some of the industry’s biggest challenges, and potential solutions, were hot topics at the BioFuture conference in New York.
New drug pricing policies implemented as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s actions on mergers and acquisitions, and the thorny role of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the US drug reimbursement system were some of the topics that came up during the BioFuture conference in New York City on 27 October. Read more
09/11/23 Collaboration: The Power of Collective Intelligence
Coordinating all the efforts needed to create the future of healthcare can be as natural as riding a bike.
One of my favorite interactive displays in the San Francisco Exploratorium challenges visitors to press four buttons to simulate the interplay between the main muscle groups needed to push the pedals. It immediately becomes obvious that just pedaling a bike is an impressive feat of coordination, and that doesn’t take into account the effort needed to steer, balance, and react to obstacles. “It’s as easy as riding a bike” turns out to be a great expression for explaining a collaborative process that is both immensely challenging and greatly taken for granted. The development of biotechnology, with all its interdependent steps and stakeholders, certainly fits this description.
Similar to the complex coordination needed to ride a bicycle, every stakeholder in the biotechnology and healthcare ecosystem – investors, entrepreneurs, scientists, physicians, ethicists, lawyers, and elected officials – embodies a unique and integral part of the collaborative process. Read more
09/06/23 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Driving Drug Development from Effective to Remarkable – The BioWorld Insider Podcast
AI will no doubt be a part of the discussion at this year’s BioFuture conference. Artificial intelligence has the potential to radically transform this industry and even reshape how it gets funded.
It could help reduce failure rates, and risk, perhaps even change the financing model, and it could also go beyond drug development into general healthcare. BioWorld recently had a chance to discuss this in greater detail with Scott Penberthy- a member of Google Cloud’s Chief Technology Officer team. Before coming to Google, Scott worked at IBM at the research department in the chairman’s office. He moved on to several web startups, then became managing director in the CEO’s office at PwC. He’s here to talk about not only the future but what’s happening before our very eyes day-to-day.
Take a quick listen to this important discussion! It’s a great preview of the types of important conversations that will take place at BioFuture Oct. 4-6 in NYC. We hope you’ll join us to be part of the conversations that will shape the future of healthcare. Read more
08/30/23 From Cure to Care: Unleashing the Potential of Global Wellcare
The progression of healthcare innovation stands as a testament to human ingenuity. Are we ready to take on the challenge of bringing these technologies to the next level?
Since the time of hunters and gatherers, humans have worked to improve their quality of life by fighting disease, and modern medicine has been designed around this aim. The first institutionalized healthcare facilities were built thousands of years ago, creating dedicated places for providers to heal the sick. The first pharmaceutical medicines were invented 200 years ago, equipping doctors with isolated compounds to treat diseases. The first recombinant DNA technology was pioneered nearly 50 years ago, birthing the entire field of biotechnology to harness the power of biology for developing cures for illnesses believed to be incurable. Read more
08/15/23 Envisioning The Future of Healthcare – The Big4Bio Podcast
Danny Levine, host of The Big4Bio podcast, speaks with Sara Jane Demy, CEO of Demy-Colton, about what makes BioFuture so different from other industry events.
Take a quick listen to this 20 minute discussion about the convergence of information technology and biotechnology and the transformative discussions that will take place at BioFuture Oct. 4-6 in NYC. We hope you’ll join us to be part of the conversations that will shape the future of healthcare. Listen here
07/25/23 Wave of New Technologies: The Iceberg Principle
For every visible technology innovation that could revolutionize our practices, dozens of less conspicuous enablers lie beneath the surface.
Like an iceberg, every breakthrough we notice is built upon an unseen mountain of progress…
Take ChatGPT and other online AI generation platforms: the language learning models that power them aren’t particularly novel, but the user-friendly interface and the variety of plug-ins they integrate with have made these easy-to-access tools some of the most disruptive technologies of the decade. Read more
07/15/23 BioFuture: Event Preview Brochure
INSIDE THE BROCHURE, YOU’LL LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT TO EXPECT AT BIOFUTURE:
• Attendee Profile & Demographics
• Industry Experts Speaking at the Event
• Topics of Discussion
• Companies Attending
• Sponsorship Opportunities
• Benefits for Presenting Companies
• One-to-One Meetings & Networking Opportunities
• Registration & Pricing Details
Learn More About the Event