Recent economic pressures and the harsh realties of the risks of early stage drug development have encouraged and, in many cases, forced teams to become much more capital efficient in recent times.  Many new variants of more capital efficient models for early stage drug development are evolving and have demonstrated success.  Early stage drug development will continue to be risky but the process of generating results is being refined and honed.  Less investment dollars are going towards infrastructure and non-critical expenses.  Outsourcing, virtualization, and early partnering are all providing new opportunities for early stage drug development.

Join us for an interactive discussion with some of the area's leading experts, who will compare and contrast different approaches to early stage drug development.

Moderator:  William D. Kerns DVM, MS, DACVP, President, Aptuit Consulting Inc.

Panel Members:

• Omar Amirana, M.D., Partner, Oxford Bioscience Partners
• D. Davidson Easson Jr., Sc.D., President, Cadrus Therapeutics, Inc.
• Travis Wilson, Esq., Morningside Group and CEO, Stealth Peptides, Inc.
• Dr. Susan Ward, ThoughtLynx

Participant Bios:

William D. Kerns DVM, MS, DACVP, President, Aptuit Consulting Inc.
Dr. Kerns has 30 years of experience in Pharmaceutical Research and Development having held senior executive positions in Preclinical Development at SmithKlineFrench, SmithKlineBeecham and Eisai Pharma during his pharmaceutical career.  He is recognized as an expert in Drug Development and Safety Assessment with focus on mechanisms of drug-induced cardiovascular toxicity.  He has been involved in submitting over 175 INDs and 16 NDAs/MAAs to international authorities and the FDA.  He has authored or co-authored over 100 articles, chapters and abstracts and co-edited a book on cardiovascular toxicology.  He co-chaired an FDA expert committee on biomarkers of drug-induced vascular injury and is currently an advisor to the Critical Path Institute.  Dr Kerns continues to build his consulting practice to deliver drug development services to the biopharmaceutical industry.  The practice is focused on assisting biopharmaceutical companies and investor groups in drug development and regulatory strategy from manufacturing through early Phase 2.

Omar Amirana, M.D., Partner, Oxford Bioscience Partners
Dr. Amirana is a Partner at Oxford Biosciences, focused on healthcare technology investing.  He joined Oxford in 2005 as an Investment Manager with 15 years of industry-related experience in both large and small companies.  He previously served as the Vice President of Business Development at St. Jude Medical focused on electrophysiology, interventional cardiology and peripheral vascular intervention where he was also responsible for a 20 person R&D team.  Prior to joining St. Jude Medical, Dr. Amirana was the CEO of Resolution Medical, a privately held cardiology company in Silicon Valley.  Dr. Amirana has helped raise over $60M in venture financing which resulted in three IPOs: EP Technologies, Cardima, and MedicaLogic/Medscape.  Dr. Amirana was a co-founder of Cardima and served there for seven years as Vice President of Marketing, Business Development and Chief Technology Officer.  He was Vice President of Marketing at MedicaLogic through its IPO which raised $101M and achieved a ~$1.1B market capitalization.  Dr. Amirana has launched cardiovascular products worldwide and holds various patents.  He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and an M.D. from Eastern Virginia Medical School.

D. Davidson Easson Jr., Sc.D., President, Cadrus Therapeutics, Inc.
Dr. Easson is currently President of Cadrus Therapeutics, Inc. a start-up venture developing a novel oral drug delivery technology.  Previously he was VP Manufacturing and Process Development at Epic Therapeutics, Inc., a private drug delivery company which was acquired by Baxter Healthcare Corporation.  Dr. Easson was also General Manager with Collaborative BioAlliance at their Smithfield, RI contract biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility.  Prior to that, Dr. Easson was co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Alpha-Beta Technology Inc., a public company involved in the development and manufacturing of yeast derived biopharmaceuticals.  He has served on the boards of the UMass Memorial Foundation, the Worcester Business Development Corporation and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Bay State Chapter.  He also served as a Lay Review Committee member for JDRF International.  In 1993, Dr. Easson was a finalist for Ernst & Young's New England Region Entrepreneur of the Year Award.  He received the Mary Ann Kugel award from JDRF in 2001.  He also received a 2006 Baxter Outstanding Technical Achievement award. Dr. Easson has a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of South Carolina and a Sc.D. in biochemical engineering from MIT.

Travis Wilson, Esq., Morningside Group and CEO, Stealth Peptides, Inc.
Travis Wilson is a member of the Morningside Group, a private investment group founded by the Chan family of Hong Kong.  Morningside invests in private equity and venture capital opportunities worldwide including established and startup life science companies located throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.  Travis provides operational and management oversight to Morningside's portfolio of companies developing drugs across a broad spectrum of therapeutic focus including oncology, cardiology and critical care.  Travis also regularly performs and manages scientific, regulatory and legal due diligence on life science investment opportunities.  He serves as a director on several boards for both preclinical and clinical stage companies.  Currently, Travis is the CEO of Stealth Peptides, a Morningside portfolio company developing compounds that target the mitochondria to treat ischemia reperfusion injury.  As an intellectual property and transactional lawyer by background, Travis has experience supervising and assessing patent portfolios for investment, mergers and acquisitions, co-development and licensing opportunities.

Susan J. Ward, Ph.D., Executive Advisor to Life Sciences Companies and their Investors
Beginning her career at Sterling Drug in 1982, Dr. Ward was a prominent researcher in the pain field, and led the team that discovered new chemistries and the first known antagonists at cannabinoid receptors.  She was the first woman to head a pharmaceutical research facility in the UK, where she also held global responsibility for CNS drug discovery, and developed Wyeth's founding corporate genome strategy.  From 1996-2000, Dr. Ward led Wyeth's global Project and Portfolio Management functions, establishing one of the first project management capabilities in drug discovery in the industry, and overseeing the development of 30+ new and life cycle extension products, including global approvals for Enbrel, Mylotarg, Sonata, Rapamune and Protonix.  In 2000 Dr. Ward joined Millennium Pharmaceuticals as Sr. VP for Strategy and Productivity, evolving the genomic technology platform to refocus on innovations in drug (vs gene) discovery.  Subsequently, she led the design of Infinity Pharmaceutical's much praised open and integrative work environment, and helped build the company to 100 employees supported by over $80M in series B investment.  Dr. Ward has served as an advisor and/or interim executive for leading Biotechnology and Life Sciences software companies since 2003.  With a focus on strategies to successfully transition new technologies into products and services, her work has fundamental impact at companies - including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (research strategy), Definiens Inc (commercialization strategy), and the Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research (integration of discovery/development platform).