Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
The Boston Cancer Summit is loaded with a stellar lineup of speakers on Apr. 16.
Same deal with the San Francisco Cancer Summit on Apr. 18.
I’m excited to announce the agendas for these special idea-and-networking forums. Hal Barron of GSK, David Schenkein of GV, Cindy Perettie of Foundation Medicine, and Ira Mellman of Genentech are a few of the outstanding speakers.
All proceeds — from tickets and sponsorships — will go directly to support cancer research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, a world leader. These Cancer Summits are part of the Kilimanjaro Climb to Fight Cancer. This is a philanthropic campaign mobilizing biotech executives and investors from around the country to raise $1 million for cancer research.
When you buy a ticket, you will be getting a superb learning opportunity, a rare networking opportunity, and an opportunity to support more terrific cancer biology to come at Fred Hutch.
Please take a look at the agendas below.
Thanks for your support of cancer research.
The Boston Cancer Summit, Apr. 16
Cancer R&D has never been more promising. Yet pricing and access to this new world of cancer therapy remains thorny. These issues have to be resolved if society is going to reap the benefits of this work. Come hear from some of the leading scientists, entrepreneurs, and investors about how they are thinking about the future. All ticket proceeds go to support basic science research at Fred Hutch.
REGISTER NOW: 1-6 pm, Apr. 16, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, 121 Seaport Blvd, Boston
AGENDA
1 pm Registration
1:30 pm Welcome Remarks. Alexion’s Deaidra Smith & Luke Timmerman
1:35 pm Why I’m Doing Kilimanjaro Climb to Fight Cancer (60 seconds each)
1:40 pm New Ideas for Cancer Treatment (10 minute slide presentations)
2:50 pm Cancer Investment Landscape. Separating the Hype from the Reality
3:20 pm BREAK
3:40 pm Where to Focus the Energy? A View From Pharma
4 pm How to Make It Easier for Patients to Get Access to New Therapies?
4:30 pm What’s a Fair Way to Pay for All This?
5 pm Closing Conversation on the Future for Cancer Care
5:30 pm A Word on the Kilimanjaro Climb to Fight Cancer.
5:35 pm NETWORKING
6 pm END
Buy Tickets for Boston Cancer Summit
The San Francisco Cancer Summit, Apr. 18
Cancer R&D has never been more promising. Yet pricing and access to this new world of cancer therapy remains thorny. These issues have to be resolved if society is going to reap the benefits of this work. Come hear from some of the leading scientists, entrepreneurs, and investors about how they are thinking about the future. All ticket proceeds go to support basic science research at Fred Hutch.
REGISTER NOW: 1-6 pm, Apr. 18, Biocom Bay Area, 1 Tower Place, South San Francisco
AGENDA
1 pm Registration
1:30 pm Welcome. JLABS’ Lesley Stolz & Luke Timmerman
1:35 pm Why I’m Doing Kilimanjaro Climb to Fight Cancer (60 seconds each)
1:40 pm Why Genentech is Betting Big on Personalized T-cell therapies
2:00 pm New Ideas for Cancer (10 minutes each)
3:10 pm The Future of Cancer Immunotherapy. T-cells, bispecifics, combo targeted therapies, all of the above?
3:30 pm BREAK
3:50 pm Beyond the Science: Regulatory, Commercial and Data Transformations Enabling the Cancer Revolution
4:30 pm What Will it Take for Molecular Diagnostics Reach Their Potential?
5 pm Closing Conversation on the Future for Cancer Care
5:30 pm A Word on the Kilimanjaro Climb to Fight Cancer.
5:35 pm NETWORKING
6 pm END
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
We live in a time of tremendous possibility for cancer R&D.
Checkpoint inhibitors, cell therapies, molecular diagnostics that catch cancer early and can guide effective custom treatment – these fields are brimming with progress. All were considered speculative at best a decade ago. The science has never been more promising. Yet pricing and access to this new world of cancer therapy remains thorny. These issues have to be resolved if society is going to reap the benefits of this work.
Come to a Cancer Summit event near you this spring to hear from leading scientists, entrepreneurs, and investors about how they are thinking about the future.
All ticket proceeds go to the Kilimanjaro Climb to Fight Cancer, a philanthropic campaign to support basic cancer research at Fred Hutch.
See the outstanding speakers for each event:
Boston Cancer Summit confirmed speakers:
SAVE THE DATE: 1-6 pm, April 16, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, 121 Seaport Blvd., Boston
BUY TICKETS HERE
GET TICKETS FOR THE BOSTON CANCER SUMMIT HERE
NOTE: Last year’s events sold out in advance. Buy your tickets early to reserve a seat.
San Francisco Cancer Summit confirmed Speakers:
SAVE THE DATE: 1-6 pm, April 18, Biocom Bay Area, 1 Tower Place, South San Francisco
GET TICKETS FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO CANCER SUMMIT HERE
NOTE: Last year’s events sold out in advance. Buy your tickets early to reserve a seat.
Seattle Cancer Summit confirmed speakers:
SAVE THE DATE: 1-5:30 pm, May 10, Fred Hutch, Pelton Auditorium, Seattle
GET TICKETS FOR THE SEATTLE CANCER SUMMIT HERE
NOTE: Last year’s events sold out in advance. Buy your tickets early to reserve a seat.
Bonnie Anderson is today’s guest on The Long Run.
Bonnie Anderson, CEO, Veracyte
Bonnie is the CEO of Veracyte. It’s a genomic diagnostics company in South San Francisco. The company markets a line of tests for thyroid cancer, lung cancer, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Veracyte got started in 2008. Bonnie, as co-founder and CEO, was recruited by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and a couple other venture firms. The VCs were trying to ride the wave of interest in genomic diagnostics, and wanted to know if a business could be built with unique information from gene expression signatures to guide cancer treatment.
The scientific answers didn’t take long to get. Persuading the medical community and the payer community of the value in the information, and getting them to pay for it? That took a lot longer. This is a familiar story for those who follow genomic diagnostics or precision medicine.
Without a lot of notice, Veracyte has made a lot of progress over the last decade. Revenues were up 34 percent in the third quarter. Test volume climbed 23 percent. The company is getting precariously close to break-even. With three marketed tests gaining adoption from physicians and payers, its market valuation up near a 52-week high, with a respectable $720 million valuation the day of this recording.
Bonnie came to entrepreneurship, and Veracyte, after “retiring” from Beckman Coulter. She learned a lot there about how technologies enable new kinds of biological and medical questions to be asked and answered. As a businessperson, she’s also learned the value of perseverance in getting over the many, many obstacles that make it so difficult to get rewarded for creating new diagnostic tests.
I think listeners will appreciate the perseverance you’ll hear in her voice.
Now, join me and Bonnie Anderson for The Long Run.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Karen Akinsanya.
Karen Akinsanya, chief biomedical scientist, Schrodinger
Karen is the chief biomedical scientist at Schrodinger. The New York-based company is a leader in computational chemistry for drug discovery. The company is privately held, and not a household name. But some wealthy and powerful people know it well. Schrodinger counts Bill Gates and David E. Shaw, the hedge fund billionaire, among its major shareholders. Nimbus Therapeutics and Morphic Therapeutic are a couple of young companies that have made strides with its computer modeling to develop new drugs.
Karen came to Schrodinger in 2018 from Big Pharma – Merck, to be specific. She received her PhD in endocrine physiology at Imperial College London. She worked her way from the lab bench to many different aspects of the pharmaceutical business. She was going places at Merck. But as she puts it, she likes new challenges. Karen is focused now on what Schrodinger can enable – how it can put a dent in the industry’s stubborn problem – the lack of drug R&D productivity.
Karen is a native of the UK, an immigrant, a Mom, and someone who devotes considerable time and energy to youth science education. She recognizes the importance of role models who can encourage young people to go down paths they might not have known existed. I wish I had asked her more about that work, but it was good to at least hear her philosophy on why she makes time for science education volunteer work. It comes up toward the end of the conversation.
Now, join me and Karen Akinsanya for The Long Run.
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $169 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more.
