PharmaTalkRadio

PharmaTalk Radio's Valerie Bowling welcomes guest, Kent Thoelke, EVP and CSO at PRA Health Sciences on his experience in rapidly setting up both therapeutic and vaccine focused programs for COVID-19. More specifically, they discuss lessons learned, what the new normal will look like for clinical trials and serving the needs of thousands of people who are currently in clinical trials. 

Guest Bio:

Kent Thoelke is Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at PRA Health Sciences. Mr. Thoelke provides corporate oversight and strategy for Scientific & Medical Affairs, Pharmacovigilance & Patient Safety, Therapeutic Centers of Excellence, Real World Data, Patient Access & Experience, Digital Health & Virtual Trials, and their integration into operational delivery. 

Information about PRA Health Sciences, visit PRAH.com

Information about upcoming conferences and podcasts on medicine development, visit theconferenceforum.org

In the second episode of a three-part series dedicated to highlighting rare disease, Conference Forum reporter Danny McCarthy sits down with C Frank Bennett, PhD, of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, to discuss Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

Dr Bennett is Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, and one of the founding members of the company. He is responsible for continuing to advance antisense technology and expanding Ionis drug discovery platform. Dr. Bennet is a co-recipient of the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his contributions to the discovery and development of SPINRAZA® (nusinersen). 

Spinal muscular atrophy is a genetic, degenerative neuromuscular disorder characterized by weakness and wasting in muscles used for movement. It is caused by a loss of specialized nerve cells, called motor neurons that control muscle movement. 

Dr Bennett includes two sources of information about Ionis and SMA: Ionispharma.com and Spinraza.com.

In this three-part series dedicated to the physician's perspective on living with a rare disease, Conference Forum reporter Danny McCarthy sits down with Tracy Frech, MD, to discuss Systemic Sclerosis.

Tracy Frech, MD, is a rheumatologist at the University of Utah. At the university, she is the Director of the Systemic Sclerosis (SSc, scleroderma) Clinic at the University of Utah Hospital and the Director of Clinical Trials for the Division of Rheumatology.

In her work, Dr Frech treats patients with, and runs clinical trials on, systemic sclerosis, a complex autoimmune disease characterized by pervasive inflammation and fibrosis, and can lead to progressive vascular and organ damage. 

Dr Frech talks about the disease, current treatment and taking a more holistic approach to treating SSc.

In the interview, Dr Frech references the education resource TotalSSc.com., a new disease education campaign website for healthcare providers focused on the “totality in systemic sclerosis”.

In this podcast moderated by Dr Michael Kalos, Janssen Oncology, you will hear a panel discussion from the 2019 IO Combinations 360° conference. Topic points include:

What are the new opportunities in cell therapy for combinations?What the challenges are going to be with the microenvironment?What is being done to engineer cell therapy?How do you develop CARs and TCRs that deliver payloads?How do you manufacture all of this beyond mouse models to

figure out how to effectively do this in patients?How do you actually go about designing trials and testing

hypothesis?How do you create the regulatory framework to do these types

of studies?How do you engage with regulatory agencies to get these things

moving?

Panelists include:

Sharon Benzeno, PhD, MBA, Adaptive BiotechnologiesChaohong Fan, MD, PhD, FDABruce Levine, PhD, University of PennsylvaniaMark Stewart, PhD, Friends of Cancer ResearchBahram Valamehr, PhD, Fate Therapeutics

To learn more about the upcoming IO Combinations 360° conference please visit, www.iocombinations360.com

Anti-PD-1 therapy has transformed cancer care but most patients do not respond. It is increasingly clear that there will be no single biomarker of response to a PD-1, and that a multi-omic approach will be required. In this podcast, first recorded at the 4th annual IO Combinations 360° conference, Dr Danny Wells, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy will address:

Orthogonality and correlation of response biomarkers across histologiesIntegration of multi-omic data sets for mechanistic insights into tumor immunobiologyThe translational approaches to PD1 resistance program at the Parker Institute

To learn more about the upcoming IO Combinations 360° conference please visit, www.iocombinations360.com

In this podcast, first recorded at the 4th annual IO Combinations 360° conference, Dr Darren Hodgson, AstraZeneca presented updates on PARP inhibition. Topics include:

Strategies to target homologous recombination repair deficiencyMonotherapy indications and current development landscapeScientific hypotheses being explored in olaparib combinations

To learn more about the upcoming IO Combinations 360° conference please visit, www.iocombinations360.com

First recorded at the 4th annual IO Combinations 360° conference, this talk provided by Dr Kenneth Hance, GSK addresses agonistic strategies, T and NK cell redirection and the use of genetic/phenotypic assocations to identify novel target space in IO.

To learn more about the upcoming IO Combinations 360° conference please visit, www.iocombinations360.com

In this podcast, first recorded at the 4th annual IO Combinations 360° conference, Dr Laureen Ojalvo, EMD Serono provides an overview of the moleculte Bintrafusp alfa/M7824. This molecule is an innovative, first-in-class bifunctional fusion protein composed of an anti-PD-L1 mAb fused with 2 extracellular domains of TGF-βRII (a TGF-β “trap”). The mechanism of action, pre-clinical and phase 1 studies of this molecule is discussed as well as an overview of the next wave of clinical development.

To learn more about the upcoming IO Combinations 360° conference please visit, www.iocombinations360.com

In this podcast, first recorded at the 4th annual IO Combinations 360° conference, Dr Willem Overwijk, Nektar Therapeutics discusses Bempegaldesleukin (NKTR-214): harnessing the IL-2 pathway in combination immunotherapies. Topics include:

Bempegaldesleukin: Structure and function of an engineered IL-2 cytokine prodrug providing sustained IL-2Rβγ-biased signalingPreclinical PK, PD, MOA and combination with PD-1 checkpoint inhibitionClinical PK, PD, clinical response data and biomarkers in patients with melanoma and bladder cancerCombinations under investigation

To learn more about the upcoming IO Combinations 360° conference please visit, www.iocombinations360.com

First recorded at the fourth annual IO Combinations 360° conference, this panel moderated by Dr Daniel Chen, IGM Biosciences discusses advancing bispecifics for combination immunotherapy. This discussion covers the following topics:

What are the types of bispecifics and what are the limitations?What are the toxicity related side effects?What are teh next steps/levels for bispecifics?What does the future hold for bispecifics?

Panelists include:

Julie Bailis, PhD, AmgenRajkumar Ganesan, PhD, Janssen Research & DevelopmentDavid Schaer, PhD, Pfizer

To learn more about the 5th annual IO Combinations 360° conference please visit www.iocombinations360.com