The Key to Drug Discovery Success






 

Riccardo Isola of Accelera, a sponsor company attending the marcus evans Discovery Summit 2012, on adding value in drug discovery programmes.


Interview with: Riccardo Isola, Chief Executive Officer, Accelera



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


The combination of a highly innovative and well-validated target is the key to project success, says Riccardo Isola, Chief Executive Officer, Accelera. From a sponsor company at the upcoming marcus evans Discovery Summit 2012, Isola offers his insight into drug discovery, and how pharmaceutical and biotech companies can add value, reduce costs and innovate.


How can pharmaceutical companies add value to their R&D programmes? 


The key to value in a pipeline is that it be rich in high-quality, highly innovative programmes. Unfortunately, in an ever more competitive environment, this is no easy matter, especially for companies that do not have the resources to execute powerful in-licensing campaigns. For small-medium companies that rely on in-house products, it is of utmost importance to make firm and well-informed strategic decisions regarding innovative areas of research on which to focus, then to develop highly competitive programmes in those specific fields.
 
How can the overall cost of drug development be reduced?


The best means of reducing overall drug development costs is to start off with targets that are as fully validated as possible from a preclinical point of view, and to envisage development in selected patient subpopulations, if appropriate and feasible. This subsequently facilitates the design of early clinical trials that are able to accurately predict drug activity, minimising the possibility of failure due to inadequate activity at later development stages. This is a major problem today, especially in the cancer field. However, this requires a willingness to kill programmes that do not live up to expectations as early as possible. Therefore, intensive implementation of patient selection, pharmacodynamic and pharmacological biomarkers, and stringent clinical activity criteria are all important factors.


How could potential failures be identified sooner?


The combination of a highly innovative and well-validated target is the key to project success. Beyond this, the ability to select active compounds at early development stages that are optimal in terms of potential ADMET liabilities is what Accelera specialises in.


The best advice I can give is to be stringent and not yield to the temptation to carry forward sub-optimal compounds. Going back to the chemistry bench is almost always the best, if not the easiest, choice!


What are some of the scientific areas or technologies worth following? 


In the drug discovery field, kinase inhibitors will remain an important avenue to further exploit in the next few years. Four anticancer therapies that are kinase inhibitors were approved in 2011, for different cancer indications. Interestingly, this approach is also beginning to be explored in other therapeutic areas, including inflammation/arthritis.


Another therapeutic approach, monoclonal antibody therapy, is still holding up to its promise, and in particular antibody-drug conjugates are currently of much interest, with tens of molecules in clinical development.


Relatively new areas that have yet to be fully exploited include gene silencing technologies (e.g. siRNA, miRNA), which currently need to be optimised as therapeutic agents but that could benefit enormously from recent advances in drug delivery technologies.


What is your outlook for the future?


Pharmacological therapy, especially for but not limited to the field of cancer, is increasingly likely to be based on Patient-Tailored Therapy approaches, i.e. choosing or adjusting the most suitable course of therapy based on the molecular characteristics of the individual patient and of his or her disease. Therefore, increasingly sophisticated yet generally available diagnostic approaches (such as high-coverage DNA sequencing, analysis of circulating tumour cells, and so on) will continue to be developed and implemented at an ever greater pace.


Drug discovery scientists and organisations need to keep fully abreast of technological advances in these fields, judiciously choosing the right implementation policies, working closely with academia and regulatory authorities, to ensure that the development of new therapies and the implementation of appropriate and effective diagnostic approaches can result in maximum patient benefit, as well as optimise development costs.



Contact:
Sarin Kouyoumdjian-Gurunlian
Press Manager
marcus evans, Summits Division
Tel: + 357 22 849 313
Email: press@marcusevanscy.com



About the Discovery Summit 2012


Offering much more than any conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event. The Summit includes presentations on ensuring successful drug discovery, stimulating innovation and creating partnerships.


For more information please send an email to info@marcusevanscy.com or visit the event website at www.discovery-summit.com 


marcus evans group – life sciences / pharma sector portal


The Pharma Network – marcus evans Summits group delivers peer-to-peer information on strategic matters, professional trends and breakthrough innovations.










     


Please note that the Summit is a closed business event and the number of participants strictly limited.


About Accelera


Accelera is a non-clinical CRO that operates as a drug development partner with biotech and pharmaceutical companies worldwide. We know by experience that the success of drug discovery is measured by the quality of the product candidates that are generated. Accelera’s integrated services include Attrition Reducing Technologies (ART) and Toxicology Screening for the selection of high-quality drug candidates.


www.accelera.info


About marcus evans Summits


marcus evans Summits are high level business forums for the world’s leading decision-makers to meet, learn and discuss strategies and solutions. Held at exclusive locations around the world, these events provide attendees with a unique opportunity to individually tailor their schedules of keynote presentations, think tanks, seminars and one-to-one business meetings. For more information, please visit www.marcusevans.com 



All rights reserved. The above content may be republished or reproduced – kindly inform us by sending an email to press@marcusevanscy.com