May 4-8: CPHI Webinar Series - Pharma Action Against COVID-19

The pharmaceutical events world doesn't have to stop for coronavirus. Join us for expert insight and analysis on how pharma is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in several key areas.

As the world adapts to a new way of working, we're excited to bring you a new way of keeping up to date with the latest developments in pharma.

The next best thing to being on the show floor at one of our events, this upcoming May 4-8, CPHI North America is exclusively launching five days of content-rich webinars - kicking off the CPHI Webinar Series.

Completely free to attend, and exclusively delivered to your home office, our series of five one-hour webinars will offer a week’s supply of quality content from industry leaders, focusing on important, cutting-edge topics such as the industry’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of the crisis on global supply chains, drug manufacturing, discovery and development.

Register for webinars here

Webinar 1: Response of Pharma to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Date: Monday, May 04, 2020

Time: 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Although more and more countries are implementing lockdown measures to mitigate against the COVID-19 pandemic, the global pharmaceutical supply chain remains in motion, delivering essential medicines to all regions of the globe.

But the industry’s response is far from limited to manufacturing and distribution of treatments in an extremely challenging environment. Pharmaceutical companies are working around the clock to develop and bring to market an array of potential vaccines and therapies to fight the coronavirus, and the expected timeline for delivery of these drugs have come into sharp focus.

In our first webinar, we’ll be hearing views and insights from senior consultants at Informa Pharma Intelligence, Duncan Emerton and Daniel Chancellor, alongside Pfizer CentreOne's Contract Manufacturing Business Leader, Tom Wilson on Pharma's ongoing response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The discussion will focus on both the short- and long-term impact on and implications for the industry as it stands at the vanguard of fighting this deadly virus and will shed light on different drug development approaches, from vaccine development to repurposing existing therapies.

Webinar 2: Drug Repurposing Trends – a CDMO perspective

Date: Tuesday, May 05, 2020

Time: 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Pharmaceutical companies are always looking at new ways to extract additional value from existing off-patent medicines, particularly because the high attrition rate of new chemical entities and de novo drugs in clinical phases has resulted in a rise in R&D cost pressures.

Drug repurposing - an approach to drug design and development in which known clinical candidates or commercially approved molecules are evaluated for new targets and indications -- has gained traction over the last decade.

One obvious advantage of this strategy is that the safety of existing therapies is already likely to be established in certain dosages and in some delivery routes. Another is that the route to a new indication has a head-start in that it is built on previous knowledge, hence drug development timelines are likely to be considerably shortened.

In this webinar, we’ll be hearing from Anil Kane, Executive Director, Global Head of Technical & Scientific Affairs at Patheon, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific for a CDMO’s perspective on the latest trends on the low-risk, cost effective drug repurposing strategy to redefine off-patent generics, clinical, shelved drugs or combination drugs to treat different indications and bring them faster to market.

Webinar 3: Managing the Changing Landscape: Building a Flexible, Challenge Resistant and Patient-Centric Clinical Supply Chain

Date: Wednesday, May 06, 2020

Time: 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads around the world, global focus has so far been mainly on the immediate impact to public health. However, it has become apparent that COVID-19 has significant potential to disrupt pharmaceutical supply chains.

With the number of confirmed new cases continuing to rise, ongoing restrictions may not only limit the production of essential medications but could also severely affect the business of companies engaged in multifarious drug manufacturing activities.

By prompting discussion around how best to manage supply chains within a globally interconnected system, COVID-19 may pave the way to future-proofing pharmaceutical development and manufacture.

During this, the third in our webinar series, we will hear from Nicole Gray and Stephen Flaherty, Strategic Supply Solutions at Catalent Pharma Solutions who will explore strategies such as alternative supply models to improve supply chain efficiency, reduce risk and respond to local, regional and global challenges during this unprecedented global crisis.

Webinar 4: COVID-19: Impact on Cell and Gene Manufacturing

Date: Thursday, May 07, 2020

Time: 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Cell and gene therapy represent one of the most enterprising and revolutionary areas of innovative drug development, and some would say this fast-growing sector could define pharma’s long-term future success.

The rate of new drug approvals, particularly in gene therapy, to treat a wide range of indications is expected to increase exponentially in the years ahead. However, factors such as diminutive patient populations, complex manufacturing processes, and the difficulties of recruiting and training specialized expertise in a new field, all pose risks and challenges.

Throwing the impact of coronavirus into the mix brings up yet more questions. How will development and manufacturing of cell and gene therapies be affected as a result of this hugely disruptive pandemic, and what approaches to mitigating the impact of COVID-19 are in the pipeline?

And of course, there are opportunities as well; there are several experimental cell and gene therapies in development to treat patients with COVID-19.

In this webinar, Ly Nguyen-Jatkoe, Global Director of Content at Informa Pharma Intelligence, Dr. Yuyuan Dai, Assistant Professor at Model Animal Research Center of Nanjing University and Tiffany Tao, Project Manager at GenScript Probio will provide an overview of key trends and pipeline developments in cell and gene therapy and how the sector is responding to the coronavirus shock.

Webinar 5: Impact of COVID-19: AI and Machine Learning Solutions

Date: Friday, May 08, 2020

Time: 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Artificial intelligence’s potential for transformational impact is huge all along the pharmaceutical product lifecycle; AI machine learning algorithms can enhance and speed up manufacturing processes by increasing efficiencies and reducing waste. In the drug discovery process, AI is also being used in drug targeting and biomarker identification and predicting success rate probabilities.

As pharma companies move a swathe of experimental vaccines and therapies to fight COVID-19 into clinical trials, the ability of AI to effectively mine large volumes of clinical data could make it the ideal tool to speed up drug development.

AI could also be effective in providing impetus to an industry-wide rapid response to the virus – for example, it could help numerous pharma companies mobilise to share their data quickly and efficiently during the crisis.

Rounding off our series of webinars, Dr. Yugal Sharma, Senior Director at CAS and Aurelio Arias, Engagement Manager, European Thought Leadership at IQVIA join forces to deliver the analysts’ view on how to optimise artificial intelligence and machine learning for predictive analytics, clinical trials and drug discovery.

Sign up now for webinar week.