A Blueprint For Drug/Diagnostic Co-development
Washington, DC, September 30, 2014 – Today, Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) and Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc/Alexandria Venture Investments (NYSE:ARE) will host the 3rd Annual Blueprint for Drug/Diagnostic Co-development forum. This annual conference brings together researchers, sponsors, advocates, policy-makers and regulators to develop consensus-driven solutions to address the challenges and opportunities in the co-development of drugs and diagnostics. This year’s forum will focus on the development and use of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) platforms as companion diagnostics.
“Our partnership with Alexandria, now in its third year, has sparked significant scientific and policy initiatives,” said Ellen Sigal, Chair and Founder of Friends of Cancer Research. “The ability to understand a patient’s unique genetic characteristics through next-generation sequencing is driving precision medicine, and will be vital to making real progress to treat serious disease and illness.”
“We gather today at a pivotal moment in cancer research and development,” said Joel Marcus, Chairman, CEO, and Founder of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., the largest and leading REIT uniquely focused on Class A collaborative science and technology campuses strategically located in premier coastal urban innovation markets including Greater Boston, San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, Seattle and New York City. “It our collective mission to accelerate the translation of cancer diagnostics and therapies from bench to bedside, speeding the delivery of cutting-edge treatments to patients who need them most and reducing the economic burden of cancer on society.”
The first panel will address the recent progress of NGS-based cancer diagnostics and explore strategies to ensure that NGS panels can be developed, regulated, and implemented efficiently. Panelists will discuss a white paper being released at the conference today, written by a multi-stakeholder working group on opportunities to optimize NGS development and implementation. Panelists include: Karen Gutekunst, Illumina; Roman Yelensky, Foundation Medicine; Mickey Williams, National Cancer Institute, Omar Perez, Pfizer; Elias Ketchum, Roche Sequencing; Elizabeth Mansfield, US Food and Drug Administration. The panel will be moderated by Mya Thomae from Myraqa/Illumina.
The second panel will discuss the current scientific and policy landscape around the use of NGS in clinical care, and explore the key roles that academic clinicians, private-sector industry, federal regulators, and insurance provider and payer groups each need to play to truly harness the opportunity these tools present in rapidly advancing how we diagnose and treat patients with serious illness and disease. Panelists include: Keith Flaherty, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center; Steven Averbuch, Bristol-Myers Squibb; Bryan Loy, Humana; Jeff Shuren, US Food and Drug Administration; Janet Woodcock; US Food and Drug Administration. The panel will be moderated by Ramsey Baghdadi, The RPM Report.
The report released today, can be downloaded HERE
About Friends of Cancer Research
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) is our country’s leading voice in advocating for policies and solutions that will get treatments to patients in the safest and quickest way possible. As a think tank and an advocacy organization based in Washington, DC, Friends develops groundbreaking partnerships and creates a more open dialogue among both public and private sectors and tears down the barriers that stand in the way of conquering cancer. Working with federal health agencies, congressional leadership, academic research centers, and private sector industry, Friends creates innovative, educational, policy, and scientific approaches to improve health outcomes and cancer care. For more information please visit www.focr.org and follow us on twitter @CancerResrch.
About Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc./Alexandria Venture Investments
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE:ARE) is the largest and leading REIT uniquely focused on collaborative science and technology campuses in key urban innovation clusters including Greater Boston, San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Research Triangle Park, and Maryland. Alexandria pioneered this niche in 1994 and has since established a dominant market presence in AAA locations with a total market capitalization of approximately $9.3 billion as of June 30, 2014. Alexandria is known for its high-quality and diverse client tenant base and has a longstanding and proven track record of developing Class A assets that provide its client tenants with highly collaborative, 24/7, live/work/play ecosystems, as well as the critical ability to successfully recruit and retain best-in-class talent and enhance productivity. As a partner to the broad and diverse life science and technology community, Alexandria plays a critical role in fostering collaboration and innovation through its best-in-class life science real estate, thought leadership programming, and strategic venture investments.
Since 1996, Alexandria Venture Investments has been supporting innovation and entrepreneurship by investing significant growth capital in cutting-edge biopharmaceuticals, technology platforms, diagnostics, research tools, medical devices, digital health, industrial biotechnology, and agricultural technologies. With substantial capital under management in direct, equity and venture debt investments and limited partnership commitments, Alexandria leverages its deep industry knowledge, and world-class global network to drive advancements in technology and therapeutic discovery. For additional information, please visit www.are.com.
