By Michael Quigley, VP of Investor Research, LSN
To reduce the massive costs associated with getting a new drug approved, many startups, large pharma companies, venture funds, and others are looking to big data for a solution. These firms are researching, partnering, and investing into machine learning and artificial intelligence systems that scour through massive drug and target libraries to more quickly identify potential candidates than a team of researchers could. These technologies are leveraging all kinds of scientific and medical data including chemical, biologic, genomic and clinical datasets to best identify candidates. Companies are touting their tech promises “years” of savings and lower failure rates in research that can now be done through advanced algorithms. This may seem like quite the promise, but if you look at the number and size of deals in the space just in the past year, it’s clear that big players are listening (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
At RESI Boston this September 26th we are bringing together a panel of 5 experts in this space to discuss their thoughts on the challenges and opportunities that the use of Big Data in Drug Discovery currently faces. These speakers include a promising company with an emerging drug discovery technology, a massive CRO, and three venture funds, all actively working in this space. Look below to see the speakers for yourself. This is another cutting-edge session you won’t want to miss!
- Richard Soll, Senior Vice President, Research Service Division, WuXi AppTec (moderator)
- Gini Deshpande, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, NuMedii, Inc.
- Millie Liu, Founding Partner, Managing Director, Procyon Ventures
- Dylan Morris, Partner, CRV
- Annie Hazlehurst, Founder, Faridan
- http://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/gsk-taps-baltimore-s-insilico-for-ai-based-drug-discovery
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-astrazeneca-ai-berg/astrazeneca-taps-ai-for-drug-discovery-in-deal-with-berg-idUSKCN1B81G1
- http://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1254
- http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wuxi-nextcode-ai-points-to-new-therapeutic-approaches-to-cardiovascular-disease-and-cancer-in-yale-nature-study-300457412.html
- http://www.wired.co.uk/article/benevolent-ai-london-unicorn-pharma-startup
- http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/numedii-inc-announces-new-partnership-to-discover-and-advance-new-treatments-for-idiopathic-pulmonary-fibrosis-300437651.html
Congratulations on a great RESI meeting in San Diego last week. I have been attending biomedical conferences for longer than I’d like to admit – ABC, ACA, ACOG, ASA, ASCO, BIO, DMD, H&Q, JPM, MnM, PhRMA, and many others, some whose acronyms are slowly being lost to history.
Congratulations on running yet another successful RESI conference! I have attended several over the past 3 years and they just keep getting better. The partnering system makes it easy to identify leads and I always have a packed meeting schedule with potential investors and partners that I could not have otherwise found through the usual channels. While I did not see immediate success, you and I both know this is, in part, a numbers game and persistence pays. It has taken a lot of work, but this past March I closed with one investor group and in July I will close with another group that has committed to invest. From the recent San Diego conference, I have several new high-quality investor leads and partnering opportunities to follow-up on in the coming weeks. Given the enthusiastic response I received to Curtana’s story, I anticipate that we will continue to benefit from the relationships we have made at the RESI conferences.
Attending numerous RESI from a few years back, I can say that the events are getting increasingly better and a must go to event to meet quality companies. Attendees from the investor side has also been increasing in quantity and quality, almost feeling like a 1:1 attendee ratio. The partnering system is intuitive to use and makes identifying promising companies to meet quite easy. From the event I have met many new business relationships that I expect will flourish in not only in the business setting but also as friends. Most importantly the follow-up rate from meetings held at RESI is also quite high, proving to me that the quality and dedication of these companies are certainly a par above. The RESI team has always been helpful in addressing any concerns and helping build new leads. I am certain that we will be attending future RESI events and look forward to seeing RESI flourish. Congrats to the RESI team on making another great event!
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