Event Overview

What is the AI & Blockchain Applications for Pharma R&D Workshop?

The critical challenges of R&D have pushed pharma companies to investigate new ways of improving innovation including current developing technologies like AI & Blockchain. The “AI & Blockchain Applications for Pharma R&D” Workshop is a unique opportunity for senior executives of the pharma R&D and IT fields to meet leading, global AI and Blockchain experts and understand the emerging opportunity with these technologies to dramatically improve R&D efficiency and achieve significant cost-savings. Since implementing AI & Blockchain, however, involves a significant investment that requires informed thinking and professional advice, decision-makers need to understand the actual state and relevancy of these technologies today for their companies. Firstly, machine learning and deep learning have made a tremendous impact on speeding-up and transforming data analysis, learning, and prediction. Recognizing AI’s revolutionary advancement in data analysis is key for identifying its real cost-effectiveness for R&D. Secondly, industry executives also need to learn about the recent rise of blockchain as an increasingly important platform for sharing data at the highest level of security.

In this workshop, decision-makers will deepen their ability to effectively implement both AI & Blockchain in R&D, by learning from real use-cases. By bringing together some of the world’s experts on AI & Blockchain in pharma R&D, senior executives will have the opportunity to tap into exclusive insights and know-how, in terms of the most groundbreaking technological solutions to the R&D problem. Every participant can expect to come out knowing the fundamentals of AI and Blockchain technologies as well as gaining hands-on experience in what seems to be the future of the life science industry.

Session Format:

The 2-day course will be run as a series of 3 half-day workshops and 4 presentations, led by experienced pharma industry experts of AI and Blockchain. The concept is to give senior executives responsible for R&D and IT strategies the highest level of understanding about AI and Blockchain as transformative technologies for pharma innovation. All training will be done in 50% presentation-style and 50% interactive sessions (real-world scenarios).

Speakers List

Industry Experts

Director,Strategy- World Wide Research and Development
Pfizer, USA

Global Head Technology, Architecture, Digital Drug Development
Novartis, Switzerland

Global Lead EWS Service Operations & Engineering
Novartis, Switzerland

Chief Scientific Officer
Project Shivom, UK

Workshop Leaders

Co-founder, Insilico Medicine
CSO, The Biogerontology Research Foundation, USA

Head of Business Development
Qadre, UK

Business and Legal Associate
Qadre, UK

Genomics Data Engineer
Databricks, USA

Event Structure

Event Program

Registration & Coffee
08.30

INDUSTRY EXPERT OPENING REMARK

Moving the needle on R&D Productivity with AI
08.50

 There are multiple levers available to raise the ROI for R&D in therapeutics

 

  • For instance, AI can be used to improve the quality and number of drug targets
  • It can be used to improve the potency and efficacy of therapeutics
  • It can be used to augment how we make decisions on portfolios, technology or  indications
  • Like many pharmaceutical companies, we have a keen interest in exploring and applying this technology to accelerate and improve how we develop new life impacting therapies.   

Director,Strategy- World Wide Research and Development
Pfizer, USA

Artificial Intelligence for Drug Discovery

Day 1 - AM - 30th May, 2018
Workshop 1
09.30

Artificial intelligence systems are expected to transform industries, where large amounts of data are available for training, and the pharmaceutical industry is one of the few industries, where multi-modal data is abundant. The impact of the recent advances in AI on the pharmaceutical industry is expected to be immense at every level from lead generation to clinical trials management and to marketing.

This half- day workshop will help bridge this gap at the executive level starting from the vocabulary and anthe overview of the data requirements to the understanding of the near-term hardware roadmaps covering GPU and other emerging technologies.

Objectives of the workshop:

  • Provide an umbrella view of the current state and directions in deep learning.
  • Introduce the industry executives to deep learning and the basic terminology.
  • Present the recent trends in deep reinforcement learning and generative models.
  • Big picture of the business areas within the pharmaceutical companies, where deep learning technologies may have transformative effects.
  • Provide the use cases of AI in drug discovery, clinical trials management and...
  • Executive-level introduction to the “who is who” in deep learning and artificial intelligence.
  • Provide an overview of the competitive landscape in artificial intelligence for drug discovery.

Benefits of the workshop:

  • Learn to speak the same language with the leaders of AI-powered industries.
  • Effectively integrate AI into every part of the organization.
  • Understand the hardware and data ecosystem for successful applications of AI.
  • Learn about the “hot areas” in AI.

Co-founder, Insilico Medicine
CSO, The Biogerontology Research Foundation, USA

Luncheon Break
12.45

Applications of Cloud-Optimized Machine Learning in R&D

Day 1 - PM - 30th May, 2018
Workshop 2 - Extracting insight from genomics data using Apache Spark and Databricks
13.45

Attendees will learn how to:

  • Use Apache Spark to run queries in parallel on the cloud using the Databricks Unified Analytics Platform
  • Interactively and programmatically query large genomics datasets using the ADAM and Hail libraries
  • Use Apache Spark to parallelize existing bioinformatics pipelines
  • Develop machine learning pipelines that run on large genomics datasets at human-in-the-loop latencies
  • Integrate genomics data with clinical and imaging datasets to identify genotype/phenotype links

Genomics Data Engineer
Databricks, USA

End of Day One
17.15

19.30 - Networking dinner and social programme

Day 2 - 31st May

Registration & Coffee
08.30

INDUSTRY EXPERT OPENING REMARK

Blockchain-enabled healthcare – pharma industry perspective
08.50
  • Opportunity for public-private collaborative research
  • Specific challenges to be addressed
  • Scope and expected key deliverables
  • Expected impact

Global Head Technology, Architecture, Digital Drug Development
Novartis, Switzerland

Global Lead EWS Service Operations & Engineering
Novartis, Switzerland

Strategic considerations for Blockchain in Pharma R&D

Day 2 - AM - 31st May, 2018
Blockchain for translational research, precision medicine, and drug discovery
09.30

With the costs of pharmaceutical development skyrocketing, companies are looking for new ways to innovate, obtain insights, and cut R&D costs. The use of biomarkers can dramatically improve success rates for drug development, and genomics and multi-omics data are the next steps in precision medicine and effective drug discovery. However, current datasets are often lacking in information and may be inaccessible, numerous gaps exist that need to be filled, and this information needs to be transformed into formats that are useful for pharma companies. Work needs to be done to obtain the right genomic data, efficiently combine this data with phenotypic and peripheral health data, and properly analysing it to deliver value. Blockchain technology is a tool that can be used to effectively manage patient data, including genomic sequences, such that data siloes can be broken, interoperability and collaboration can be increased, and novel insights can be delivered to provide effective solutions. Here use cases will be introduced for the implementation of blockchain in a precision medicine ecosystem, and describe how both pharma and patients can benefit from gaining access to such data.   

Chief Scientific Officer
Project Shivom, UK

Networking break
10.15
Panel Discussion: Future considerations for blockchain in healthcare and Pharma R&D
10.45
  • What are the areas where blockchain can help to optimize pharma R&D and where it can’t, separating hype from reality?
  • Blockchain vs GDPR, how can distributed databases enable compliant patient and health data sharing?
  • How can we change the mindset of pharma companies to understand the positive impact which blockchain promises?
  • Is blockchain an effective solution for incentivizing patients to take care of their own health?
  • Recording data transactions is one of the greatest benefits of blockchain for healthcare, how can pharma leverage such records of data to improve the R&D process?

Co-founder, Insilico Medicine
CSO, The Biogerontology Research Foundation, USA

Global Head Technology, Architecture, Digital Drug Development
Novartis, Switzerland

Global Lead EWS Service Operations & Engineering
Novartis, Switzerland

Chief Scientific Officer
Project Shivom, UK

Luncheon Break
12.30

Designing blockchain-based platforms for Pharma R&D

Day 2 - PM - 31st May, 2018
Workshop 3
13.30

The next step for learning about blockchain is to understand how to budget, design, and implement a blockchain-powered platform into the R&D process. In this half-day workshop, we will investigate the components of blockchain structured as a secure database and network. After identifying the specific needs of an organization, we will explore the technological requirements and skillsets to choose and implement an appropriate blockchain platform. For example, what kind of nodes, security, and access mechanisms need to be in place? Finally, we will explore use cases of blockchain as a viable and secure choice for pharmaceutical companies.

Objectives of the workshop:

  • Dispelling the myths about blockchain vs. cryptocurrency.
  • Why do we need blockchain and why now?
  • Four components of blockchain: Cryptography, Public Keys, Peer-to-peer networks, Databases.
  • Bringing it all together: Distributed computing to enable trust in the 21st Century.
  • Are there areas within your organization ready to be transformed?
  • Requirement of blockchain within use cases (political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal, environmental analysis).
  • Implementation decisions for blockchain projects.
  • Making blockchain tangible: Use Cases
  • Humanitarian Aid: Transferring funds internationally in a secure and transparent environment 
  • Pharmaceutical: Supply Chain Tracking
  • Pharmaceutical: Clinical Trials
  • Pharmaceutical: Electronic Health Records

Benefits of the workshop:

  • Interactive workshop designed to learn a new skill.
  • Learn how to design, create, and implement blockchain projects.
  • Apply blockchain to health care data management.

Head of Business Development
Qadre, UK

Business and Legal Associate
Qadre, UK

End of Day Two
17.00

R&D: Chief Scientific Officers, Heads of R&D, R&D Innovation, R&D Strategy. Knowledge & Data Management (Discovery, Clinical & Real-World Data), R&D Analytics, OMICs R&D

IT & DATA: Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, R&D IT, informatics, data science, data analysts, bioinformatics.

Event Partners

Speaker Biographies

Michael Frank

Director,Strategy- World Wide Research and Development
Pfizer, USA

Michael is a Director of Strategy in Pfizer’s World Wide R&D organization.  His group supports  strategy and innovation in pharmaceutical development across all therapeutic areas.  His current focus is expanding the role of Artificial Intelligence in drug discovery to increase productivity and identify new therapies to help patients. 

Prior to Pfizer, Michael was a Strategy Consultant at Strategy& (a PWC company) and PA Consulting.  He was also VP of technology at Phosplatin Therapeutics, a NYC biotech startup. 

Michael lives in Brooklyn, and in his spare time enjoys helping entrepreneurs get their ideas to market; with several successful launches, from KickStarter to biotech IPOs. His own inventions include a kitchen gadget for SkyMall, a dual language eReader App, and several medical diagnostics and products.

He has an MBA from Columbia Business School, and MS in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, and a BA in Biology from University of Michigan.

Pascal Bouquet

Global Head Technology, Architecture, Digital Drug Development
Novartis, Switzerland

Senior Technologist and Enterprise Digital Architect, Pascal has more than 20 years of experience leading global IT organizations, building high performing teams, managing Enterprise Architecture teams, leading digital innovation and delivering complex large scale, global programs. He joined Novartis and the Pharma industry in 2013 and is in charge of the technology evolution of the Drug Development Information System. Passionate by the  new technology and by the transformation of the healthcare industry, excited to deploy a mix of Digital, IT technology, semiconductor and pharmaceutical knowledge to drive the acceleration in eHealth and digital medicine, Pascal advocates for a Blockchain consortium to accelerate the adoption of this technology in the healthcare in the industry

Marco Cuomo

Global Lead EWS Service Operations & Engineering
Novartis, Switzerland

Marco is a senior Digital Solutions Architect and has been with Novartis since 2005. In this capacity, he is essentially responsible for exploring, engineering, and implementing new technologies such as Blockchain, IoT and API Management. For the last two years, he is focusing on Blockchain and exploring various use cases for Pharma. He began his career as a programmer in 1988 and held various positions of increasing responsibilities in software development, engineering, operations, service management and solution design.

Natalie Pankova

Chief Scientific Officer
Project Shivom, UK

As an experienced Director in 2 early stage health tech companies, Natalie is skilled in operations, business development, investor relations and R&D. She holds a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, with a research focus on ophthalmology, inflammatory disease, diagnostics and precision medicine. She is also the Healthcare Lead for the Government Blockchain Association European Strategic Conference. Natalie further combines a breadth of experience with 8+ years of teaching at University of Toronto & Trent University in Canada, and holding multiple board, management & consulting roles in the non-profit sector.

Alex Zhavoronkov

Co-founder, Insilico Medicine
CSO, The Biogerontology Research Foundation, USA

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, is the CEO of Insilico Medicine, Inc (Baltimore, MD) and the CSO of the Biogerontology Research Foundation (Oxford, UK). The company is focusing on applying deep learning and advanced signaling pathway activation analysis to biomarker discovery, drug discovery and drug repurposing for aging and age-related diseases. He is the author of over 70 research papers and books including” The Ageless Generation: How advances in biomedicine will transform the global economy” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). Prior to switching his focus to aging research in 2004, he served as the director of Central and Eastern Europe at ATI Technologies, publicly-traded GPU company and the Chief Thought Architect at NeuroG, a neuroinformatics company. He holds two Bachelor degrees from Queen’ s University, a Masters in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD in biophysics from the Moscow State University.

Ashley Kemball-Cook

Head of Business Development
Qadre, UK

Ashley Kemball-Cook is Head of Business Development for Qadre, a
blockchain product development company with products in a number of
sectors including: supply chain management, anti-counterfeiting, and
identity. Ashley is an Advisor to Disberse, a blockchain enabled fund
management platform for humanitarian aid. Using blockchain it drives the transparent, efficient, and effective flow of humanitarian aid funds.
Ashley has worked on blockchain projects with industry leaders across
finance, energy, healthcare, Magic Circle Law Firms, and UK regulators.
Ashley also has experience in consulting across a range of applications of blockchain in pharmaceuticals, including: internal remittance and clearing, fertility tracking, empowerment of patients, streamlining interactions with regulators, streamlining clinical trials, sharing of certain clinical trials information, and integration with IoT devices to ensure medicine is kept at specific temperatures.

Lucie Munier

Business and Legal Associate
Qadre, UK

Lucie Munier is a Law graduate with experience working across Asia in the High Growth Technology and Innovation Group within KPMG. Lucie has also worked within high growth companies in cybersecurity and corporate advisory in Geneva before moving to London to join Qadre as Legal and Business Associate. Lucie combines her experience in cybersecurity and law and passion for high growth innovation to lead Qadre’s work on regulation and Business Development.

Frank Austin Nothaft

Genomics Data Engineer
Databricks, USA

Frank Austin Nothaft is a Genomics Data Engineer at Databricks and a PhD candidate in Computer Science at UC Berkeley. Frank is one of the core developers on the ADAM/Big Data Genomics project, pioneering methods for processing large genomics datasets using Apache Spark. Frank holds a Masters of Science in Computer Science from UC Berkeley, and a Bachelors of Science with Honors in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, Frank worked at Broadcom Corporation on design automation techniques for industrial scale wireless communication chips.

Related Videos

Presentation

Deep RWE - a case study

Related topics: Real-World Evidence & Late-Phase Research, Digital & Technology
Availability: FREE
Speaker

Joaquin Casariego

Senior Advisor 
Savana 

Presentation

Earlier diagnosis of complex rare disease patients utilizing machine learning

Related topics: Real-World Evidence & Late-Phase Research, Digital & Technology
Availability: FREE
Speaker

Chris Rolfe

Consultant, Real-World Evidence
Open Health 

Pricing & Registration