Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professionals Association (SAPA) held the 31st Annual Conference “Redefining Medicine: Navigating Resilience, Transforming Lives” on September 27 and 28, 2024, at the Hyatt Regency New Brunswick, New Jersey, featuring two plenary sessions, six parallel sessions, legal short courses and multiple networking sessions.
More than 60 distinguished speakers and panelists shared their insights on drug discovery, CMC and outsourcing, clinical and regulatory landscape, investment and business development, and career development at the conference, which attracted over 460 attendees each day and 26 sponsors from around the globe in the pharmaceutical industry and related areas, including BMS, Merck, Johnson & Johnson.
Please click on the link below to watch the conference highlights.
September 27th, Friday, Plenary Session
On Friday, September 27, the 2024 Annual Conference kicked off with opening remarks by SAPA president Dr. Jack Wu, who reaffirmed SAPA’s mission of serving the development of the biopharmaceutical industry and recaptured the achievements in 2024.
The first distinguished keynote speaker, Janet Woodcock, MD, who served as Principal Deputy Commissioner of FDA from February 2022 until February 2024, gave an inspiring talk, titled “Future of the Pharmaceutical Industry”, where she delved into the challenges and opportunities facing the industry, emphasizing the balance between innovation, regulatory reform, and patient needs. Dr. Woodcock pointed out that with the emergence of new technologies and treatment methods, the pharmaceutical industry needs to accelerate drug development while ensuring safety and efficacy. She specifically mentioned that personalized medicine, gene therapy, and artificial intelligence will be crucial areas in the future, and that regulatory agencies need to collaborate with the industry to advance these emerging fields. Her thought-provoking speech provided valuable insights into the future of the pharmaceutical industry and how to address future challenges.
The second keynote speaker Samit Hirawat, MD, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Drug Development, Bristol Myers Squibb emphasized the urgency of developing transformational medicines through innovations at speed. Dr. Hirawat introduced the latest advancements in drug development at BMS, particularly highlighting a breakthrough therapy for schizophrenia. The newly approved schizophrenia treatment effectively alleviates core symptoms through a unique mechanism and offers new hope for the treatment of schizophrenia. He pointed out that this breakthrough not only marked significant progress for BMS in the field of mental health but also demonstrated the company's commitment to improving patient quality of life through innovative therapies.
The next plenary speaker was Allen Templeton, PhD, Vice President of Pharmaceutical Sciences & Clinical Supply of Merck Research Labs. He discussed multiple present challenges in drug product development amidst an era of increasing drug delivery and modality complexity. Dr. Templeton provided a detailed analysis of the growing complexity in drug development models and delivery systems. He pointed out that as new drug technologies emerge, pharmaceutical companies must not only ensure the safety and efficacy of drugs but also tackle the challenges of manufacturing processes, formulation complexity, and clinical supply chains. Dr. Templeton's presentation offered the attendees valuable insights into how to address these challenges, sparking extensive discussion and attention.
Following that, leaders from the IQ consortium, including Rosa Sanchez, AVP, Merck & Co., Inc. and IQ Board of director, R. Todd Bunch, PhD, VP, Bristol Myers Squibb, Maureen Cruz, PhD, Director, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, Sean Maguire, VMD, MS, Director, GSK, and Islam Younis, PhD, Senior Director, Merck & Co., Inc., had a fireside chat on “Industry Collaboration on Life Science,” where they shared the collaboration among the member companies in the consortium, building the capability of the whole industry to solve challenges in regulatory, novel modalities and accelerated timelines in pharma and life sciences.
The results for the 2025-2026 election of SAPA President and 2024-2025 Executive Council members were announced by Dr. David Cragin, SAPA President for 2024-2025. Dr. Wei Ding was elected as SAPA President-elect. He has been serving SAPA for well over a decade. We anticipate a successful year ahead with the newly elected leadership team.
After Plenary Session I, a Legal Short Course was held during lunch break, where the Founder and Principal of THC Lawyers, Ran He, PhD, JD, led the audience to explore the legal frameworks and regulations that entrepreneurs and investors must navigate. Dr. He particularly emphasized the processes and considerations for registering a company in the U.S. and provided a detailed explanation of shareholder interest protection and distribution.
September 27th, Friday, Parallel Sessions
Three parallel sessions were offered in the Friday afternoon:
Parallel Session A for the Executive and Legal Summit;
Parallel Session B on chemistry, manufacturing and control (CMC) and Outsourcing;
Parallel Session C for Career Development.
Parallel Session A: consisted of three panel discussions, Chaired by Dr. Zheng Chen and Dr. Chenchao Gao each tackling hot topics that are critical for the business advancement of pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
The first panel discussion, titled “Executive Insights on Pharma/Biotech Growth in New Jersey,” featured the five executive panelists: Ian McLaughlin, PhD (Vice President of Government Affairs, BioNJ) introduced New Jersey as a life Sciences Powerhouse; Sho Islam (Director, Office of Business Engagement, Middlesex County Government, NJ) discussed how assets and resources in North Jersey can accelerate the growth of Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical companies in the region; Moushmi Culver, MBA (Senior Vice President, Merck & Co., Inc.) highlighted the importance of “Championing a Diverse Workforce” within Merck & Co. Inc.; Simon King (Chief People Officer, Daiichi Sankyo Inc.) shared the success story of how Daiichi Sankyo has thrived both in New Jersey and globally; and Rong Yang, MBA (CEO, Fosun Pharma USA) outlined his strategic plan to expand Fosun Pharma’s presence in the United States. During the fireside chat, the panelists discussed talent recruitment, employee maintenance, and career growth strategies and they all agreed that New Jersey’s rich talent pool is crucial for the life sciences sector.
The second panel discussion was titled “Latest Trends & Hot Topics in Pharma and Biotech Mergers and Acquisitions.” James Hu, JD (Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP), Casarine Chong, JD, MBA (Senior Vice President, Bristol Myers Squibb), Calvin Leung, JD (Partner, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt), and Gabor Szabo, MBA (Executive Director, Moelis & Company), drawing on years of transaction experience in the life science industry, shared their valuable observations and insights from the perspectives of financial and strategic investors.
The third panel discussion was on “Intellectual Property and Corporation Law Perspectives on Entrepreneurship and Cross-border Deal Structuring and Execution” by four seasoned legal professionals, including Peng Cai, PhD, JD (Counsel, Kim IP Group), Bin Hu Karg, JD (Partner, VCL Law), Zhenggui (Kevin) Li, JD (Special Counsel, McCarter & English, LLP), and Wansheng (Jerry) Liu, PhD, JD (Partner, Fox Rothschild LLP). Insightful conversations happened around the specific implementation details related to structural design and transaction execution from the perspectives of intellectual property and corporate law.
Parallel Session B: focused on the challenges and opportunities in the field of CMC and Outsourcing, which was chaired by Yong Guo, PhD, Jiaying Liu, PhD, and Aming Zhang, PhD. and joined attended by The panel speakers included Lucy Chang, PhD (Associate Vice President at Merck & Co., Inc.), Xiaodong Chen, PhD (Senior Director, Roivant Sciences), Hong Gao, PhD (Senior Principal Scientist II, J&J Innovative Medicine), Ye Gu, PhD (Co-Founder and CTO of Crystal Bio), Andrew Leithead (Associate Principal Scientist at Merck & Co., Inc.), Wenjie Li, PhD (Vice President, CMC Division, Shanghai Medicilon Inc.), and Xiuling Lu, PhD (Professor, University of Connecticut). They presented insights on continuous manufacturing of biologics, long-acting injectables, nanoparticle-based drug delivery and high resolution mass-spectrometry of biologics. Additionally, the speakers discussed the trend and future opportunities in the collaboration between pharmaceutical companies and CRO/CDMOs.
Parallel Session C: on Career Development was chaired by David Cragin, PhD and Pan Pan, PhD. There were five speakers including Angus Grant, PhD (Executive Vice President of Business Development at Teva Pharmaceuticals), Annah Litzenberger (CHRO at Fosun Pharma USA), Lian Ma, PhD (Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Pharmacometrics Createrna), Blair Bu, BMgt (Global Senior Partner, Life Sciences & Healthcare, IntelliPro Group), and Zhen Yang, PhD (Senior Director at Hansoh). Topics such as career transitions, personal goals, career growth experiences, and career planning in the pharmaceutical industry were covered. Following the presentations, the speakers also joined a roundtable discussion and had an in-depth exchange with the audience on employment, growth, and transitions.
On Friday evening, SAPA held its Annual Gala.
Around 250 attendees enjoyed a spectacular dinner, engaging entertainment, and valuable networking opportunities. During the Gala, Dr. Jack Wu also announced the SAPA special recognition awards for the volunteers who contributed significantly to the success of SAPA and the service of our members in the year of 2024. Rita Thakkar, Senior Vice President of BMS, announced the awardee, John Hu, as the recipient of the 2024 SAPA-BMS Scholarship for his accomplishment as a student pursuing further studies in life science.
September 28th, Saturday, Plenary Session
On Saturday morning, September 28, 2024, the SAPA Annual Conference hosted the plenary session which featured four distinguished guest speakers, each addressing pivotal topics in drug discovery and development.
SAPA President, Dr. Jack Wu, delivered the opening remarks for the plenary session. He congratulated the SAPA team for the phenomenal progress achieved in the past year and shared his thoughts on the mission and challenges of drug development.
Gregory Verdine, PhD, President & CEO of LifeMine, presented a talk on “Toward Universal Druggability.” Dr. Verdine discussed the potential for universal druggability by tapping into genetic reprogramming of natural peptide structures, aiming to unlock new therapeutic opportunities across various disease areas.
Ying Huang, PhD, CEO of Legend Biotech Corporation, delivered a presentation titled “Carvykti — a Paradigm Shifting Therapy for Multiple Myeloma.” He focused on the groundbreaking CAR-T therapy Carvykti collaboratively developed by his company and Johnson & Johnson, highlighting its clinical efficacy and transformative impact on the treatment of multiple myeloma.
Jacques Mascaro, PhD, MBA, SVP of Oncology Regulatory Science, Strategy & Excellence at AstraZeneca, gave a speech on “Advancing Drug Development, Regulation, and Pharmaceutical Innovation.” Dr. Mascaro analyzed from a global perspective the ever-evolving regulatory frameworks and the innovations of R&D approaches his company has taken to adapt to these changes.
James Cai, PhD, Head of Computational Biology and Digital Science at Boehringer Ingelheim, addressed “Will AI Transform Drug Discovery?” He explored the increasing role of AI in revolutionizing drug discovery and the ways to tackle the challenges of AI in utilizing the real world data.
After Plenary Session II, a Legal Short Course Session II was held during lunch break, where the Founder and Principal of THC Lawyers, Ran He, PhD, JD, led the audience to explore the pivotal role of patents in pharmaceutical innovation, including securing, enforcing, avoiding, challenging, and licensing a patent.
September 28th, Saturday, Parallel Sessions
In the afternoon, the SAPA Annual Conference hosted the Investment and Business Development Session (Parallel Session D), focusing on the theme “Hot Topics in Investment and Business Development.”, chaired by Larry Cai, MBA, MS and Arda Ural, PhD. This event brought together top executives from global consulting firms, seasoned venture capitalists, investment banks, biotech and multinational pharmaceutical companies to explore how investment and business development can drive strategic growth in the biopharma industry.
Session I: Investment Direction in Life Sciences: The first part of the session focused on investment. It was opened by Larry Cai, Chief Business Officer of Defand Therapeutics, and then Dr. Arda Ural, the American Life Sciences Sector Leader, EY, moderated a panel discussion on the theme of “Enhancing Resilience and Accelerating Next-Gen Therapeutics through Investment and Global Partnerships.” The expert panel discussion on investment trends and opportunities in the biopharma industry featured distinguished guests including Gregory Verdine, President and CEO at LifeMine Therapeutics, Marian Nakada, VP Venture Investments at Johnson & Johnson, Dennis Purcell, Founder and Senior Advisor at Aisling Capital, and Diyong Xu, MS, Principal at Orbimed Advisors.
Session II: Creativity and Strategy in Business Development to Help Biotech Navigate Life Sciences Circuit: The second part of the session focused on business development. It was opened by Larry Cai speaking on behalf of Helen Chen, MBA, Global Sector Co-Head of Healthcare and Life Science and Greater China, Managing Partner of at L.E.K. Consulting, with “Next level commercial and scientific innovations in China: Cross-border opportunities for biopharmas and investors in the U.S”. Linus Lin, PhD, Head of Lilly Chorus at Eli Lilly, then presented on “Lilly catalyze360: Accelerate Breakthrough Science at Scale,” followed by Alex Wang, MBA/MS, Head of BD, US/China, Zuellig Pharma, talked about “Business Development for Commercial Stage Products”. The session concluded with a panel discussion moderated by Larry Cai, discussing the Role of BD in Biotech Winter, featuring industry leaders such as Adam Darity, MPH, VP of Strategy & Corporate Development at Genmab, Daniyal Hussain, MBA/MS, Executive Director of Technology BD at GSK, Darren Ji, MD/PhD/MBA, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Elpiscience, Linus Lin, and Alex Wang.
Parallel Session E: Parallel Session E delved into “Highlights in Current Drug Discovery”, which was chaired by. Dexi Yang, PhD, David Liu, PhD, and Yu Tian, PhD. Speakers including Dr. Weiping Shao, Senior Director from AstraZeneca, Professor Zhiping Pang from Rutgers University, Dr. Yang Shen, Executive Director from Regeneron, and Thomas Tucker, Principal Scientist at Merck, delivered insightful talks on topics on application of AI in gene therapies, GLP-1-related biological research, multispecific antibody drug, and discovery of MK-0616, a macrocyclic peptide as a PCSK9 inhibitor.
Parallel Session F: In Parallel Session F “Clinical Development and Regulatory”, chaired by Dr. Li Yan, six speakers including Dr. Francisco Leon, CEO of Tolerance Bio, Kenji Fujita, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Atsena Therapeutics, Scott Schliebner, VP and Global Head of Drug Development Consulting from Novotech, Dr. Jian Wang, Global Head of Translational, Oncology Regulatory Science Strategy & Excellence from AstraZeneca, Dr. Chaohong Fan, Lead Physician from FDA, and Chrsitopher Ung, Chief Scientific Business Officer at CellCarta who all gave compelling presentations covering topics including FDA regulatory views on clinical trial design and drug development for gene and cell products, successful case studies of drug repurposing, emerging frontiers in oncology drug development, clinical development considerations of autoimmune, oncology, and rare diseases, as well as application of companion diagnostics in global trials.
During the annual meeting, SAPA's unique 1:1 online appointment system and sponsor exhibition also provided attendees with a rare opportunity for in-depth networking.
The successful conclusion of the 2024 SAPA Annual Conference not only showcased the latest advancements at the forefront of the global biopharmaceutical industry but also provided attendees with valuable opportunities to engage with industry leaders and experts. Through these presentations and discussions, participants gained a deeper understanding of key trends in areas such as drug development, regulatory innovation, and the potential of artificial intelligence in drug discovery. The SAPA Annual Conference continues to serve as an important platform for advancing the industry and fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration, leading the biopharmaceutical sector to new heights.
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