We are facing a world where microbes once again have the potential to cause untreatable diseases, due to the resistance to virtually all available drugs. WHO suggests that even if the pharmaceutical industry were to step up the efforts to develop new drugs immediately, some diseases might still not have any effective therapies within the ne

How about proving them wrong?

Visiongain is dedicating its Re-emerging infectious diseases conference to the war on drug resistant microbes, uniting researchers from around the world in a unique exchange of thoughts, experiences and ideas. The conference will focus on the future of anti-microbial agents and will provide you with understanding of cutting edge research in:

• DNA-based therapies
• Novel beta-lactam inhibitors
• New drug targets

Key Speakers :-

• David McIntosh, Medical Director, Infectious Diseases, Wyeth
• Alita Miller, Senior Principal Scientist, Pfizer
• Nachum Kaplan, Vice President, Microbiology, Affinium Pharmaceuticals
• Anthony Maxwell, Head of the Department of Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre
• Michael McArthur, Director of Research, Procarta
• John Overington, Senior Director, Discovery Informatics, Inpharmatica
• Nafsika Georgopapadakou, Vice President, Research, NovaBay Pharmaceuticals
• Lloyd Czaplewski, Director of Research, Prolysis
• Malcolm Page, Head of Biology, Basilea Pharmaceuticals
• Nora Kaarela, Chief Executive Officer, IPSAT Therapies
• Prabhavathi Fernandes, CEO, Cempra Pharmaceuticals
• Steve Barret, Honorary Secretary, Association of Medical Microbiologists
• James Mond, Chief Scientific Officer, Executive Vice President, Biosynexus
• Tom Parr, Chief Scientific Officer, Targanta Therapeutics
• Tanneke den Blaauwen, Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam

Who will be there?

VPs Directors, Heads, and Managers in:

• Microbiology
• Immunology
• Infectious Diseases
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Clinical Pharmacology
• Drug Discovery
• New Product Development
• Scientific Affairs
• Licensing
• Antibiotics
• Infection Discovery
• Drug evaluation
• Molecular Biotechnology
• Drug development
• Project Management
• Preclinical Development
• Portfolio Management                                                                                                                                                                        

  Day 1

09:30 Registration and refreshments

10:00 Opening address from the chair

Malcolm Page
Head of Biology
Basilea Pharmaceutics

10:10 Novel approaches to prevent hospital infections and antimicrobial resistance

• A major European and global problem
• Preventing infection caused by resistant pathogens
• Emerging mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance

Nora Kaarela
Chief Executive Officer
IPSAT Therapies

10:50 New drug targets for fighting multi-resistant microbes

• General features of good drug targets – do antibacterial targets follow the rules
• Target structural features of resistance
• Development of a general strategy to consider likelihood of resistance in target discovery

John Overington
Senior Director, Discovery Informatics
Inpharmatica

11:30 Morning refreshments

11:50 Discovery and development of novel targeted and broad-spectrum antibacterials

• Anti-staphylococcal cell division inhibitors
• Novel DNA supercoiling inhibitors

Lloyd Czaplewski
Director of Research
Prolysis

12:30 New challenges, new drugs

• Challenging bacterial pathogens
• The magnitude and spectrum of multiresistance
• Antibacterials, in use and in development, to combat multiresistance
• Novel approaches, new drugs

Nafsika Georgopapadakou
Vice President, Research
NovaBay Pharmaceuticals

13:10 Networking lunch

14:30 Developing novel specific spectrum antibiotics for the treatment of staphylococcal infection

• AFN-1252 is a highly potent fatty acid biosynthesis (FabI) inhibitor optimized against staphylococci
• Defined and unique spectrum of activity predicts minimal antibiotic treatment related adverse effects
• Orally efficacious, currently in Phase 1 studies

Nachum Kaplan
Vice President Microbiology
Affinium Pharmaceuticals

15:10 The future of antibiotics

• Are new classes of antibiotics coming?
• Examining how we can use old antibiotics
• What measures can be taken to ensure the effectiveness of future antibiotics
• A brief look at onchocerciasis

David McIntosh
Medical Director Infectious Diseases
Wyeth

15:50 Afternoon refreshments

16:10 Alternate strategies in antibacterial discovery

• Two new lead classes from whole cell screening
• If single targets are not optimum, what are the options?
• Can biological approaches fill the existing/emerging therapeutic gaps?

Alita Miller
Senior Principal Scientist
Pfizer

16:50 Panel Discussion: An efficient strategy for developing novel antibiotics

• How will we find the next generation of antibiotics?
• Should we focus on new drugs or a combination using the ‘classics’?
• Where should our focus be?

David McIntosh, Medical Director Infectious Diseases, Wyeth
Lloyd Czaplewski, Director of Research, Prolysis
Nafsika Georgopapadakou, Vice President, Research, NovaBay Pharmaceuticals
John Overington, Senior Director, Discovery Informatics, Inpharmatica

17:40 Closing remarks from the chair                                                                                                                                

17:45 Networking Drinks Reception
Take your discussions further and build new relationships in a relaxed and informal setting.   

 Day 2

09:30 Registration and refreshments

10:00 Opening address from the chair

Steve Barret
Honorary Secretary
Association of Medical Microbiologists

10:10 DNA-based therapies to combat infectious diseases

• DNA-based therapies to inactivate resistance mechanisms and restore efficacy of antibiotics
• Bacteria can be rendered susceptible to bacteriocidal antibiotics in general
• Procarta has a broad and proprietary technology capable of targeting many bacteria and genetic switches

Michael McArthur
Director of Research
Procarta

10:50 Bacterial DNA gyrase as a target for novel antibacterial agents

• DNA gyrase is a key target for antibacterials: essential in bacteria, lacking in humans
• Many bacterial toxins and antibiotics target gyrase
• High level of understanding of gyrase structure & mechanism
• Significant scope for developing new gyrase-specific antibacterial agents

Anthony Maxwell
Head of Department, Biological Chemistry
John Innes Centre

11:30 Morning refreshments

11:50 An anti-lipoteichoic acid monoclonal antibody to prevent staphylococcal disease in the premature infant

• Completed two phase two trials
• Entering an efficacy trial
• Discussing the implication of the studies

James Mond
Chief Scientific Officer
Executive Vice President
Biosynexus

12:30 Novel β -lactam antibiotics and inhibitor combinations

• Resistance to ß-lactams in Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria
• ß-lactams-insensitive penicillin-binding proteins of Gram-positive bacteria
• Emerging ß-lactamases in Gram-negative bacteria
• Anti-MRSA cephalosporins
• ß-lactamase-stable ß-lactams

Malcolm Page
Head of Biology
Basilea Pharmaceutics

13:10 Networking lunch

14:30 Finessing drugs from new & known targets

• Protein synthesis inhibitors have been successful antibiotics
• Useful new antibiotics can be designed by applying new information and technologies to proven classes
• New targets can be identified using old ones
• CEM-101, a product in clinical development, that resulted from this approach will be described

Prabhavathi Fernandes
CEO
Cempra Pharmaceuticals

15:10 – Treatment of Gram-positive infections

• Different approaches to treatment of gram-positive infections
• Discussing the use of old fashion antibiotics
• What should be the next step?

Tom Parr
Chief Scientific Officer
Targanta Therapeutics

15:50 Afternoon refreshments

16:10 – Cell division protein FtsZ as new antibiotic target

• The FtsZ protein is essential for all bacterial cell division
• A wealth of information on FtsZ structure and function is available
• As usual, nature is one step behind

Tanneke den Blaauwen
Assistant Professor
University of Amsterdam

16:50 – Panel Discussion: Comparing different targets for novel antibiotics

• Looking at the efficiency of different drug targets
• Discussing the future of different techniques
• What will the future antibiotics look like, will any of the new drugs dominate?

Anthony Maxwell, Head of Department, Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre
Alita Miller, Senior Principal Scientist, Pfizer

17:30 Chair’s closing remarks

17:40 End of conference

Partners

Platinum Sponsor:

IMS Health
Operating in more than 100 countries, IMS Health is the world’s leading provider of market intelligence to pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. With $1.8 billion in 2005 revenue and more than 50 years of industry experience, IMS offers leading-edge business intelligence products and services that are integral to clients’ day-today operations, including portfolio optimisation capabilities; launch and brand management solutions; sales force effectiveness innovations; managed care and over-the-counter offerings; and consulting and services solutions that improve ROI and the delivery of quality healthcare worldwide. For further information please visit: www.imshealth.com

Media Partners:

PharmiWeb.com
PharmiWeb.com is the leading industry-sponsored portal for the pharmaceutical sector. Supported by most of the leading pharmaceutical corporations, PharmiWeb.com provides dynamic real-time news, features, events listings and international jobs to industry professionals across Europe and the US. For further information please email: corporate@pharmiweb.com

BIOTECHNOLOGY EUROPE
BIOTECHNOLOGY EUROPE is owned by BIOTECHNOLOGY WORLD. It is based and located in Warsaw, Poland. Biotechnology World was founded in 2007 to provide the world’s biotech and pharma information and market to make it universally accessible and useful for scientific and business processes. Its first step to fulfilling that mission was building the BIOTECHNOLOGY EUROPE platform that will allow a quick spread of information in different channels. BIOTECHNOLOGY EUROPE offers companies completed internet public relations, publication and marketing solutions. One of the mains goals of BIOTECHNOLOGY EUROPE is to integrate the Biotech and Pharma Sector in Europe to global biotechnology, pharmaceutical and life science activities. For further information please visit www.biotechnology-europe.com

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