SLAS2017 Short Courses

Lead Generation: A Critical Discussion of Hypothesis & Empirical Strategies

Formerly Screening Strategies for Drug Discovery: Matching Tools With Solutions

The course will provide a framework for discussing drug discovery screening strategies with an emphasis on effectively using and integrating phenotypic-based and target-based screening approaches. The goal of the course is to provide a broader context of the drug discovery process and to help understand how to best utilize existing knowledge, tools and technologies.

Who Should Attend:

Attendees will participate in an active dialogue with instructors and other participants on the advantages/disadvantages of lead generation utilizing hypothesis driven and empirical approaches. Since no clear cut "one size fits all" strategy exists for an endeavor as complex as drug discovery, "Lead Generation Discussion" is not a typical "how to" course.

How You Will Benefit From This Course:

The audience will be given a broader perspective on drug discovery so that they can:

• Best utilize their own technologies.
• Have a better understanding of pros and cons associated with a given technology.
• Identify new opportunities.

Course Topics:

• R & D Productivity — Provide a high level overview of Pharma productivity and its impact. Examples related to clinical failures, lack of efficacy, target validation, and proliferation of "me too" drugs.
• Drug Discovery process. Provide a high level overview of the drug discovery and development process from unmet medical to registration. Include details of tools and technologies important to each stage.
• Relating R&D poor productivity to drug discovery strategies. We will discuss the potential technical reasons for poor productivity.
• Drug Discovery strategies- first in class & advances in class
  • Target-based drug discovery: In this section we will detail the process of target based drug discovery from target selection to clinical POC including the pros, cons and screening strategies to improve success. Will also provide case studies with examples of success and failures.
  • Phenotypic drug discovery: In this section we will detail the process of phenotypic drug discovery from phenotype selection to clinical POC including the pros, cons and screening strategies to improve success. Will also provide case studies with examples of success and failures.
• Bring it all together. It this section we will detail considerations for choosing a screening strategy including the differentiation from competitor's compounds/standards of care, integration of available knowledge/technologies/screening tools as well as consideration of the activities required to move a screening hit forward to clinical POC including level of mechanistic understanding required, derisking toxicology, set clinical doses and time lines.

Instructors:

David C. Swinney, Ph.D. Institute for Rare and Neglected Diseases Drug Discovery David Swinney has over 25 years of industrial drug discovery experience (Roche, Syntex, iRND3) working to identify promising leads, clinical candidates and effective mechanisms of drug action that address unmet medical needs. He has a PhD in medicinal chemistry from the University of Washington, Seattle, and expertise in drug discovery, drug discovery strategies, assay development and screening, enzymology, pharmacology and binding kinetics. Dave is currently at the non-profit Institute for Rare and Neglected Diseases Drug Discovery in Mountain View, CA, aka iRND3, (www.irnd3.org) working to help discover new medicines for rare and neglected diseases.

Jonathan Lee, Ph.D. Eli Lilly Jonathan Lee is Senior Research Advisor in Quantitative Biology at Eli Lilly. He obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California San Diego and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology. Jonathan has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 20 years in research management and the evaluation, development, and deployment of new technologies to drug discovery. Most recently he has explored the potential of modern phenotypic drug discovery (PDD) in lead generation and drug development and plays an active part in the emerging worldwide PDD community through publications, presentations, hosting the PDD Special Interest group via LinkedIn and the annual SLAS meeting, and by co-organizing the 2016 Keystone PDD Meeting.