Programme 2023

John received a BS in biochemistry from Albright College and his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Brown University. After completing a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute in NYC in the departments of Positron Emission Tomography and Neurology, he joined the Medicinal Chemistry Discovery group at Johnson Matthey Biomedical. There he made several significant contributions to early research projects on new Pt- antitumor drugs and peptide-based diagnostic radio-imaging agents. After nearly a decade as a discovery med chemist, he moved on to drug development in positions of increasing responsibility at J&J and Sanofi-Aventis. He and his teams have specialized in the areas of drug delivery, solid state chemistry and biomaterials in relation to improving the bioperformance of therapeutic agents. Towards this end, he has led the successful implementation of a wide range of methodologies into drug discovery space including prodrug design for
enhanced solubility/permeability, miniaturized polymeric amorphous dispersions and nanoparticle technologies.

John currently is Distinguished Scientist, Discovery Pharmaceutical Sciences
department at Merck’s Discovery Center in South San Francisco. In this
multidisciplinary role, he is responsible for oversight of the biopharmaceutical and drug delivery aspects of Merck’s discovery programs (small molecules, peptides, biologics) as well as the identification of new enabling technologies for burgeoning areas such as oral peptide and ophthalmic gene delivery. Over his over 32 year pharma career, he is co-inventor on 13 US Patents and author of numerous and diverse publications and book chapters in the fields of organic, solid state & medicinal chemistry and drug delivery.

John also currently serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he regularly teaches classes in various
aspects of drug discovery and development.

John received a BS in biochemistry from Albright College and his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Brown University. After completing a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute in NYC in the departments of Positron Emission Tomography and Neurology, he joined the Medicinal Chemistry Discovery group at Johnson Matthey Biomedical. There he made several significant contributions to early research projects on new Pt- antitumor drugs and peptide-based diagnostic radio-imaging agents. After nearly a decade as a discovery med chemist, he moved on to drug development in positions of increasing responsibility at J&J and Sanofi-Aventis. He and his teams have specialized in the areas of drug delivery, solid state chemistry and biomaterials in relation to improving the bioperformance of therapeutic agents. Towards this end, he has led the successful implementation of a wide range of methodologies into drug discovery space including prodrug design for
enhanced solubility/permeability, miniaturized polymeric amorphous dispersions and nanoparticle technologies.

John currently is Distinguished Scientist, Discovery Pharmaceutical Sciences
department at Merck’s Discovery Center in South San Francisco. In this
multidisciplinary role, he is responsible for oversight of the biopharmaceutical and drug delivery aspects of Merck’s discovery programs (small molecules, peptides, biologics) as well as the identification of new enabling technologies for burgeoning areas such as oral peptide and ophthalmic gene delivery. Over his over 32 year pharma career, he is co-inventor on 13 US Patents and author of numerous and diverse publications and book chapters in the fields of organic, solid state & medicinal chemistry and drug delivery.

John also currently serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he regularly teaches classes in various
aspects of drug discovery and development.

Hanne Mørck Nielsen is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at University of Copenhagen since 2016. She obtained the PhD from Royal Danish School of Pharmacy on the topic: buccal delivery of peptides and small molecules. Post doc studies were done at ETH Zürich under the supervision of Prof. Hans-Peter Merkle on cell-penetrating peptides; their use and membrane interactions. HMN now heads the BioDelivery center where research is highly interdisciplinary and focussed on drug formulation design and drug delivery studies of biotherapeutics, especially therapeutic peptides, for them to reach their target in sufficiently high amounts. Key interests comprise understanding how biotherapeutics and excipients interplay in relation to formulation design, processing of and drug delivery. Specifically, biological matrix interaction, uptake, and transport of the active drug molecule to target.

Philippe Lienard obtained his PhD in organic chemistry at the Orsay University, France, in Pr. Husson team in 1991. After having performed a post-doc in Pr. Oppolzer’s laboratory, he joined Synthelabo in 1993 in chemical development. Then, he occupied several positions within Sanofi chemical development including Head of Pilot Plant on various French and USA Sanofi sites. He has been working within pharmaceutical sciences for 10 years as Head of Early Development Unit in Vitry site for development of in silico methods to anticipate drug degradation in drug product.  Then, he became a CMC project leader for a department of Early Development at the interface of the research and the development unit for several research programs. Since few months, Philippe joined Pasteur Institute in the Direction of Research Application and Industrials Relationship (DARRI) as Pre-Clinical Leader. He is the author or co-author of 10 publications and the co-inventor of 2 patents.

Patrick Stayton serves as the Distinguished Career Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at UW.  He is the founding Director of the UW Institute for Molecular Engineering and Sciences.  His group develops new targeted prodrugs and drug delivery systems for infectious disease and cancer therapeutics. Dr. Stayton has a strong interest in translating the group’s research, has been awarded many patents, and is a co-founder of several startup companies, including PhaseRx Inc. that developed RNA therapeutics. Dr. Stayton has been elected as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and has been the recipient of the Clemson Award from the Society For Biomaterials and the CRS-Cygnus Recognition Award from the Controlled Release Society. He served as Co-Chair of the GRC on Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology in 2010.  He has also been awarded the Faculty Innovator Award, and the Distinguished Teacher and Mentor Award.

Hanne Mørck Nielsen is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at University of Copenhagen since 2016. She obtained the PhD from Royal Danish School of Pharmacy on the topic: buccal delivery of peptides and small molecules. Post doc studies were done at ETH Zürich under the supervision of Prof. Hans-Peter Merkle on cell-penetrating peptides; their use and membrane interactions. HMN now heads the BioDelivery center where research is highly interdisciplinary and focussed on drug formulation design and drug delivery studies of biotherapeutics, especially therapeutic peptides, for them to reach their target in sufficiently high amounts. Key interests comprise understanding how biotherapeutics and excipients interplay in relation to formulation design, processing of and drug delivery. Specifically, biological matrix interaction, uptake, and transport of the active drug molecule to target.

Thomas von Erlach, PhD co-founded Vivtex and joined as its Chief Scientific Officer when Vivtex was formed as a MIT spin-off in 2018. Prior to that he led the interdisciplinary efforts around gastrointestinal model systems for oral drug delivery applications at the Laboratory of Prof. Robert Langer and Prof. Giovanni Traverso at MIT. Dr von Erlach obtained his PhD from Imperial College London in Bioengineering and a BSc and MSc in Biochemistry and Biotechnology from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. His research interest include advanced in vitro models for drug development, oral drug delivery and gastrointestinal pharmacology. His work is published in several high impact journals such as Nature Materials, Nature Biomedical Engineering, and Nature Communications.

Originally training as a pharmaceutical scientist, Louise has over 15 years’ experience in drug delivery & medical devices with a focus on device technical management and regulatory strategy for EU & FDA submissions.

Louise joined GSK in May 2020 and leads the Device team within CMC Regulatory with responsibility for global regulatory and advocacy strategy (Devices) across the GSK portfolio.

With a solid background in inhalation and parenteral ‘combination products’ from concept to market through previous experience working at Pfizer, Oval Medical Technologies, and Cambridge Design Partnership, among others, Louise has a proven track record in supporting successful device submissions for different device types and markets.

Thomas completed his doctorate on liquid crystalline polymers at the University of Ulm in 1993, where he then worked as a post-doctoral researcher. He joined Robert Bosch GmbH in 1995 and was responsible for new functional materials in the Corporate Research until 2003. From 2003 to 2016, he founded and managed the newly established Bosch Lab Systems unit for automation solutions in formulation development (High-Throughput Formulation Systems). Since 2009, he has been responsible for the Engineering Pharma Service department and now additionally the new OSD Customer Center, first at Robert Bosch Packaging Technology and now at Syntegon Technology.

Dr. Meike Roskamp obtained a Doctor’s degree in Chemistry at the Free University, Berlin, and has worked for a multitude of biotechnology market leaders for more than 10 years in the areas nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems and assay development. In 2021, she joined the BASF Pharma Solutions business as an R&D Lab Leader. At BASF,  Meike is responsible for the development of new excipients and processing aids for biologics; this includes leading a series of joint developments with leaders in the biopharma space in the areas of cell culture, downstream processing, and protein formulation. Meike is passionate and focused on solving unmet, complex challenges of the biopharma industry with deep chemistry and novel technology.”

Nick DiFranco, MEM, is the Global Market Segment Manager for Oral Treatments at Lubrizol Life Science Health (LLS Health). In his role, Nick coordinates a multi-disciplinary team offering excipients and services for controlled release and solubility enhancement in oral solids and liquids, including Carbopol® and Apinovex™ polymers. Prior to this role, Nick held positions as an Applications Scientist and Market Manager at Lubrizol supporting long-acting drug delivery and CDMO services. Nick holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering (Biomaterials focus) and a Master of Engineering and Management degree from Case Western Reserve University.

Harshal is part of our global medical division based out of Boston. He has more than 15 years of experience in medical device development, product life cycle strategy, and innovation management. He has significant expertise in oncology patient journey, economics of cancer care and innovations in oncology. He has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from Nirma Institute of Technology in India, an MBA from Syracuse University, New York, and a postgraduate in cancer biology and therapeutics development from Harvard Medical School.

Philippe Lienard obtained his PhD in organic chemistry at the Orsay University, France, in Pr. Husson team in 1991. After having performed a post-doc in Pr. Oppolzer’s laboratory, he joined Synthelabo in 1993 in chemical development. Then, he occupied several positions within Sanofi chemical development including Head of Pilot Plant on various French and USA Sanofi sites. He has been working within pharmaceutical sciences for 10 years as Head of Early Development Unit in Vitry site for development of in silico methods to anticipate drug degradation in drug product.  Then, he became a CMC project leader for a department of Early Development at the interface of the research and the development unit for several research programs. Since few months, Philippe joined Pasteur Institute in the Direction of Research Application and Industrials Relationship (DARRI) as Pre-Clinical Leader. He is the author or co-author of 10 publications and the co-inventor of 2 patents.

Dr. Jere has been working in the Biopharma industry for over 18 years. During this tenure in India, Korea, USA, and Europe, he has acquired an extensive experience on Proteins, Oligonucleotides, Cell-based, and Biosimilar drug products development from early- to late-stage with the regulatory requirements for IND/BLA/MAA filings. He was involved in the commercialization of the products, life-cycle management, and post-commercialization tech. transfers. He has also established drug product development facility for Lonza. Dr. Jere has contributed to several (50+) conference talks, webinars, peered review publications, and patents on biological drug product development for intraocular, Cell therapy, and Gene therapy (RNA) products. Dr. Jere is presently working in Switzerland with Fresenius-Kabi, as a Director, Drug Product R & D, Manufacturing & Devices for the Biosimilars. Prior to this, he was a Strategic team leader, Principal Scientist at Roche/Genentech followed by Scientific Ambassador at Lonza. Dr. Jere has MBA in International business from Univ. St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland, and PhD in Cell and Gene Therapy Products from S. Korea. He has studied Pharmacy from Mumbai, India.

Experienced innovator with an interdisciplinary scientific background in soft material science and drug delivery, molecular biology and protein biochemistry, currently holding a role as a Innovation Manager Pharma & Medical Nutrition within DSM Nutritional Products.

Recognized expert in formulation technologies with a focus on controlled and targeted release formulations driving development of lipid-based delivery systems and solid dosage forms from lab to industrial scale.

Extensive academic background developed during research fellowships at ETH Zurich, Lund University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and resulting in over 20 publications and 700 citations.

Proven track record in product innovation, formulation development, product launch, project and portfolio management and leading high performing cross-functional teams.

Florian is an engineer by education, focusing his career on user-centred product design. After starting as a Usability Engineer at an UX design consultancy firm, he moved into the world of drug device combination product and medical device development when joining Sanofi in 2011. After establishing a Human Factors Engineering team there, he’s continuing his user-centred journey at Bayer Pharma since 2020, leading the Human Factors Engineering function within the Medical Devices and eHealth group.

Vlad Muzykantov earned his MD (Internal Medicine) from the First Moscow Medical School in 1980, and PhD in Medical Sciences (Biochemistry) in 1986 from the National Cardiology Research Centre (Moscow), where he worked till 1993, when he moved to PENN, where he serves as the Founding Director of the Center for Targeted Therapeutics and Translational Nanomedicine and Vice-Chair of Department of Pharmacology. His research for last 40 years encompasses drug delivery and targeting in the vascular, respiratory and nervous systems. He published about 250 papers on this topic including Science, numerous Nature series, PNAS, ACS Nano, Blood, Advanced Materials and other high impact journals. In these collaborative studies his team pioneered targeting drugs and carriers to endothelial and blood cells, regulation of targeting and intracellular delivery of numerous drug delivery systems (DDS).

Analytical project lead and research scientist in the Characterization, Formulation and Bioinformatics Team supporting the developability assessment of NBEs. Holds a master`s degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the University Ulm/Biberach, Germany.

Nazim Kanji is the Executive Director of Pediatric Services at Quotient Sciences. In his current role, Nazim works closely with clients to help them scope their pediatric development programs. He also provides ongoing technical support and expertise related to pediatric formulation to the entire Quotient Sciences product development team.

Nazim has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare industries, where he has worked in product development roles with Boots Pharmaceuticals, Boots Healthcare International, and Reckitt Benckiser. Nazim's experience includes taking products from the concept stage through to commercialization.

Prior to joining Quotient Sciences, Nazim was Co-owner and Director of Co-Formulate, a contract formulation development organization acquired by Quotient Sciences in 2015. He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the University of Nottingham.

Christian Lotz studied Physical Chemistry at the University of Bochum and did his doctorate in Physical Chemistry at the University of Essen. He started his Industry career at Lipoid GmbH, a GMP manufacturer of parenteral grade phospholipids, in the sales department with technical and regulatory support functions. Since April 2015 Christian is working as BD Director EMEA and lately as General Manager EMEA at Pfanstiehl, world’s leading manufacturer of low endotoxin and high purity GMP parenteral grade carbohydrate based excipients, providing commercial and technical support to the EU customer base. Christian has 20 years of experience in GMP relevant sourcing and marketing activities of pharmaceutical raw materials.

Dr Kaasalainen is an experienced scientist with an extensive background in nanoparticle formulation development and characterization for novel, repurposed, and already marketed drug substances. He completed his PhD in Material Physics at the University of Turku, Finland, focusing on producing mesoporous silicon nanoparticles for drug delivery applications and light scattering based characterization methods. Before joining Nanoform, he spent 3 years as a postdoctoral researcher at King's College London, developing novel active nanomaterials for tissue engineering applications. During his career, Dr Kaasalainen has published 27 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Dr Kaasalainen is responsible of leading small molecule formulation, method development, and innovation activities at Nanoform.

Scott Ariagno is Vice President of Engineering and Development Services at EdgeOne Medical and has over 25 years in medical device and combination product design, development and manufacturing. His expertise includes development and global launch of various single-use, disposable medical devices, infusion systems and combination products, strategic/technical development of device platforms and IP development. Throughout his career he has held management roles in engineering including heading device development and external manufacturing at Shire (now Takeda). Scott is a named inventor on over 20 patents and applications.

Scott has Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Bradley University and a Master in Engineering Management from Northwestern University.

Samuel Kyeremateng is a Principal Research Scientist at AbbVie, Germany. His team focuses on scientific advances in material characterization and modelling to support drug product development, especially amorphous solid dispersion formulations.

J.H. studied Chemistry at the University of Rostock, Germany and held a PhD of Pharmaceutical Chemistry of the University of Vienna. He works since over 20 years for Baxter/Baxalta/Shire and now for Takeda in different functions in Manufacturing and R&D.

Process Engineer from GSK working on CDC mini-blend technology. Prior academic experience in the field of chemical engineering from the University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

I am programme manager within medical device development in Novo Nordisk. With an education as PhD in physics and nanotechnology combined with 8 years industry experience and PMP® certification, I am leading several device development programmes and I have lately been focusing on bringing connectivity to injection devices in Novo Nordisk portfolio. Recent advances within the field of digital solutions and improving real-world outcomes is a key motivator for me.

Anna Schlüter is a pharmacist by training and joined LTS in 2016 as formulation scientist for the development of transdermal therapeutic systems (TTS) and oral thin films (OTF). Since 2020 she is a lab head in the microarrays patch (MAP) team and responsible for the formulation and process development for collaboration and internal MAP projects. She is experienced in leading multifunctional teams for formulation development and scale-up projects for transdermal delivery systems.

Emilie is industrial pharmacist. She is a Pharmaceutical Doctor by training. She spent 2 years in Public Industry of Paris Hospitals as formulation scientist, working on acceptability and dosage forms for elderly. In 2018, she started a position of Drug Product Development Leader at Galapagos NV, coordinating development of drug products for non-clinical and clinical studies up to Phase 2a. Since 2022, she is Drug Product Expert at UCB Pharma. She manages the development of drug products in late phase (including life cycle assessment) and she is a green ambassador to improve environmental impact of UCB’s drug products in development.

Martin Huelsmeyer is chemist by training and received his PhD in Structural Biology from Technical University Braunschweig, Germany. Prior joining Abbvie in 2012, he held positions in academia at University of Würzburg, Technical University Berlin, University Hospital Charité Berlin and was employed at biotech company Pieris near Munich.

At Abbvie he is part of the NBE Formulation development team establishing AbbVie’s robotized High Throughput Formulation platform. He is responsible for the design of HTS screening concepts, evaluating, and establishing new formulation approaches and leads several strategic development initiatives covering a broad range of molecular modalities and therapeutic areas.

Karsten studied pharmacy and holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Technologies from the laboratory of solids process engineering of the Technical University Dortmund, Germany. He is currently working in the pharmaceutical development department at Merck Healthcare KGaA. Since the beginning of 2020, he is responsible for building up capabilities to support process and formulation development activities for the manufacturing of final dosage forms with mechanistic models and he leads a small team dedicated to this topic.

Tonio is an industrial engineer with degrees from Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Lyon (France) and Darmstadt (Germany) University of Technology.

Within Device and Packaging Development at F. Hoffmann – La Roche Basel he has been working in the Device Engineering group since 2017. Besides his work as Device Team Leader and Device Engineer for Small Molecule and Smart Device projects he is the Device SPOC for sustainability. Prior to joining Roche Tonio worked within the Device Industrialization Department of Sanofi, Frankfurt (Germany).

Yushi Sunazuka graduated from Chiba university, Japan, in 2017 and then received his master’s degree in 2019 from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Since 2019, He joined Boehringer Ingelheim Japan as a scientist in the Analytical science group in CMC department. Currently he serves as a scientist for dissolution laboratory of solid oral formulations.

Isabelle Deimel holds a master’s degree in biotechnology from the University of Applied Sciences in Mannheim, Germany. During her studies she gained first experience in the pharmaceutical environment as a biotechnology trainee at AbbVie. Since 2019 she is part of the NBE High Throughput & Advanced Formulation Sciences team. She is responsible for design and evaluation of high throughput screenings and the development of ultra-high concentrated formulations.

Dr. Nitin Joshi is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Bioengineer in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After obtaining his PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, he did his postdoctoral fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His lab works at the interface of chemistry, material science, biology, and medicine, to develop translatable technologies for solving medical problems across a wide range of diseases. Technologies developed by him have resulted in several granted and pending patents and technology disclosures, with most licensed to biotech companies and one already advancing through clinical trials. Dr. Joshi’s research work has been published in top tier journals, including Nature Communications, Science Advances, Nanotoday, Biomaterials, and Journal of Controlled Release, and has been highlighted by multiple media outlets and scientific journals around the world. He has received multiple awards for his work, including MIT’s Technology Review Magazine (TR35) India Award, Lockheed Martin Innovation Award, and Boston Patent Law Association (BPLA) 2020 Invented Here! Featured Honoree Award. He is also a co-founder of Akita Biosciences, a biotech company that aims to advance a nasal spray technology developed in Dr. Joshi’s lab. He also serves as a consultant for multiple biotech companies.

Education:

Pharmacist, PhD, MBA (Henley Business School) and holder of various expert qualifications amongst others Qualified Person according to EU Regulations.

Professional Experience:

Worked for top ten global pharma companies for more than 30 years. He started his career at Roche (Basel, Switzerland) and joined Sanofi in 1997. Since then has held various roles in the field of injectable drug delivery systems for biotherapeutics with expanding responsibility: QA/QC, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Key Account Management of device partner companies, Global Medical Device Surveillance, Global Device Project Leader and Drug Device Integrator.

Special interests:

Drug Device Integration during the R&D and Industrialization phases of novel biotherapeutics, Drug Device combinations with connectivity, technical standardization of medical devices (ISO, DIN), establishing and working with cross-functional diverse teams.

Publications (selected):

Approaches in subcutaneous delivery of monoclonal antibodies (2016) (https://www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview.com/article/43818/approaches-subcutaneous-delivery-monoclonal-antibodies/)

Standardization of the Reconstitution Procedure of Protein Lyophilizates as a Key Parameter to Control Product Stability (2020) (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022354919306690)

Mike holds the position as Global Head Regulator Devices & Combination Products at Novartis Pharma AG since August 2022.

Prior to this role, Mike had the position of Novartis Global Head MDR implementation and was overseeing all activities related to the EU MDR implementation for Medical Devices & Combination Products.

Mike was functioning as Executive Director QA to oversee all compliance activities related to Medical Devices & Combination Products at Novartis globally.

Mike joined Novartis in 2010 as Global Auditor in Group Compliance and Audit. He has over 25 years of experience in QA, R&D, and Manufacturing within the Medical Devices & Pharmaceutical Industry.

Mike is member of several US and EU Expert Committees and Interest Groups on Combination Products and lecturer at the Universities of Zürich/CH, Bern/CH, and Baltimore/US.

Before joining Novartis, he was Head Global Audit Systems at Gambro Renal Care (today Baxter) and European Head Quality Systems & Audits at 3M.

He studied Chemical Engineering and Plastic Technologies, in Münster, Germany.

Over 20 years of experience in many facets of regulatory affairs, quality compliance and quality operations within the GxP regulated environment pertaining to Emerging Technologies and Combination Products.  Regularly provides AbbVie therapeutic franchise units regulatory counsel and strategy to all aspects within the quality management system and regulatory affairs regarding CMC Global Dossiers/Global Device Regulatory Strategies, EU MDR/IVDR – Person Responsible for Regulatory Compliance (PRRC), 21 CFR Part 3 and Part 4 - Combination Products, CE Marking, ISO 13485:2016/MDSAP, International Regulatory Affairs, Product Development - (Design Control, Risk Management and Human Factors Engineering), Acquisitions/Divestitures and represents AbbVie as the U.S Agent regarding FDA matters for international medical device facilities.

In addition, lectures at various symposia, is the Chairman of the DIA Combination Products Committee, chairs various global combination products conferences, participates in regulatory panel discussions within the industry and is an adjunct assistant professor at USC – School of Pharmacy - Regulatory Science Programs.

John received a BS in biochemistry from Albright College and his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Brown University. After completing a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute in NYC in the departments of Positron Emission Tomography and Neurology, he joined the Medicinal Chemistry Discovery group at Johnson Matthey Biomedical. There he made several significant contributions to early research projects on new Pt- antitumor drugs and peptide-based diagnostic radio-imaging agents. After nearly a decade as a discovery med chemist, he moved on to drug development in positions of increasing responsibility at J&J and Sanofi-Aventis. He and his teams have specialized in the areas of drug delivery, solid state chemistry and biomaterials in relation to improving the bioperformance of therapeutic agents. Towards this end, he has led the successful implementation of a wide range of methodologies into drug discovery space including prodrug design for
enhanced solubility/permeability, miniaturized polymeric amorphous dispersions and nanoparticle technologies.

John currently is Distinguished Scientist, Discovery Pharmaceutical Sciences
department at Merck’s Discovery Center in South San Francisco. In this
multidisciplinary role, he is responsible for oversight of the biopharmaceutical and drug delivery aspects of Merck’s discovery programs (small molecules, peptides, biologics) as well as the identification of new enabling technologies for burgeoning areas such as oral peptide and ophthalmic gene delivery. Over his over 32 year pharma career, he is co-inventor on 13 US Patents and author of numerous and diverse publications and book chapters in the fields of organic, solid state & medicinal chemistry and drug delivery.

John also currently serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he regularly teaches classes in various
aspects of drug discovery and development.

John received a BS in biochemistry from Albright College and his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Brown University. After completing a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute in NYC in the departments of Positron Emission Tomography and Neurology, he joined the Medicinal Chemistry Discovery group at Johnson Matthey Biomedical. There he made several significant contributions to early research projects on new Pt- antitumor drugs and peptide-based diagnostic radio-imaging agents. After nearly a decade as a discovery med chemist, he moved on to drug development in positions of increasing responsibility at J&J and Sanofi-Aventis. He and his teams have specialized in the areas of drug delivery, solid state chemistry and biomaterials in relation to improving the bioperformance of therapeutic agents. Towards this end, he has led the successful implementation of a wide range of methodologies into drug discovery space including prodrug design for
enhanced solubility/permeability, miniaturized polymeric amorphous dispersions and nanoparticle technologies.

John currently is Distinguished Scientist, Discovery Pharmaceutical Sciences
department at Merck’s Discovery Center in South San Francisco. In this
multidisciplinary role, he is responsible for oversight of the biopharmaceutical and drug delivery aspects of Merck’s discovery programs (small molecules, peptides, biologics) as well as the identification of new enabling technologies for burgeoning areas such as oral peptide and ophthalmic gene delivery. Over his over 32 year pharma career, he is co-inventor on 13 US Patents and author of numerous and diverse publications and book chapters in the fields of organic, solid state & medicinal chemistry and drug delivery.

John also currently serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he regularly teaches classes in various
aspects of drug discovery and development.

Dr. Fatima Bennai-Sanfourche is working as Senior Manager for QA&RA Compliance for Medical Devices and eHealth at Bayer AG. Previously she worked in the medical affairs and Pharmacovigilance department at Bayer as Director, Medical Device Safety Global Pharmacovigilance/Medical device Safety officer. She has more than 15 years of experience in the quality management and Regulatory Affairs of medical devices field, and over 20 years of supervisory and leadership experience including hiring, training and performance evaluation. She studied Biology with a focus on Biochemistry, Immunology and Pharmacology, and did her PhD in Pharmacology and Pharmacochemistry in Strasbourg in France. She started her professional life with more university-oriented areas doing research and development in France, Sweden and Germany with a focus on cerebrovascular diseases, such as stroke, regulation of hypertension and development of immunoassays. She moved then from academia to private industry. She was working for more than 20 years in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, in-vitro diagnostic and medical device industry on a management level and was responsible as a team leader for project management with scientific focus, quality management and regulatory affairs tasks. In her current position by Bayer AG her focus is ensuring the regulatory compliance as well as high product quality of medical device and eHealth components of the Pharmaceuticals pipeline and portfolio. She is also responsible for Ensuring compliant use of medical devices and medical software tools in the context of clinical investigations and clinical trials, incl. accordance with medical device Good Clinical Practice (GCP). She is also leading the project of the implementation of euMDR for PH-Bayer AG. She was nominated in 2019 by the European Commission as EFPIA observer for the PMSV (Post-Market Surveillance and Vigilance) subgroup (GROW.D4) responsible for the implementation of these process according the medical Device regulation. The period of nomination is of five years starting on 01 March 2019
 

Dr. Stefan Schneid is currently the Scientific Lead Parenterals and Science Fellow in the Drug Product Development department at Bayer AG. He is responsible for scientific and strategic advancement of formulation and process development for novel biological entities, small molecules and new modalities. He is involved in development projects from the preclinical stage up to transfer to commercial production. Previously, Stefan worked as a Laboratory Head in Bayer’s parenteral formulation development group. Prior to joining Bayer, he was a R&D manager at Syntacoll, where he was responsible for developing novel formulations for drug-containing biodegradable implants. Stefan was a post-doctoral research fellow in the freeze-drying focus group at the University of Erlangen and spent one year as a visiting scientist in Prof. Michael Pikal’s lab at the University of Connecticut. Stefan holds a degree in pharmacy from the University of Munich and a Ph.D. in pharmaceutics from the University of Erlangen.

Nélio Drumond is a PharmD by training with a PhD in Patient Centric Drug Product Design. He shares several years of experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry, providing scientific leadership to govern formulation and manufacturing strategies for drug product development programs during clinical stages, including their scalability and validation for commercial use. Nélio has spent the last 2 years overseeing Takeda’s external commercial manufacturing portfolio within the EMEA region and has recently joined the Global Manufacturing Sciences group in Cambridge, MA to support launch and commercialization of promising NCE’s from clinical programs. Dr. Drumond is a strong advocate for patient centric drug product design and is regularly invited to speak at various international conferences.

Rob Steendam, PhD, is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at InnoCore Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical drug delivery company specialized in the development of long-acting injectables  for the treatment of chronic and site-specific diseases. At InnoCore he heads the development of InnoCore’s innovative biodegradable polymeric sustained release drug delivery technologies and oversees the execution of InnoCore’s partnered drug delivery product development programs. He is an inventor of several patents related to novel biodegradable multi-block copolymers and their application in parenteral drug delivery and drug eluting implants. Prior to founding InnoCore in 2004, he worked for Polyganics, a venture capital funded biosurgical start-up company, where he played a key role in developing the company and managed the pre-clinical and clinical development of novel bioresorbable implants and tissue regeneration products in the fields of peripheral nerve repair and general surgery. He holds a MSc degree in Polymer Sciences and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy, both from the University of Groningen in The Netherlands.

PhD in infection biology with 10+ years of experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry & MedTech - in areas such as clinical trial management, marketing & front end / feasibility.

Dr. René Holm is a professor in pharmaceutical physical chemistry at the University of Southern Denmark. After receiving Master and PhD degree in pharmaceutics from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2002, he started his carrier in the pharmaceutical industry at H.Lundbeck in 2001 and changed to Janssen in 2016. Dr. Holm has worked within pharmaceutical development, formulations for non-clinical testing in drug discovery, physical chemistry and material science covering both small and large molecules. In 2021 Dr. Holm engaged into a carrier change and became a full professor. Dr. Holm is (co-) author of more than 220 original articles in peer-reviewed journals and patents in the field of biopharmaceutics, preformulation, formulation and physical pharmacy and book chapters and is co-inventor on 12 published patents.

Since joining AstraZeneca in 2017, Kristina has focused on developing novel lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations for nucleotide-based therapeutics delivery and the optimization of the process from lipid synthesis to preclinical testing. In addition to this she has led an AZ interdisciplinary collaboration to create an LNP formulation that can be spray dried for functional and safe delivery of mRNA to the lungs.

Driton is a Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, King’s College London. Driton’s research interests centre around overcoming the biological barriers to improve drug delivery and enable non-invasive delivery of biologics, particularly via the oral route. As part of this, he has specific interests in drug delivery systems, including nanomedicines, for mucosal delivery. He has recently focused on extracellular vesicles as natural nanosystems that could potentially enable mucosal delivery of biologics.

Gunilla Petersson is Science & Innovation Director, Inhaled Drug Delivery, at AstraZeneca, affiliated to the Innovation Strategies & Internal Liaison (IS&EL) segment. Dr Petersson holds a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Lund University (Sweden). She has been at AstraZeneca for 25 years, holding different line management and scientific expert roles linking formulations and devices, mainly for inhaled drug product development, having worked in technology development and scouting, product development and registrations of new products, competitor landscape, CMC industry consortia boards and working teams (EPAG, IPAC-RS) for 10 years, drug project due diligences and scientific marketing of AstraZeneca products.

Camille Dagallier is a Lab head, Senior Formulation Scientist and drug product development specialist at Sanofi, where she joined in 2015. She graduated from ESPCI in Paris, earned a master in polymer science and holds a PhD in colloid physics from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, where she collaborated with the team of Pr. Peter Schurtenberger. She performed postdoctoral research at Stanford University with Pr. Gerald Fuller on interfaces. Empowered by scientific challenges, she strongly believes that understanding and rationalization are keys for powerful and efficient formulation and drug product development.

Robin Curtis is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science at the University of Manchester.  Before joining Manchester, he did post-doctoral work supervised by Michael W. Deem at Rice University and University of California at Los Angeles, and completed his PhD under the supervision of John M. Prausnitz and Harvey W. Blanch at University of California at Berkeley.  He is a trained biochemical engineering with expertise in molecular approaches to understand protein solution behaviour directly relevant to downstream bioprocessing unit operations and liquid formulations.   Current projects focus on developing novel approaches for predicting shelf stability of biopharmaceuticals using chemical stress, investigating methods for supercharging proteins to enhance their resistance against aggregation, and understanding the relationship between dilute solution properties and concentrated solution behaviour, such as rheology, phase separation, and particle formation.

Felix is a pharmacist by training with a PhD in pharmacology. In 2006, he joined Boehringer Ingelheim as a trainee, focusing on launch and transfer activities of inhalative products. He took over different roles at BI microParts for development of inhalation devices as QA Head, senior project manager and lab head for design engineering. In 2010, he joined the Ger­resheimer Group as a QC head and later on quality director for large-scale manufacturing of sterile primary packaging components, i.e.RTF®- syringes and insulin cartridges. In 2015, he returned to Boehringer Ingelheim to implement structures for life cycle management of the Respimat® Plat­form Technology, including ownership of design history files for existing products and launching the new Respimat Reusable® in Europe in 2018. Currently he is the director of Device Technology in operations. He is responsible for a matrix organization that includes project management, design verification laboratories, clinical trial supply, design engineering, design control, process technology and data science approaches for life cycle of devices in operations.

Dr. Alberto Berardi holds a M.S. Pharm. degree by the University of Camerino (with First Honors), Italy, and a PhD from the University of East Anglia, UK, specializing in oral delivery of biopharmaceuticals and formulation of these into tablets. He has authored over 30 scientific peer-reviewed publications, and was recognized as one of the “2021 Outstanding Early Career Scientists” by The Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is a member of the International Steering Committee of the Handbook of Pharmaceutical Excipients.

Heonchang Lim is the Head of Formulation Development at Samsung Biologics' CDO division, where he leads a team dedicated to developing innovative drug formulations. With over 15 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, Heonchang has specialization in protein drugs and vaccines. He has successfully managed more than 50 formulation development and non-GMP DP manufacturing projects. In September 2022, he helped launch DEVELOPICKTM, a platform that evaluates target molecules. Prior to joining Samsung Biologics in 2017, Heonchang served as a scientist at LG Chem, where he conducted R&D for purification and formulation development in multiple vaccine and protein drug projects. He earned a Master's degree in medicine from Seoul National University and a Bachelor's degree in molecular biology from Catholic University.

Peter is an organic chemist by training. He has more than 25 years of pharmaceutical management experience. Notably he has worked at Lundbeck for more than 13 years in different positions in R&D and production management. He has also served as CEO of the Biotech company Egalet and Riemann. He excels in driving change management and in interacting with partners and authorities

Daniel Primavessy studied Bioinformatics for a bachelor’s degree and Biotechnology for a master’s degree at Saarland University from 2003 to 2011. He did a PhD from 2011 to 2017 at Saarland University and Philipps-University in Marburg focusing on encapsulation into polymeric nanoparticulate and microparticulate systems. After 2 years as post-doc at Saarland University and 2 more years in pharmaceutical contract research focusing on instruments for the replacement of animal experiments, he joined Midas Pharma GmbH and now works in the Innovation Management and Devices section of the Company as a project manager with a strong focus on scientific and innovation projects.

Dr. Deepak Murpani has been in Pharmaceutical industry for more that 25 years now. He has been C level executive (CSO & COO) for last 12+ years in some reputed European companies. He holds International experience, global network, and proven track record of success in Pharma industry. He has been focused on EU and US generics market with specialization in developing patent non-infringing & patentable innovative products using novel drug delivery systems (NDDS). Thus far he developed & launched 300+ products, mainly difficult-to-make value-added generic products. As member of executive team in last 12+ years, he strategically contributed towards choosing right portfolio, securing IP rights and launching these new products. He significantly contributed to boost the image & market value of his employers by introducing attractive product portfolios and leading the technical teams to launch these products using lean & cost effective infrastructure.

Soren Skov is the Human Factors lead in the Roche Smart Device Tech Center and behaviour design lead for Digital Health programs across the organization. Previously Soren was the HFE lead of development of connected autoinjectors and their digital health ecosystems. He comes to the world of pharma product development with a background in psychology, Danish design and medical device startups.

Dr. Patrick Duffy is the R&D Team Leader and Manufacturing Manager for the ViatelTM bioresorbable polymer portfolio at Ashland, supporting customers with key excipients/materials and technical solutions in the development of extended-release parenteral drug delivery formulations, medical devices, tissue engineering scaffolds and cosmetics. 

He joined Ashland as part of the Vornia Ltd. acquisition in 2018 where he previously held the same responsibilities. During his time at Vornia Ltd., he played a key role in the development of the company’s major intellectual property platform for production of bioresorbable polymers. He has extensive knowledge of bioresorbable polymer design, chemistry and processing technologies used in medical applications. This experience comes from working on large research and commercial projects delivering bioresorbable polymer-based solutions for orthopedic, cardiovascular, neurological, oncology, wound-care, dental, ophthalmic, regenerative medicine and wider drug delivery technologies.

Dr. Duffy has authored or co-authored several research/review articles on polymer design for medical applications. He obtained his B.Eng., M.Sc. and Ph.D. from University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland.

Steven Winling is a Scientific Advisor, Science and Technology at Catalent where he is responsible for providing valuable insights and shaping Catalent’s scientific pipeline and strategy in Europe.

Steven strives to put molecules on the path to patients. In his experience, upholding rigorous science-driven decision making goes in hand with successful pathfinding and problem-solving.

Steven has worked in the pharmaceutical industry since 2009. His experience is mainly with early stage pharmaceutical development, especially drug product development. Through roles as an analytical chemist, project manager, technical specialist, and scientific advisor he has supported dozens of molecules and helped many more customers navigate preclinical and clinical development.

Steven holds a Master’s degree in analytical chemistry & biology from Strasbourg University, France.

In current role, Ko is responsible for the end-to-end development of oral solid dosage forms with a focus on continuous manufacturing. Previously, Ko worked in Chemical industry in R&D where he supported product development projects with a focus on polymer technology related to barrier properties and adhesion and its processing. Ko also worked on various developments on films and pharmaceutical packaging & medical device applications. Ko earned his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences (research topic: Bioavailability study of hop-derived bitter acids) and a master’s degree in Chemistry from Ghent University, Belgium.

• Diploma Biophysics, Technical University Kaiserslautern (2011-2017)
• PhD in Biochemistry, Goethe University Frankfurt (2017-2021)
• Project Manager at BioNTech IMFS in Idar-Oberstein (2021)
• Innovative mRNA, gene therapy, and formulation projects
• PostDoc Boehringer Ingelheim Biberach an der Riß (since 12/2021)

Martin Spoerk is the scientific area leader of the area “Process and Manufacturing Science” at Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH. He studied polymer engineering and science and received his PhD from Ghent University, Belgium, and Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria, in the field of material optimisations for extrusion- based additive manufacturing. His current interest is in pharmaceutical material science and advanced pharmaceutical process engineering, with a special focus on hot-melt extrusion and pharmaceutical additive manufacturing technologies.

Dr. Eoin O'Cearbhaill, BE, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the UCD School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering. Prior to joining UCD, Dr. O'Cearbhaill was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School (Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology Division; Dept. of Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital), where his research focused on the conception and development of medical devices and the delivery of next generation therapeutics, in the laboratory of Prof. Jeffrey Karp. Based on his development of a mechanical clutch needle, designed to prevent through-puncture injuries, Dr O'Cearbhaill was awarded 1st prize at the MIT Sloan BioInnovations 2012 conference. He was also part of the team that received the Institution of Chemical Engineers' Innovative Product of the Year Award 2013 for their work on developing a bio-inspired microneedle adhesive. Dr O'Cearbhaill obtained his BE (Biomedical) and PhD from NUI Galway. His doctorate focused on applying mechanical stimulation to MSCs for vascular tissue engineering applications. Subsequently, he worked for Veryan Medical, before joining Creganna-Tactx, where he worked in both manufacturing and design service roles, helping to establish their Specialty Needles Division in Marlborough, MA. Dr O'Cearbhaill's interests include: 3D Printing of Medical Devices; Medical Device Innovation, Design and Commercialisation, including minimally invasive devices and delivery systems.

Dr Shahid Uddin is currently Senior Director Formulation/ Stability and Drug Product Design within the CMC department at Immunocore. His team is responsible for bringing research candidates into clinic and commercialisation.  Technology is focussed around developing ImmTAC® as therapeutic agents for different disease models. Prior to this he held the position of Head of Formulation at MedImmune (AstraZeneca) where he supported the biologics portfolio covering Monoclonal antibodies, Peptides, bispecifics

Janez Jancar started his professional carrier in the National Institute of Chemistry (KI) in Ljubljana Slovenia, where he came into contact with biotechnology for the first time. He has been involved in upstream, downstream or DP development of biologics ever since. After the initial gathering of basic understanding and knowledge in the field of upstream of biologics in KI, he moved to BIA Separation (now Sartorius) whre he significantly contributed to the development of monolithic chromatographic columns dedicated to the downstream of large biological molecules like pDNA and virus vectors. After 20+ years in BIA Separation and the function of head of Technical Support he joined the Novartis company where he currently works as a DP project leader. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemical technology and master’s degree in material characterization.

I am programme manager within medical device development in Novo Nordisk. With an education as PhD in physics and nanotechnology combined with 8 years industry experience and PMP® certification, I am leading several device development programmes and I have lately been focusing on bringing connectivity to injection devices in Novo Nordisk portfolio. Recent advances within the field of digital solutions and improving real-world outcomes is a key motivator for me.

Nélio Drumond is a PharmD by training with a PhD in Patient Centric Drug Product Design. He shares several years of experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry, providing scientific leadership to govern formulation and manufacturing strategies for drug product development programs during clinical stages, including their scalability and validation for commercial use. Nélio has spent the last 2 years overseeing Takeda’s external commercial manufacturing portfolio within the EMEA region and has recently joined the Global Manufacturing Sciences group in Cambridge, MA to support launch and commercialization of promising NCE’s from clinical programs. Dr. Drumond is a strong advocate for patient centric drug product design and is regularly invited to speak at various international conferences.

Tonio is an industrial engineer with degrees from Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Lyon (France) and Darmstadt (Germany) University of Technology.

Within Device and Packaging Development at F. Hoffmann – La Roche Basel he has been working in the Device Engineering group since 2017. Besides his work as Device Team Leader and Device Engineer for Small Molecule and Smart Device projects he is the Device SPOC for sustainability. Prior to joining Roche Tonio worked within the Device Industrialization Department of Sanofi, Frankfurt (Germany).

Soren Skov is the Human Factors lead in the Roche Smart Device Tech Center and behaviour design lead for Digital Health programs across the organization. Previously Soren was the HFE lead of development of connected autoinjectors and their digital health ecosystems. He comes to the world of pharma product development with a background in psychology, Danish design and medical device startups.

Harshal is part of our global medical division based out of Boston. He has more than 15 years of experience in medical device development, product life cycle strategy, and innovation management. He has significant expertise in oncology patient journey, economics of cancer care and innovations in oncology. He has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from Nirma Institute of Technology in India, an MBA from Syracuse University, New York, and a postgraduate in cancer biology and therapeutics development from Harvard Medical School.

John received a BS in biochemistry from Albright College and his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Brown University. After completing a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute in NYC in the departments of Positron Emission Tomography and Neurology, he joined the Medicinal Chemistry Discovery group at Johnson Matthey Biomedical. There he made several significant contributions to early research projects on new Pt- antitumor drugs and peptide-based diagnostic radio-imaging agents. After nearly a decade as a discovery med chemist, he moved on to drug development in positions of increasing responsibility at J&J and Sanofi-Aventis. He and his teams have specialized in the areas of drug delivery, solid state chemistry and biomaterials in relation to improving the bioperformance of therapeutic agents. Towards this end, he has led the successful implementation of a wide range of methodologies into drug discovery space including prodrug design for
enhanced solubility/permeability, miniaturized polymeric amorphous dispersions and nanoparticle technologies.

John currently is Distinguished Scientist, Discovery Pharmaceutical Sciences
department at Merck’s Discovery Center in South San Francisco. In this
multidisciplinary role, he is responsible for oversight of the biopharmaceutical and drug delivery aspects of Merck’s discovery programs (small molecules, peptides, biologics) as well as the identification of new enabling technologies for burgeoning areas such as oral peptide and ophthalmic gene delivery. Over his over 32 year pharma career, he is co-inventor on 13 US Patents and author of numerous and diverse publications and book chapters in the fields of organic, solid state & medicinal chemistry and drug delivery.

John also currently serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he regularly teaches classes in various
aspects of drug discovery and development.

Philippe Lienard obtained his PhD in organic chemistry at the Orsay University, France, in Pr. Husson team in 1991. After having performed a post-doc in Pr. Oppolzer’s laboratory, he joined Synthelabo in 1993 in chemical development. Then, he occupied several positions within Sanofi chemical development including Head of Pilot Plant on various French and USA Sanofi sites. He has been working within pharmaceutical sciences for 10 years as Head of Early Development Unit in Vitry site for development of in silico methods to anticipate drug degradation in drug product.  Then, he became a CMC project leader for a department of Early Development at the interface of the research and the development unit for several research programs. Since few months, Philippe joined Pasteur Institute in the Direction of Research Application and Industrials Relationship (DARRI) as Pre-Clinical Leader. He is the author or co-author of 10 publications and the co-inventor of 2 patents.

Kishore Ravuri is a CMC leader and drug product expert with more than 15y of experience in drug product formulation development and process development. During his stint at F. Hoffmann La Roche, he has worked extensively with biologics, oligos and small molecule sterile products right from the preclinical phases up to market launch.  He has been involved with the launch of multiple biologic products to the market like Phesgo, Vebysmo, Columvi etc. Kishore is an expert in protein-excipient interactions, surfactants in biologics and light induced degradation of biologics. Currently he leads the pharmaceutical development chapter dealing with T-cell bispecific new modalities.

Dr. Stephen T. Buckley is Scientific Vice President of Advanced Drug Delivery at Novo Nordisk A/S, Denmark. In addition to his leadership responsibilities, he is responsible at Novo Nordisk for a cross-organizational team of scientific experts tasked with identifying and evaluating novel drug delivery technologies. He holds a degree in pharmacy from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), and a Ph.D in biopharmaceutics and cell physiology from the same university. During this time, he also worked as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Southern California (USA). Prior to joining Novo Nordisk A/S, Dr. Buckley was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Southern Denmark (Denmark). He is the recipient of honors and awards from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and the Scandinavian and German Physiological Societies. He is (co-) author of 25+ articles in peer-reviewed journals (including Science, Science Translational Medicine and Nature Biotechnology), 1 book chapter and 30+ abstracts, and has been invited to give numerous presentations at research institutions, international conferences and workshops

Dr. Ajay Khopade is a Vice President R&D and Heading non-oral speciality division at Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (SPIL). With over 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical product development, in his current role as VP-R&D, is responsible for development of SPILs complex generic and differentiated product development and product life-cycle management. Dr. Khopade has extensive end-to-end (ideation-technology development-preclinical POC-clinical-commercial) development experience across multiple therapeutic areas in novel parenteral dosage forms. He has participated as CMC expert in the submission of number of INDs, NDAs and technology evaluation for in-licensing opportunities. He is an inventor of a platform nanotechnology in the field of oncology (Nanotecton®), ophthalmics (GFR®, SMM® Trisurf® and TearAct®), liposome and depot injections protected by various IPs globally with over a dozen patents. Most of these technologies have endured clinical tests to reach into the market. Dr. Khopade has been a Humboldt post-doctoral fellow at Max Plank institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Sagar, MP, India. His areas of interest are understanding physical chemistry of drug delivery system design.

• Graduated from University in Brunswick as pharmacist (2020)
• Phd student at Martin-Luther-University in Halle (Saale) since 2021
• Doing research on Polysorbate oxidation

Professor Dimitrios Lamprou (Ph.D., MBA) is Full Professor (Chair) of Biofabrication and Advanced Manufacturing and Director at MSc Industrial Pharmaceutics at Queen’s University Belfast. He is also the Chair at United Kingdom and Ireland Controlled Release Society (UKICRS) and the Chair of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (APS) Emerging Technologies Focus Group. Dimitrios, is the author of over 140 peer-reviewed publications, has over 350 conference abstracts, has given over 140 Invited Talks in institutions and conferences across the world, and has secure Funding in excess of £2.5M. Dimitrios, has been recognised as world leader in Printing with PubMed-based algorithms placed him in the top 0.047% of scholars in the world writing about Printing in the last 10 years. Moreover, PubMed-based algorithms placed him in the top 0.51% of scholars in the world writing about microfluidics. Dimitrios, has also been named in the Stanford University’s list 2021 & 2022 of World’s Top 2% Scientists, for his research in Pharmaceutics and Biomedical Engineering. For more info, please visit our lab website at www.emergingtechnologieslab.com.

Petrick is a chemical engineer by education, who obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. During his studies where he focussed on thermal and mechanical Process Engineering, he gained first experience in the Pharma environment as an intern and master student in the Pharmaceutical Development Department at Roche in Basel. In 2018  he joined the Device and Packaging Development team, where he was working in several roles as Verification Engineer, Device Team Leader and Pre-fillable Syringe Engineer. In all mentioned roles, he was mainly focusing on Ophthalmic products.

Medical education at Leiden University Medical School.
President CEO SQ Innovation (novel furosemide formulation for subcutaneous delivery).
Founder scPharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SCPH).
Founder G3 Pharmaceuticals (galectin-3 inhibitors cardiac and neurodegenerative disease).
Co-Principal Investigator of the BioImage/BioImage-2 studies to identify novel methods to identify those at risk for major cardiovascular events.
Career has spanned executive roles in global pharmaceutical companies and early stage private and public pharmaceutical and device companies.

John earned a MSc from the University of Waterloo in theoretical chemistry and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in computational chemistry.  Following post-doctoral research in computational chemistry at the University of British Columbia, he worked for Procter & Gamble studying surfactants structures in solution.  For the last 21 years, John has worked for Schrödinger, LLC, as a scientific software developer and a research scientist, managing a number of products including the Materials Science Coarse-Grained product.

Tom is the Business Unit Manager at Sonceboz SA. In this role Tom created a strong network with pharma companies and he is leading the Sonceboz Medical Team to create the next generation of wearable drug delivery devices. Tom brings more than 15 years of experience in business development, sales and field service activities in medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging companies.

Tom holds a certificate of advanced studies (CAS) from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne in Management of Biotech and Medtech Ventures as well as an MBA with distinction from FOM Munich University. Tom also earned an engineering diploma degree in Medical Engineering from Furtwangen-University, Germany.

Tatiana Marcozzi is a senior scientist in the oral solid development team at Janssen ReD. After graduating Master of science in Pharmaceutical chemistry and technology at the University of Bologna (Italy) she started working as a junior technology transfer lead, before moving into ReD. Concurrently with her job, Tatiana is doing her industrial PhD in pharmaceutical technology, in collaboration with UGent (Belgium).

Dr. Sangeun Lee is a Junior Professor in Pharmacy Department at Saarland University, Germany. She has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Helmholtz-institute for Pharmaceutical Research, Saarland, with Prof. C-M. Lehr and Prof. A.K.H. Hirsch, after receiving her doctorate degree in Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego, in 2018. Her research interest is in polymeric nanomaterials for pharmaceutical applications such as drug delivery, bioimaging, and detection. She develops polymeric nanoparticles by designing new bio-responsive polymers to enhance the targeting effect of materials using biomarkers at a target.

Mr. Yu-Ting LIN, MScIH, is currently working in device engineering team in Merck KGaA as a Senior Usability Engineer in Switzerland. Yu-Ting is focusing on user-centered design, including user needs exploration, usability engineering strategy setup and user interface development. He is also responsible for European medical device regulation (MDR) transition and compliance of combination products on usability perspective. He has been actively involved in the usability – related guidance drafting in Taiwan and IEC committee activities.

As a former medical device technical file assessor in Taiwan regulatory agency and RA/QA consultant, Yu-Ting has over 15 years experiences in medical device design control and usability engineering. He has ever established usability engineering services model in southeast Asia region and led numerous usability studies, expert review, and gap analysis against IEC 62366/FDA guidance. In addition to usability-related field, Yu-Ting is also supporting quality system compliance work and post-market follow up activities.

Dr. Panmai is currently working at WuXi STA as Vice President and Head of Early Phase Formulation R&D, where he has been since 2017. He leads the formulation teams in Shanghai and Wuxi City, China, which are responsible for formulation development and clinical trial materials of new chemical entities from global clients (US, Europe and Asia).

Prior to joining WuXi STA, he worked at MSD in the US (PA/NJ) for 18 years in the Pharmaceutical Sciences group. He has extensive experience in formulation development and material characterization.

Dr. Panmai obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University.

Dr. Frederic Dargelas is the Director, Head of Business Development and Alliance Management of DelSiTech. He is a business development and R&D veteran with almost 20 years of experience in the pharma and biotech industry. Previously, he held managing positions at diverse international companies such as GSK and Orion Pharma. Dr. Dargelas holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry of Polymers and an MBA.

Beatriz Noriega Fernandes is a Senior Principal Scientist in the R&D group at Lonza’s site in Monteggio, Switzerland. She leads a portfolio of programs and identifies potential strategies for dry powder inhalation delivery of small molecule APIs.

She is a Biological Engineer by training with a PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, in collaboration with Hovione. Her background includes over 7 years of experience in in the Pharmaceutical Industry, in various areas of Dry Powder Inhaler development. Her areas of expertise include the formulation and manufacturing of inhalable clinical products ranging from low to high dose, from laboratory to industrial scales.

Dr. Hellrup received his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences in 2016 from Uppsala University, Sweden. He joined Nanexa AB, Sweden as Formulation scientist in 2016. Today, Dr. Hellrup serves as Head of Pharmaceutical R&D at Nanexa. He is one of the key developers of the PharmaShell® technology and is named as an inventor on several patent applications.

Dr. Tamara Phan has completed her PhD in 2022 from University of Ulm, Germany, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co. KG, Germany. She focuses on the analysis of surfactants and their degradation mechanisms in the field of biopharmaceutical formulation development.

Dr Vivek Trivedi is a pharmacist by training. After a short stint in industry after his undergraduate and MSc, he did his PhD on the topic of the development of novel drug delivery systems for the oral delivery of biomolecules. He started his academic career in 2010 as a Lecturer in Formulation Science at the University of Greenwich, he then moved to the University of Kent in 2019. Dr Trivedi's research is centred around two areas: solubility improvement of BCS II drugs and non-invasive delivery of biomolecules. He is particularly interested in the applications of green processing methods, such as supercritical carbon dioxide to develop suitable strategies for drug delivery.

Hannes studied Chemical Engineering at ETH Zürich where he graduated with distinction and got a chance to work with world leading scientists as well as spend time in industry with Novartis in Basel. After his studies in Zürich, Hannes moved to Cambridge to Prof. Tuomas Knowles’ Lab to pursue a PhD in biophysics. His research on characterising specificity of antibodies, which is a key to the successful development of these molecules as therapeutics.

Janez Jancar started his professional carrier in the National Institute of Chemistry (KI) in Ljubljana Slovenia, where he came into contact with biotechnology for the first time. He has been involved in upstream, downstream or DP development of biologics ever since. After the initial gathering of basic understanding and knowledge in the field of upstream of biologics in KI, he moved to BIA Separation (now Sartorius) whre he significantly contributed to the development of monolithic chromatographic columns dedicated to the downstream of large biological molecules like pDNA and virus vectors. After 20+ years in BIA Separation and the function of head of Technical Support he joined the Novartis company where he currently works as a DP project leader. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemical technology and master’s degree in material characterization.

Martin Huelsmeyer is chemist by training and received his PhD in Structural Biology from Technical University Braunschweig, Germany. Prior joining Abbvie in 2012, he held positions in academia at University of Würzburg, Technical University Berlin, University Hospital Charité Berlin and was employed at biotech company Pieris near Munich.

At Abbvie he is part of the NBE Formulation development team establishing AbbVie’s robotized High Throughput Formulation platform. He is responsible for the design of HTS screening concepts, evaluating, and establishing new formulation approaches and leads several strategic development initiatives covering a broad range of molecular modalities and therapeutic areas.

Nick DiFranco, MEM, is the Global Market Segment Manager for Oral Treatments at Lubrizol Life Science Health (LLS Health). In his role, Nick coordinates a multi-disciplinary team offering excipients and services for controlled release and solubility enhancement in oral solids and liquids, including Carbopol® and Apinovex™ polymers. Prior to this role, Nick held positions as an Applications Scientist and Market Manager at Lubrizol supporting long-acting drug delivery and CDMO services. Nick holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering (Biomaterials focus) and a Master of Engineering and Management degree from Case Western Reserve University.

Philippe Lienard obtained his PhD in organic chemistry at the Orsay University, France, in Pr. Husson team in 1991. After having performed a post-doc in Pr. Oppolzer’s laboratory, he joined Synthelabo in 1993 in chemical development. Then, he occupied several positions within Sanofi chemical development including Head of Pilot Plant on various French and USA Sanofi sites. He has been working within pharmaceutical sciences for 10 years as Head of Early Development Unit in Vitry site for development of in silico methods to anticipate drug degradation in drug product.  Then, he became a CMC project leader for a department of Early Development at the interface of the research and the development unit for several research programs. Since few months, Philippe joined Pasteur Institute in the Direction of Research Application and Industrials Relationship (DARRI) as Pre-Clinical Leader. He is the author or co-author of 10 publications and the co-inventor of 2 patents.