#UKBIO19: Join GSK’s Hal Barron and a group of top biotech execs for our 2nd annual biotech summit in London
John CarrollOver the past 10 years I’ve made a point of getting to know the Golden Triangle and the special role the UK biopharma industry plays there in drug development. The concentration of world class research institutes, some of the most accomplished scientists I’ve ever seen at work and a rising tide of global investment cash leaves an impression that there’s much, much more to come as biotech hubs are birthed and nurtured.
Of course, the industry also has to survive Brexit, tropical storm Woodford and the latest pratfalls with investors to actually reach the golden shores. Why does such a great place have so many self-inflicted wounds to overcome?
These are all meaty subjects for us to explore as we host our second annual UK biotech summit on October 8, with SVB sponsoring the event at The Royal College of Physicians. SVB’s Nooman Haque has been an instrumental organizer and will be co-hosting the summit.
Hal BarronGSK research chief Hal Barron will be on hand for a one-on-one with me covering the new GSK R&D group, when we can discuss the changing culture of the global operations — with a major role for their campus in Stevenage. Barron has been steering a group of late-stage programs that GSK has been spotlighting as evidence of better things to come, along with a longterm concentration on genetics and immunology. The pharma giant’s R&D group employs some 11,500 staffers, and getting this one right after years of sideways drift is important for the company and the UK.
Bahija JallalThis is a half-day event, with panel discussions on the changing designs of cancer drug studies — a subject that is influencing everyone in drug development — as well as the new world of financing biotechs, with input from Arie Belldegrun (Vida Ventures and Allogene), Martin Murphy (Syncona), Denise Scots-Knight (Mereo) and Sascha Bucher (Roivant). SVB life sciences exec Nooman Haque will be leading that discussion.
The panel on trial designs includes Bahija Jallal at Immunocore, Peter Johnson from CRUK, Christian Itin from Autolus and Malte Peters at MorphoSys. That one is mine.
You can get tickets at this link, along with more details of what we’re planning.
I hope to see you there. Drop me a line if you have any questions.
