From the Director

Welcome to our second Tufts CSDD Quarterly Update of 2015. I'm writing from Shanghai, China, where I will be co-chairing a symposium on the growth of the Chinese biotech sector, at the 17th Shanghai International Forum on Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Industry. I'm sharing duties with my colleague Dr. Liming Shao, Professor and Director of the Shanghai Center for Drug Discovery and Development (SCDDD) at Fudan University. As mentioned in a prior Quarterly Update, SCDDD and Tufts CSDD have entered into a formal collaborative agreement, the goals of which are to conduct joint research on drug development trends in China and the U.S., to offer a drug development training program in China similar to CSDD's annual Postgraduate Course, to co-sponsor symposia, and to have an intern exchange program. I'm thrilled to be kicking off our collaboration with this highly relevant symposium, which will examine challenges and opportunities for a rapidly growing and dynamic biotechnology sector here in China.

Professor Liming Shao at the Shanghai symposium on drug development.

Professor Kaitin presenting the keynote address in Shanghai.

It's been an exceedingly busy quarter at CSDD, with numerous ongoing projects, multi-company working groups, roundtables, workshops, and presentations. Of particular note was an informative and timely one-day summit that we held May 12th in Washington, DC, entitled "Re-engineering Clinical Trials to Improve Drug Development and Performance. The program was co-hosted by Tufts CSDD and ICON plc, and was chaired by Associate Professor and Director of CSDD Sponsored Programs, Ken Getz. The goal of the summit was to explore innovative approaches and insights to "fixing the clinical trial conundrum," and featured FDA Deputy Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf, who presented the agency's assessment of major opportunities for improving R&D quality and efficiency, as well as FDA initiatives under consideration to better accommodate the evolving R&D environment. Tufts CSDD is pleased to be at the forefront of efforts to explore, measure, and improve R&D efficiency and the clinical trial process.

Finally, I am delighted to report that our recently launched Louis Lasagna Library Fund, created to help sustain the Center's unique Louis Lasagna Library of Drug Development Science and Policy, is off to a great start. We are extremely grateful to all those who have contributed in support of the library (noted to the right), and I encourage all to consider making a donation. Information is on our website.

As always, feel free to contact me directly with your thoughts and perspectives, and thank you for your support. 

Research Opportunities    

Sponsored Research 

• Benchmarking Real World Data Usage in Clinical Trials
• Challenges Facing Biosimilar Uptake
• Current Landscape for Personalized Medicines
• Impact of Reimbursement on Innovation
• Mapping Direct and Indirect Study Conduct Costs
• Mapping Product-Specific Adverse Event Reporting in Institutional and Ambulatory Settings 
• Pandemic & Bioterror Medical Countermeasures (MCMs)
• Personalized Medicine Landscape
• Public/Private Sector Contributions to R&D
• Sizing and Segmenting the High Throughput Screening Market
   

JUNE

Joshua Cohen: Pharmaceutical Executive Roundtable on Pharmacoepidemiology, New York, NY, Jun 4

Joseph DiMasi: American Diabetes Association 75th Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, Jun 5

Joseph DiMasi: Bates White Life Sciences Symposium, Washington, DC, Jun 8-9

Christopher Milne: PharmAccess Leaders Forum, Brussels, Belgium, Jun 8-10

Ronald Evens: AAPS, NBC Conference, San Francisco, CA, Jun 9

Kenneth Kaitin: Symposium on Biotechnology Development (co-chair and keynote), 17th Shanghai International Forum on Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Industry, Shanghai, China, Jun 10 

Joseph DiMasi: Special Libraries Association 2015 Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, Jun 14

Kenneth Kaitin, Kenneth Getz, Mary Jo Lamberti, Stella Stergiopoulos: DIA Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, Jun 15-18 

SEPTEMBER

Kenneth Getz: OCT New England, Boston, MA, Sep 16-17

 
Kenneth Kaitin: 2015 Evolution Summit, Las Vegas, NV, Sep 20

Mary Jo Lamberti: Global Innovation Clinical Research and Operations Forum, Cambridge, MA, Sep 23-24
 

OCTOBER

Mary Jo Lamberti: Patient Recruitment and Retention Summit, Boston, MA, Oct 21-22