IQPC (International Quality & Productivity Center) is organising a two-day conference and workshop on 'Drug Discovery Partnerships & Outsourcing' from September 5 - 6, 2006 at the Thistle Selfridge Hotel, London, United Kingdom.

A networking-focused event, senior-level pharma and biotech executives from across Europe are attending the conference. Top university seminar leaders from Imperial College London, Columbia University, ETH Zurich, London School of Economics, MIT, Wellcome Trust and Merck, Sharp & Dohme etc. are also attending the event.

The conference starts with the opening remarks by chairman of the conference- Dr. Henri J.M. Theunissen, senior director, Research Alliances, Global Strategy & Portfolio Management, Organon. Dr Esteban Pombo-Villar, Head of Strategic Alliance Management Europe, Novartis Institute of BioMedical Research will speak on Novartis Risk Assessment and Valuation of Novel Early Stage Compounds: A Good Fit for Our Research Strategies, Dr. Kimber Hardy, Senior Director, Strategyand Portfolio Analysis, Corporate and Business Development Group, Serono will speak on 'How to Define the Value of Early Stage Compounds and Assess the Right Opportunities for Earlier Licensing' and Les Clifford, Head of UK Pharma Practice, Ernst & Young will talk on Competitive Market Analysis of What's Hot and What's Not in Early-Stage Research Partnering. A panel discussion chaired by Dr. Fintan Walton, chairman and chief executive officer and founder, PharmaVentures, Oxford, UK will discuss Trends and Approaches to Earlier-Stage Partnering and Drug Discovery Alliances.

The other panellists include: Dr. Esteban Pombo-Villar, Les Clifford, and Peter Luke, Senior Director, Strategic Alliances, Pfizer Global R&D. In another session Peter Luke, Senior Director, Strategic Alliances, Pfizer Global R&D session will detail on 'Driving Productivity Through A Portfolio Of Discovery Platform Alliances And Candidate Producing/compound In-Licensing Collaborations and Dr. Christoph Pittius, Executive Director, Discovery Alliances, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals will detail on 'Discovery Alliances Between Pharma And Biotech To Enhance Productivity Of The Global Research Organisation'. Outsourcing Parts of the Discovery Value Chain will be discussed by Dr. Frederik Deroose, Head of External Chemistry and Outsourcing Services, Johnson & Johnson and Ellen Crawford, Contract Synthesis Manager, Merck & Co will detail on 'Planning and Managing Drug Discovery Activities in China'.

The second day of the conference will start with a paper by Tim Sparey, Licensing & External Research Europe, Merck on Industry Viewpoint: Partnering With Academia for Discovery Exploration and Advancement. This will be followed by 'Bridging the R&D Innovation Gap Between Academia and Industry - A New Approach to Drug Discovery' by Dr. Colin Wyatt, Director of Business Development, Imperial College London and a panel discussion on 'How Can We Make Early Discovery Partnerships Work Well to Find Novel Compounds and Advance Medical Discoveries?' and a paper by Tim Haines, Partner, Abingworth on Where Is The VC Money Flowing… Into Drug Discovery Companies or Later Stage Deals?

Dr Brian Whitehead, Solicitor, Addleshaw Goddard LLP will speak on Protecting and Managing Your IP and Risk Throughout Discovery Partnerships and Dr. Rainer Netzer, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Evotec AG will speak on Ensuring Successful Partnerships Through Innovative Deal Structures. The final sessions will include a paper on 'How to Agree On Risk-Sharing Terms In the New World of Research Alliances' by Dr. Henri J.M. Theunissen, Senior Director, Research Alliances, Global Strategy & Portfolio Management, Organon and 'Collaboration Case Studies: Taking a More Creative Approach to Biotech/biotech And Biotech/academia Partnerships' by Nick Adams, Director of Business Development, Antisoma.

The programme also includes workshops on 'Robust risk assessment for earlier licensing deals - Business perspective' and 'Safety and risk assessments for early-stage compounds - Technical perspective', besides pre-workshop events.

For more details : www.iqpc.co.uk