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Panel Detail:

Tuesday, April 24, 2007
9:25 AM - 10:40 AM

Financial Innovations Forum for Accelerating Medical Solutions

Moderator:

Glenn Yago, Director, Capital Studies, Milken Institute

Participants focus on how financial innovations can help drive medical discoveries for treating diseases.

Although many variables are thought to affect medical solutions, this session was devoted to financial innovations driving medical solutions. Panelist James Heywood of the ALS Therapy Development Foundation explained how his brother's diagnosis with ALS shaped how he views the intersection between the financial and medical worlds. "I shifted the equation from a supply-side problem to demand-side problem," he said, from projects to process. This process involves determining what makes a drug, idea or company valuable. Consequently, his idea of accelerating medical solutions centered on an innovation designed to validate which idea is worthwhile.

Also inspired by a personal story, John Walsh of the Alpha-1 Foundation described how he and his brother were affected by the disease. Ironically, it was not the physical manifestations of the disease that were worrisome, but the fact that there was only one therapy, which was also in short supply. As a result, everyone receiving the therapy was under-treated. So he decided to invest in the infrastructure to hasten medical solutions. This investment, he added, has produced many successes: two new products licensed; three therapies in clinical trials; six therapies in clinical development pipeline; three innovative therapeutic pathways identified; and $28 million invested in research.

Much of the debate included discussion on pharmaceutical advancements, particularly drug discovery and development in the United States, where for the past 20 years there has been a commitment to combinatorial chemistry and high "throughput screening" (HTS). Panelist Fredric Pashkow of Cardax Pharmaceuticals supported the idea of focused drug design to move medical solutions forward through financial ideas. Unlike traditional HTS, focused drug design involves using fewer compounds and reducing preclinical development costs, which eliminated three years or more from the normal drug discovery trajectory.

In a discussion of ethics, panelist Pashkow underscored the importance of transparency and being connected to the best investigators in the field. "You must have trust, an inherently decent compound and a program that translates," he said. Also building on the notion of trust, panelist Neil Sandler of Symphony Capital LLC maintained that transactional trust is imperative to enhancing new discoveries. Mary Beth Borgwing of Willis Group Holdings spoke of the need to insure the risk of humans in clinical trials.

Pashkow suggested collaborating with foundations on drug discovery initiatives. An audience member similarly maintained that nonprofits are in the best position to deliver treatments in an unbiased manner. Regardless of which area each panelist worked, they all acknowledged the need for a system that is ethical and effective and produces returns for investors.

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