Best practices in early-stage drug discovery and bioentrepreneurship

Does your research have the potential to translate into an innovative therapeutic? This presentation will interest you because understanding industry best practices for early drug discovery and commercialization can help to ignite and accelerate the process. The R&D team at adMare BioInnovations is comprised of experts with years of hands-on experience in collaborative drug discovery and welcomes the opportunity to share some of what we have learned along the way with aspiring bioentrepreneurs.

Join us on May 15th to learn about Best Practices in Early Drug Discovery and Bioentrepreneurship and how the experts at adMare BioInnovations collaborate with the academic scientists to advance innovative scientific discoveries into investment-ready therapeutic opportunities.

Location

McGill Faculty Club and Conference Centre

Agenda

 

11:30   Arrival and lunch

12:00    Seminar Title: “Best practices in early-stage drug discovery and bioentrepreneurship"

• Dr. Joseph Mancini, VP Innovation – Biological Sciences,
• Dr. Claudio Sturino, Senior Director, Head of Chemistry at adMare BioInnovations,
• Dr. Amie Phinney, Senior Director, Partnerships, Search & Business Development

1:15      Breakout Groups: Biology, Chemistry and Commercialization teams will be available to answer questions, share ideas and chat about our experiences in the field

About adMare

adMare dedicates professional R&D scientists, state-of-the-art infrastructure, and commercialization experts to every collaboration. We commit to generating valuable data and IP, and to executing a viable commercial strategy that will be the foundations of a co-founded Canadian company.

Meet Our Experts

Joseph Mancini

As Vice President, Innovation – Biological Sciences, Dr. Joseph Mancini plays a central role in leading adMare’s R&D team and the strategic development and advancement of adMare’s pipeline of drug development projects to support the building of strong Canadian life sciences companies. Joe brings more than 30 years of experience in drug discovery to the role, and is responsible for overseeing the biology and pharmacology efforts at both adMare’s Montreal and Vancouver Innovation Centres.

Prior to joining adMare in 2020, Joe spent 20 years at Merck, a leading global biopharmaceutical company, where he was responsible for developing novel therapies to treat inflammation, diabetes, and obesity – including being key in the discovery of VioxxTM and ArcoxiaTM, and the Biology Lead for a PDE4-inhibitor for Asthma, and for four INDs and human proof-of-concept trials.

Following his tenure at Merck, Joe joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals where, as Head of Pharmacology and Biology Project Leader, he led the Pharmacology group and a team that developed a therapy to treat Crohn’s disease (licensed to Takeda), as well as initiated new programs in ADPKD and a rare muscular disease.

Joe has been an Adjunct Professor at one of Canada’s top research universities, Montreal’s McGill, since 2000, and is credited with 94 publications and seven patents. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from McGill University.

Claudio Sturino

As the Senior Director and Head of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Development, Dr. Claudio Sturino has an essential impact on building robust Canadian life sciences companies through his leadership on the adMare R&D team. Dr. Sturino brings to adMare over 20 years of experience in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery, working in the therapeutic areas of inflammation, respiratory, infectious disease and ion channels.

Most recently, Dr. Sturino was the Vice-President of Chemical Science at Paraza, where he was responsible for overseeing the collaboration with critical clients and developing the medicinal chemistry strategy.

Previously, as the Director and Head of Chemistry at Vertex Canada, Dr. Sturino oversaw the medicinal chemistry, scale-up and analytical groups and supported two Lead Optimization projects and two early Target ID projects to meet crucial project milestones.

Dr. Sturino is credited with 38 publications and 23 patents, and he was a key contributor to the discovery of TredaptiveTM, which was approved in Europe. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Ottawa.

Amie Phinney

As the Sr. Director for the Program Development and Partnership team at adMare BioInnovations, Amie Phinney uses her biomedical research and business background to create and guide scientific collaborations toward scientific and investment readiness.

Prior to adMare, Amie was at Northwestern University in Chicago, where she led an academic-VC partnership. While managing this partnership, she executed the strategic vision for the research alliance, delivering funding objectives to enter the two projects into the joint venture company, Lakeside Discovery. Amie went on to serve as the inaugural Chief Scientific Officer for Lakeside Discovery, developing and executing comprehensive drug discovery strategies.

Prior to this, Amie gained extensive experience managing academic and industry alliances at Abbott and AbbVie Labs in Chicago. Most notably, she held leadership roles in the Abbvie-Galapogos Cystic Fibrosis partnership that advanced multiple drugs from discovery through Phase 2, and the Abbive-Calico (an Alphabet Company) alliance, advancing multiple candidate drugs through preclinical studies.

Amie first transitioned into pharma following post-docs at the University of Toronto and Free University of Amsterdam, as a Sr. Scientist at Solvay Pharmaceuticals in the Netherlands. After five years leading pre-clinical research teams she transitioned to specialize in managing partnered scientific teams.

Amie received her BSc at University of Guelph, her PhD in Biomedical Research at the University of Basel in Switzerland, and her MBA at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Chicago.