Pfizer, Pharmacia and Incyte keynote at eyeforpharma West 2001



eyeforpharma West 2001 is being held from April 2-4 at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego. It is the sixth event in a global series on e-business and new technology for the pharmaceutical industry. The theme of this year's event is e-R&D from Strategy to Implementation.

White's talk, entitled How to change the world with e-R&D, will open the event. White joined Pfizer in 1998 and is responsible for defining and ensuring execution of business-focused strategies across all of Pfizer's R&D sites. His expertise includes the effective management of large commercial data sets, the application of technology for resource optimization in industrial processes and the challenges of behavioral change in technology- and research-based professionals.

Hudson, who joined Pharmacia after tenures at Glaxo Wellcome and Repligen, will give a talk entitled Market-pull and technology-push in e-business and pharmacogenomics. In his current role at Pharmacia, Hudson oversees commercial and R&D e-business and the integration of high-impact technologies, including applications in pharmacogenomics and the commercial potential of products transitioning from development.

The keynote session will conclude with a talk from Whitfield entitled The convergence of Biology and Information Technology: How the two most exciting areas of science in the 21st century will affect drug discovery. As CEO of Incyte Genomics, Whitfield steers a company that provides an integrated platform of genomic technologies designed to aid in the understanding of the molecular basis of disease.

Rapidly changing technology and advances have changed the field of drug discovery forever, Whitfield said. Ten years ago, no one could have dreamed of the role genomics would play in understanding human disease and speeding drug development. As we look to the future, the continuing convergence of technology and biology can only yield greater gains for mankind.

The remainder of eyeforpharma West 2001 will focus on other key issues for e-R&D, including intellectual and security issues for trading research knowledge online; using strategic information management to co-ordinate flexible global alliances for clinical projects and pharmacogenomics; developing profitable e-partnerships; managing the pace of IT change; and recruitment and retention of informatics professionals.