On 26 February, Biocat and CataloniaBio will be hosting a conference at the Barcerlona Science Park that will bring together several experts and professionals from the field of life sciences to share their experiences and points of view relative to the process involved in the discovery of new drugs. The workshop, entitled Drug Discovery: Design of new strategies to become more competitive, is part of the series 'Lessons Learned: Sharing experiences to foster competitiveness ', a knowledge and networking forum aimed at sharing experiences to gain further insight into the different knowledge strategies and capabilities needed to strengthen competitiveness of biotech companies.

The conference, moderated by Josep Oriol Nicolás CEO of Cell Ready, will analyze the different phases of drug discovery and development of new molecules, the strategy of pharmaceutical and biotech SMEs, growing market of CROs, the factors of success or failure in the process, the evolution of the sector and the best strategies to adapt and increase competitiveness. Speakers will include Jordi Quintana, head of the Drug Discovery Platform and Business Development Advisor at the PCB, Joan Feixas, CEO of Enantia, Ignasi Sahún, co-founder of ZeClínics, Joan Albertí, head of Admiral ADME and Metabolism at Almirall, and Lluís Gómez, scientific director of Draconis Pharma.

The speakers will share their personal vision and discuss determining factors such as the strategy of large and small pharmaceutical and biotech companies;   CROs growing market, associated expenses and the factors of success or failure involved the process, the evolution of this sector in recent years, and the strategies needed to increase competitiveness.

Drug Development marks the starting point in the development of a new molecular entity. For some time now, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have focused on this period, largely because it has influenced subsequent strategic processes.

Among other things, drug development sets the subsequent strategy for patent procurement and R&D registration planning to bring new molecules to the clinical setting and the market. One of the most crucial issues at present is the substantial increase in R & D spending without a proportional increase in the registration of new drugs. Consequently, new strategies in the sector ought to be aimed at reducing unnecessary costs, increasing the profitability of the company´s pipeline and at improving the prediction of the behavior of molecules in clinical trials

Conference program [+]