SLAS2016 Short Courses

Screening strategies for drug discovery: matching tools with solutions

We propose a half-day short course on drug discovery screening strategies with an emphasis on effectively using and integrating phenotypic-based and target-based screening approaches into drug discovery programs. The goal of the course is to provide a broader context of the drug discovery process to help understand how to best utilize existing knowledge, tools and technologies.

Who Should Attend

Individuals that develop, sell and utilize screening technologies and tools, as well as individuals with a general interest in effectively implementing drug discovery screening strategies.

How You'll Benefit From This Course

We aim to give the audience a broader perspective on drug discovery so that 1) they can best utilize their own technologies, 2) have a better understanding of pros and cons associated with a given technology, and 3) identify new opportunities.

Course Topics

1. R & D Productivity — Provide a high level overview of Pharma productivity and its impact. Examples related to clinical failures, lack of efficacy, target validation, and proliferation of "me too" drugs.
2. Drug Discovery process. Provide a high level overview of the drug discovery and development process from unmet medical to registration. Include details of tools and technologies important to each stage.
3. Relating R&D poor productivity to drug discovery strategies. We will discuss the potential technical reasons for poor productivity.
4. Drug Discovery strategies — first in class & advances in class
   • Target-based drug discovery: In this section we will detail the process of target based drug discovery from target selection to clinical POC including the pros, cons and screening strategies to improve success. Will also provide case studies with examples of success and failures.
   • Phenotypic drug discovery: In this section we will detail the process of phenotypic drug discovery from phenotype selection to clinical POC including the pros, cons and screening strategies to improve success. Will also provide case studies with examples of success and failures.
5. Bring it all together. It this section we will detail considerations for choosing a screening strategy including the differentiation from competitor's compounds/standards of care, integration of available knowledge/technologies/screening tools as well as consideration of the activities required to move a screening hit forward to clinical POC including level of mechanistic understanding required, derisking toxicology, set clinical doses and time lines.

Instructors:

David Swinney, CEO, iRND3 David Swinney has over 25 years of industrial drug discovery experience (Roche, Syntex, iRND3) working to identify promising leads, clinical candidates and effective mechanisms of drug action that address unmet medical needs. He.has a PhD in medicinal chemistry from the University of Washington, Seattle, and expertise in drug discovery, drug discovery strategies, assay development and screening, enzymology and binding kinetics. Dave is currently at the non-profit Institute for Rare and Neglected Diseases Drug Discovery in Mountain View, CA, aka iRND3, () working to help discover new medicines for parasitic diseases and rare cancers.

Jonathan Lee, Eli Lilly and Company Dr. Lee, has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 20 years involved in research management and the evaluation, development, and deployment of new technologies to drug discovery. Most recently he has explored the potential of modern PDD in lead generation and drug development and plays an active part in the emerging worldwide PDD community through publications, presentations and hosting the PDD Special Interest group via LinkedIn and at the annual SLAS meeting.