“One of the key lessons learned from the pandemic has been to recognize and focus on advancing impactful science that can quickly be translated into clinical use. Our initial partnership with BioNTech was to develop a more flexible influenza vaccine and our team of experts had been studying the mRNA platform for many years. By exploring several constructs within RNA technology, we were able to fully assess the benefit of each platform, giving us the flexibility to design and advance the best candidates in parallel. It had always been our intent to utilize the platform that allows the greatest flexibility as the virus evolves.

While clinical and real-world data continue to demonstrate that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine provides a high level of protection against the virus, including all known variants, together we are continuing to follow the science and explore new vaccine approaches and regimens that may be needed as the pandemic continues to evolve. We believe developing and investigating different approaches, should they be needed, including bivalent, next-generation, and higher dose vaccines, are essential in our efforts towards this goal.” – Aida Habtezion, MD, CMO & Head, Worldwide Medical and Safety, Pfizer.

Hear more at the in-person, fireside chat (Track 1) with Dr. Aida Habtezion’s and Dr. Lee Hood (Phenome Health), at PMWC Silicon Valley, June 28-30.

We are delighted to have Dr. Habtezion be part of the COVID-19 Dx Vx & Tx Track in a few weeks at PMWC. The focus of this track is multi-fold as the COVID-19 pandemic influences the various strategies of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccine development. Following this logic, we designed the following set of sessions with leading experts in the field:
• Surveillance:
o A panel focusing on SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak Surveillance, a session chaired by Charles Chiu (UCSF) and Bronwyn MacInnis (Broad Institute), Duncan MacCannell (CDC), Christopher Mason (Weill Cornell Medicine), and Joel Sevinsky (Theiagen)
o Experiences from the Front Lines of a National Viral Surveillance Organization, a session chaired by James Lu (Helix) with Sam Scarpino (Rockefeller Foundation)
• Tx program:
o Updates in COVID-19 Drug Development – a fireside chat with Aida Habtezion (Pfizer) and Lee Hood (Phenome Health) and talks by Mark Dresser (Gilead Sciences), John Fahy (UCSF), Yi Shi (Mount Sinai)
o Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions with Stacey Adam (FNIH)
• Dx program:
o A panel focusing on COVID-19 Testing: Who, When, What? The Challenges of Testing During the Pandemic, chaired by Alan Wu (UCSF) and with Gary Pestano (Biodesix), John Barnes (CDC), and Kathleen Jacobson (CA COVID Testing Task Force)
• Vx program:
o Evolving SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines with Daniela Weiskopf (La Jolla Institute for Immunology) and Karin Jooss (Gritstone)
o Past, Present, and Future: How Will We Manage the Next Pandemic? – a panel chaired by Julianne McCall (California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine), with Lawrence Corey (Fred Hutch), Yvonne Maldonado (Stanford Medicine), Robert Wachter (UCSF), and Tomás Aragón (CDPH)
• Industry relevant showcase with Anne Wyllie (Yale), David Ge (Apostle), Gerald Commissiong (Todos Medical)

Come join us today, before the rate deadline and learn first-hand about the latest developments that influence drug discovery, vaccine and diagnostics development programs across the globe, and how important advancements such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, structure-based design, and state-of-the-art computational and synthetic technologies have been applied to newly initiated drug discovery programs with the goal to produce potent anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics.

I’m looking forward to welcoming you 4 weeks from now in-person, June 28-30 for PMWC 2022 in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley (400-Speaker Agenda).

Sincerely,

Tal Behar
Co-founder & President, PMWC
Precision Medicine World Conference – June 28-30, 2022 Silicon Valley