Health Care : Current Reviews

Medicines of tomorrow

Joint Event on 9^th International Conference on Predictive, Preventive & Personalized Medicine & Molecular Diagnostics & 3^rd International Conference on Integrative Medicine & Alternative treatments

October 26-27, 2018 | Boston, USA

Andreas Weiler

Lonza AG Muenchensteinerstrasse, Switzerland

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Health Care Current Reviews

Abstract:

Cell and gene therapies are seen as the next frontier in medicine as they have the potential to bring cures to patients that suffer from life-threatening diseases without many treatment options available to them. The idea that a patient???s own cells can be reprogrammed to replace or eliminate faulty genes or to attack cancer cells in a way that is not naturally possible is giving hope to many. In 2017, we have seen several approvals from these innovative medicines, Kymriah, Yescarta and Luxturna to name a few. However, a key challenge for all players and drug-makers in this field remains to be addressed: the cost of manufacturing is critically high due to the nature of these highly personalized medicines. This high cost greatly limits the number of patients that can be eligible and threatens the sustainability of the therapy as a whole and this is likely to be reflected in the already high price tags of these drugs for the foreseeable future. In his presentation, Andreas Weiler would like to show the way these medicines are manufactured and delivered to the patients could have significant and disruptive implications for the future of healthcare. He will be sharing his vision and innovative technologies that could reduce the cost of these medicines significantly and make them accessible to a larger number of patients.

Biography :

Andreas Weiler is the Global Business Unit Head of Emerging Technologies at Lonza where he oversees the Cell and Gene Therapy Contract Manufacturing businesses. Before joining Lonza he worked for Sigma Aldrich (SAFC), another leading CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization) to the Pharma/biotech industries, for over 17 years where he held several positions as Business Director and finally as the Head of Strategic Marketing to the organization. Since 2015, when he joined Lonza, Cell and Gene Therapy sales have more than doubled and the manufacturing footprint expanded significantly to cover the globe with facilities in North America, Europe and Asia. He holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Freiburg and a MBA degree.

E-mail: andreas.weiler@lonza.com