 Provided by ReachMD
Repurposing Drugs
on Proto: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Medicine
Produced in Cooperation With Massachusetts General Hospital
The discovery of a new use for a failed or existing drug has often been entirely serendipitous: A drug in development to treat angina failed, but became famous as Viagra when some of the test subjects reported interesting side effects. There are other notable examples, and now scientists are beginning to repurpose drugs in a more systematic way. How is drug repurposing research carried out, why is it important, and what are the hurdles to bringing these new uses to market? Hosted by Dr. Bruce Bloom.
Dr. Bruce Bloom holds a JD from Chicago Kent College of Law, a DDS from University of Illinois Medical Center, and a BS in Biology from University of Illinois Urbana. Dr. Bloom’s business experience spans law, healthcare, clinical research, insurance, regulatory affairs, product development, not-for-profit and public speaking. He is currently President and Chief Science Officer of Partnership for Cures, a 501c3 that raises funds for research to speed treatments to patients. In the 1990’s as Senior VP-Healthcare Professional Liability at both Kemper Casualty Company and CNA HealthPro, he was responsible for all corporate functions including sales and marketing, operations, finance, IT, legal, risk management, HR and regulatory affairs. Dr. Bloom served as the International Director of Professional Relations and Clinical Affairs at Bausch and Lomb Oral Care Division, where he supervised oral care and other clinical research. Dr. Bloom was the Associate Director of Clinical Research for the National Patent Development Corporation and Vice-President of the consulting firm American Dental Examiners. Dr. Bloom founded two successful art businesses and owned and operating a thriving franchise food business. Dr. Bloom is a faculty member at Kendall College, has been a lecturer at the University of Illinois Chicago for 15 years, and was a senior lecturer at Northwestern University for 6 years. Dr. Bloom has taught Business Law and Risk Management to thousands of healthcare and other professionals since 1985. He currently serves as a the President of the Charles E. Culpeper Science Advisory Boards, Medical Research Advisor to the LUNGevity Foundation, Policy Advisor to Accelerate Progress, a Client Advisor to Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, the Vice-Chair of the Kendall College School of Business Advisory Board.
Dr. Frances Toneguzzo is executive director of Partners Research Ventures & Licensing. Her team oversees the management and licensing of intellectual property and serves as the entry point for all industrial relationships relating to research, support of research or technology transfer. Prior to coming to Partners, Dr. Toneguzzo served as director of the Office for Technology and Industry Collaboration at Tufts University/New England Medical Center and as associate director, responsible for intellectual property relating to the life sciences, at Harvard University. She comes from the biotech industry, having played various technical and business development roles at big pharma (E. I du Pont & Co) as well as midsized (EG & G Biomolecular) and startup companies (One Cell Systems). She holds a PhD in biochemistry from McMaster University in Canada.
Dr. David Borsook is a neurologist and neurobiologist by training. He holds appointments at McLean Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. He was the director of the MGH Pain Program and Cancer Pain Program for five years and involved in a number of national and international pain programs, including the World Health Organization Cancer Pain Initiative in China. In 1994 while at MGH, Dr. Borsook established a research program investigating the use of fMRI in pain and analgesia with the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other nonprofit research foundations. With respect to biomarker development he has had experience in the private sector, as a co-founder Descartes Therapeutics, Inc., a venture-backed biotech that aimed to use fMRI in drug development where he was the chief scientific officer and executive vice president. In 2004, Dr. Borsook returned to academia where he has led two programs - the PAIN Group and the Imaging Center for Drug Development - an academic/industry program to evaluate the utility of imaging in drug development. He has written extensively, with over 100 scientific publications, including editing three books, one on the use of Imaging in CNS Drug Development that has been a representative on a number of NIH-related think tanks in the field of pain. Dr. Borsook has recently led an effort to establish research in biomarker development through the Biomarker Consortium.
ReachMD, an innovative communications company, provides thought-provoking medical news and information to healthcare practitioners. Established to help increasingly time-constrained medical providers stay abreast of new research, treatment protocols and continuing education requirements, ReachMD delivers innovative and informative radio programming via XM Satellite Radio Channel 160 and online streaming developed by healthcare professionals for healthcare professionals.
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE
You must be logged in
to recommend articles
|
