The Conference Forum Announces "Rational Combinations 360°" Conference in June in NYC

The Conference Forum is pleased to announce the 2nd annual Rational Combinations 360°conference to be held on June 28-29, 2017 at The New York Academy of Medicine in New York City. Designed by lead advisors Dr Axel Hoos (GlaxoSmithKline), Dr Patrick Hwu (MD Anderson) and Dr Ian McCaffery (Corvus Pharmaceuticals), the program provides the most up-to-date progress on combination developments and is the only event that addresses business aspects, clinical advancements and scientific data that will help prioritize the best cancer treatments for individual patients and tumor types.

“The breadth of what we have is enormous and there is a lot of opportunity rising from it,” said Dr Axel Hoos, SVP of Oncology R&D at GSK. “What combinations also do is brings complexity. There are business complexities coming from the speed and collaboration that are required in order to bring assets together.”

With so many promising cancer immunotherapies in the clinic and an encouraging pipeline of new targets being developed, additional discoveries are now underway to determine the most effective, personalized rational combinations for specific types of cancer.

“When researching and building the Rational Combinations 360° program, we felt strongly that increased emphasis on prioritizing combinations will be crucial for decision-making within the IO space,” said Kate Woda, Conference Director. “Companies are racing to bring combination therapies to the market, resulting in novel therapies and innovative trial designs that are creating increased momentum for investment and business development opportunities.”

Plenary sessions will expand on last year's inaugural program and are designed around several key areas, including:

• De-risking of Combination Immunotherapies
• Immuno Resistance - Drivers for Combination Therapy
• Novel Technologies and Emerging Biomarkers
• Clinical Combination Immunotherapies
• Business Aspects for Combination Immunotherapy
• Clinical Manifestations of Immunological Toxicities

The speaking faculty for the program includes (as of 4/3/17):

• Arjun V Balar, MD, Director of GU Medical Oncology, Perlmutter Cancer Center, NYU Langone
• Roy Baynes, MD, PhD, SVP, Global Clinical Development, Merck Research Labs
• Lisa H Butterfield, PhD, President, Society of ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (SITC); Professor of Medicine, Surgery and Immunology, University of Pittsburgh; Director, Immunologic Monitoring and Cellular Products Laboratory, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI)
• Parker Cassidy, Chief Commercial Officer, Mitra Biotech
• Jason Coloma, SVP, Chief Business Officer, Corvus Pharma
• Roger Dansey, MD, SVP Global Clinical Development Oncology, Merck Research Laboratories
• Adi Diab, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Stanley Frankel, MD, Corporate VP, Head, Immuno-Oncology Clinical R&D, Celgene
• Jianjun Gao, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Genitourinary Medical Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Julie Hambleton, MD, VP, Head US Medical, Research & Development, Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Kenneth Hance, PhD, MPH, Director, Antibody Therapies, Immuno-Oncology & Combinations Discovery Performance Unit, GlaxoSmithKline
• Axel Hoos, MD, PhD, SVP, Oncology R&D, GlaxoSmithKline
• Patrick Hwu, MD, Head, Division of Cancer Medicine, Department Chair, Melanoma, Medical Oncology Department Chair, Sarcoma Medical Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Ramy Ibrahim, MD, VP and Head of R&D, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
• Chung-Han Lee, MD, PhD, Medical Oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Roger Lo, MD, PhD, Professor, Medicine & Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
• Ian McCaffery, PhD, VP Translational Sciences, Corvus Pharmaceuticals
• Ferran Prat, PhD, JD, VP, Strategic Industry Ventures, MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Benjamin Thorner, SVP & Head of Business Development & Licensing, Merck Research Laboratories
• David Wholley, MPhil, Director, Research Partnerships Division, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health

Rational Combinations 360° is supported by partnerships with the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) and the Society of Immunotherapy for Cancer (SITC). The program is developed in collaboration with industry, academia, the investment community, government and providers to enable attendees to gain a true 360-degree perspective. This includes creating novel trial designs, investigating scientific data and approaches to combination immunotherapies, and capitalizing on market opportunities that will ultimately help revolutionize the way cancer is treated.

About The Conference Forum
The Conference Forum is a research firm that develops specialized events for professionals in the life science and healthcare industries. The company currently offers conferences for R&D leaders, clinical development professionals, biotech executives, VCs, drug delivery specialists, patient advocates and non-profit/government healthcare groups. The Conference Forum's mission is to create the best content, facilitate the exchange of ideas and provide quality networking to help move therapeutics to patients faster.