14
May

08:00 AM ET

Medicinal Chemistry

Name: Medicinal Chemistry Strategy Meeting East Coast 2025
Start: 2025-01-06T08:00
End: 2025-05-14T18:00
Location: Hyatt Regency Princeton

&

Drug Discovery Biology

Strategy Meeting East Coast USA 2025

Reinvigorating Productivity in Pharma and Biotech R&D Through Advanced Technologies and Innovative Techniques that Interrogate Activity and Mechanisms

Hyatt Regency Princeton

A MEETING EXPERIENCE UNLIKE ANY OTHER

Fresh Medicinal Chemistry Insights

Tired of the same conference experience? Real discussions and genuine networking are often promised, but not always delivered. Proventa International’s R&D Strategy Meetings are designed to avoid the pitfalls of a typical conference, by providing the right environment to make those important connections through interactive roundtable discussions, exclusive networking and keynote panel debates. Join Medicinal Chemistry professionals from across the East Coast, in Princeton, New Jersey, to discover new insights and take your company’s mission to the next level.

What makes our strategy meetings unique?

Roundtable Discussions

Intimate discussions led by renowned industry experts. Have your voice heard and debate alongside like-minded life science executives.

Unrivalled Networking

With senior delegation from big pharma and innovative biotech from across the East Coast, you can network with peers from different locations, all in one place.

Personalised Agenda

Choose the topics that matter to you. Reserve your place at the roundtable discussions and ensure your whole day delivers the insights you need to hear.

Solutions to your Problems

We’ve partnered with the best solution providers to solve your biggest challenges. Engage in pre-arranged, private meetings to address your specific needs and find a tangible solution.

Industry Researched Topics

We guarantee our agenda is up-to-date and mission critical because its designed by you. We speak to our extended network of senior decision makers to ensure the most important topics are discussed.

Senior Decision Makers

The entire strategy meeting is specifically tailored to the needs and challenges of senior life science professionals. Discover how your peers are dealing with the same challenges as you.

Our Facilitators

Our panel of facilitators play a key role in shaping the agenda for the day. See who will be bringing their expertise to the table at our Medicinal Chemistry strategy meeting..

Abhijat Vatsyayan

Head of AI and Innovation Taiho Oncology

Arnold Lippa

Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Ashok Purandare

Associate Director, Discovery Chemistry Bristol Myers Squibb

Ashok received his Ph.D. from Osmania University, India. He conducted post- doctoral studies in Prof. Spencer Knapp’s group at Rutgers University, where he developed an efficient synthesis of Trehazolin, a pseudo-disaccharide trehalase inhibitor, and studied model host-guest complexes to mimic electron transport in biological systems. Ashok began his career at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) in October 1994 as a member of the newly established Combinatorial Drug Discovery team, where he developed novel solid-phase chemistries to enable diverse compound libraries. He subsequently led and contributed to several full-phase and early-phase programs across different therapeutic areas and modalities, including targeted protein degradation (TPD), to deliver clinical candidates and novel proof-of-concept tool molecules. Currently, Ashok is the Associate Director and a key member of the Induced Proximity Innovation group, where he guides various novel approaches to degrade therapeutically relevant proteins.

Chun-Cheih Chao

Senior Scientist Graviton Bioscience

Friso Postma

Vice President, Artificial Intelligence Drug Discovery BioXcel Therapeutics

Gunaretnam Rajagopal

Venture Partner Samsara Biocapital

Guna has experience in applying Informatics & Analytics across the entire drug discovery & development pipeline to advance the search and development of safe and effective medicines. His training and expertise encompass the fields of Data Sciences, AI/Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, Computational, Systems Biology & Pharmacology, Genetics & Genomics, High Performance Computing and Theoretical & Computational Physics. He received his PhD in Computational & Theoretical Physics from Georgia Tech in 1991. Guna was an Assistant Director of Research at the Cavendish (1996-2000) and elected a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge (1996-2000). He moved to Singapore to be the founding Executive Director of the Bioinformatics Institute (2000-2007) that coordinated and supported biomedical computing & informatics supporting public & pharmaceutical R&D institutes at the BIOPOLIS. In 2008, he moved to Rutgers University to head the Bioinformatics & Systems Biology program at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (a NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center), with a joint appointment as Adjunct Professor at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and as a Member of the School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton (2007-2012). In 2012, he was recruited to Johnson & Johnson to lead efforts to develop and deploy Computational, Informatics and Data Science infrastructure & capabilities to support global programs in basic, clinical, translational research across all therapeutic and functional areas. After ten years at J&J,

Herve Aloysius

Head of DMPK BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

Mark Tornetta

VP/Director of Biologics Discovery Tavotek Biotherapeutics

Nikolaos Tezapsidis

President & CEO Neurotez Inc.

Rick Ewing

VP, Head of Chemistry Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals

Rick Ewing is VP, Head of Chemistry at Rapafusyn, a platform company focused on Type I molecular glues. Previous to Rapafusyn, Rick held the position of VP, Head of Drug Discovery at the Barer Institute. Prior to Barer, Rick was a senior director in Discovery Chemistry at Bristol Myers Squibb where he led medicinal chemistry teams to deliver 15 development candidates in the therapeutic areas of cardiovascular, diabetes, obesity, and heart failure. Among the development candidates is Milvexian, a first in class Factor XIa inhibitor currently in PIII 
development. Rick is coinventor on 79 patents, and co-author on 77 publications. In 2023, Rick was awarded the ACS Philadelphia Section Award for distinguished achievement in medicinal chemistry. In 2023, Rick also received the Edison Patent Award in Biotechnology Innovation with colleagues from BMS and Scripps Research. In 2021, he was awarded the ACS Fellow by the American 
Chemical Society and in 2018 received the Ondetti-Cushman award for leadership of the FXIa drug discovery team. Prior to Bristol Myers Squibb, Rick spent 12 years at RPR (now Sanofi). Rick received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from U. Penn.

Rui Liao

Senior Director, AI/ML & Digital Health Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

Sunil Joshi

President & CEO Protelis Bio

Tanweer Khan

Senior Director, Head of Discovery Chemistry aTai Life Sciences

Wendy Luo

Senior Director, Head of Toxicology Legend Biotech

Xuqing Zhang

Senior Director of Discovery Chemistry SK Life Science

Zhenhong Li

Senior Director, Modeling & Simulation Nimbus Therapeutics

Our Agenda

See Which Topics Are Discussed at the Strategy Meeting

08:30 – 09:00

Drug Discovery Approaches towards Unlocking the Hard to Drug Proteome

PRESENTER: Rick Ewing, VP, Head of Chemistry, Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals

09:00 – 10:00

Roundtable Tracks

AI/ML
Revolutionizing Drug Discovery: Unleashing AI and Generative Modeling for Molecular Innovation

-Abhijat Vatsyayan
Head of AI and Innovation
Taiho Oncology

DMPK / ADME & Toxicology
The Future of Non-Clinical Safety Testing: In Vitro and In Vivo Toxicology Studies for Small Molecules, Monoclonal Antibodies, and Cell and Gene Therapy

-Wendy Luo
Senior Director, Head of Toxicology
Legend Biotech

Chemical Biology, Targeted Protein Degradation And Undruggables
Emerging “Undruggable” Targets in Targeted Protein Degradation

-Xuqing Zhang
Senior Director of Discovery Chemistry
SK Life Science

Strategic Partnerships In Drug Discovery
Strategic Alliances and Investment Strategies: Fueling the Future of Drug Discovery

-Nikolaos Tezapsidis
President & CEO
Neurotez Inc.

Integrated Drug Discovery
Holistic Integration of AI in the Drug Development Process: From Target Discovery to Precision Medicine

-Friso Postma
Vice President, Artificial Intelligence Drug Discovery
BioXcel Therapeutics

11:10 – 12:10

Roundtable Tracks

AI/ML
The Evolution of AI: Looking Back at the Past 10 years and Projecting the Future 10

-Abhijat Vatsyayan
Head of AI and Innovation
Taiho Oncology

DMPK / ADME & Toxicology
Developments in Predictive Modeling and Metabolic Profiling for Advancing Drug Discovery with DMPK

-Herve Aloysius
Head of DMPK
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

Chemical Biology, Targeted Protein Degradation And Undruggables

Strategic Partnerships In Drug Discovery

Integrated Drug Discovery
The Next Frontier in Therapeutic RNA: Exploring Computational and AI-Driven Approaches for Target Identification, mRNA Synthesis, and Small Molecule Integration

-Chun-Cheih Chao
Senior Scientist
Graviton Bioscience

14:30 – 15:30

Roundtable Tracks

AI/ML
Exploring the Intersection of AI Technology and Drug Discovery: Navigating Challenges and Unlocking Collaborative Opportunities

-Rui Liao
Senior Director, AI/ML & Digital Health
Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

DMPK / ADME & Toxicology
Integrating translational PKPD modeling to accelerate drug discovery and development

-Zhenhong Li
Senior Director, Modeling & Simulation
Nimbus Therapeutics

Chemical Biology, Targeted Protein Degradation And Undruggables
From Discovery to Application: Challenges in Using Chemical Probes for Degrader Development

-Ashok Purandare
Associate Director, Discovery Chemistry
Bristol Myers Squibb

Strategic Partnerships In Drug Discovery
The Role of Venture Partnerships in Drug Discovery

-Sunil Joshi
President & CEO
Protelis Bio

Integrated Drug Discovery
Blood-Brain Barrier Penetration in Drug Discovery: Challenges, Innovations, and Future Directions

-Tanweer Khan
Senior Director, Head of Discovery Chemistry
aTai Life Sciences

15:50 – 16:20

Overcoming Investment Barriers in Biotech: R&D Costs, IP Issues, and Market Uncertainty (Topic TBC)

CHAIRPERSON: Nikolaos Tezapsidis, President & CEO, Neurotez, Inc. PANELISTS: Arnold Lippa, Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer, RespireRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. Mark Tornetta, VP/Director of Biologics Discovery, Tavotek Biotherapeutics Sunil Joshi, President & CEO, Protelis Bio

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Drug Discovery Biology & Bioinformatics Strategy Meeting East Coast 2024

&

Strategy Meeting East Coast USA 2025

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Fresh Medicinal Chemistry Insights

What makes our strategy meetings unique?

Roundtable Discussions

Unrivalled Networking

Personalised Agenda

Solutions to your Problems

Industry Researched Topics

Senior Decision Makers

Our Facilitators

Abhijat Vatsyayan

Arnold Lippa

Ashok Purandare

Chun-Cheih Chao

Friso Postma

Gunaretnam Rajagopal

Herve Aloysius

Mark Tornetta

Nikolaos Tezapsidis

Rick Ewing

Rui Liao

Sunil Joshi

Tanweer Khan

Wendy Luo

Xuqing Zhang

Zhenhong Li

Our Agenda

See Which Topics Are Discussed at the Strategy Meeting

Breakfast & Registration

Opening Keynote Presentation

Drug Discovery Approaches towards Unlocking the Hard to Drug Proteome

Roundtable ( Pharma/Biotech )

Roundtable Tracks

Refreshment Break

Networking / 1-1 Meetings

Roundtable ( Solutions )

Roundtable Tracks

Networking Lunch

Networking / 1-1 Meetings

Roundtable ( Pharma/Biotech )

Roundtable Tracks

Afternoon Refreshment Break

Panel Discussion

Overcoming Investment Barriers in Biotech: R&D Costs, IP Issues, and Market Uncertainty (Topic TBC)

Drinks & Canapes Reception

Reasons To Attend Our Strategy Meetings

Fully Interactive Format

Senior Decision Makers

Personalised Agendas

Private and Intimate Networking

Our 2025 Sponsors

Partnering Sponsor

Our Past Sponsors

Lead Sponsor

Co-Host Sponsor

Partnering Sponsors

Key Opinion Leader

Media Partners

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Hotel & Venue

Hyatt Regency Princeton

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Hyatt Regency Princeton