Seeking Clinical Utility

Myriad Breast Cancer Gene Patent Controversy: Upcoming Genetic Alliance Webinar

Recently, we discussed the ongoing controversy over the invalidation of some of Myriad Genetics' breast cancer gene patents.  The controversy continues to rage in both traditional media and the blogosphere. 

One thing that seems quite clear is the impressive polarization of opinions supporting either side in this case, which likely will end up in the Supreme Court eventually.

For those who are still seeking to understand the perspective of one side or the other in this case, Genetic Alliance is presenting a webinar this Friday, April 30, which should be well worth your time:

Genetic Alliance Webinar

The Myriad Gene Patent Case - What Does it Mean, and Why Does it Matter?

Friday, April 30, 2010, 12:00pm - 1:30pm Eastern Time

Presenters

John Conley - Professor of Law, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Joshua Sarnoff - Professor & Associate Director, Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic, Washington College of Law, American University

Hans Sauer - Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property, BIO

Ann Waldo - Senior Counsel, Genetic Alliance

 

The webinar is free.  Click here to register for it at the Genetic Alliance website.  It should be a very interesting discussion.

 

Upcoming San Francisco Bay Area Biotech and Digital Health Events - April to June

Monday-Tuesday, April 12-13, 2010:

• Q1 Productions, Partnerships in Personalized Medicine Conference, San Mateo
• Q1 Productions, 2nd Annual Intellectual Property for the Medical Device Industry Conference, San Mateo

Tuesday, April 13, 2010:

• Bio2Device Group, A Serial Entrepreneur's Journey - How a Physicist Became a Leading Device Innovator, 6:00pm, Palo Alto
• Industry Roundtable: Expanding Life Science Careers, Palo Alto

Tuesday-Thursday, April 13-15, 2010:

• Risk Based Solutions for FDA Compliance Including Agile Software Development, San Mateo

Thursday, April 15, 2010:

• BayBioNEST, Venture Spotlight: A Tailor Made Approach: Personalized Medicine, 8-10am, Menlo Park

Monday, April 19, 2010:

• FountainBlue Life Science Forum, Physician's Panel: Partnering with Entrepreneurs to Better Address Patient Needs, 5:30-7:30pm, Palo Alto 

Tuesday, April 20, 2010:

• Bio2Device Group, Biotech Start-ups from the Inside Out - An Unconventional Story of 3 Decades in the World of Emerging Companies, 8:30am, Sunnyvale

Wednesday, April 21, 2010:

• BioScience Forum, Dr. Jean Deleage, Biotechnology Investing from 1976 to the Present: Successes and Lessons Learned, 6-9pm, Millbrae
• Stanford Dept. of Medicine Grand Rounds, Dr. Peter Singer, Global Health - Can Biotechnology Save the World?, 8-9am, Stanford

Thursday, April 22, 2010:

• BayBio Therapeutic Breakfast Series, Preparing for Coverage & Reimbursement: Demonstrating Value, 8-10am, Redwood City
• San Jose BioCenter, Meet with...Amgen, 9am-5pm, San Jose
• VC Taskforce, The Life Sciences VC Connection, 6:00pm-8:30pm, Palo Alto

Friday, April 23, 2010:

• CSB Seminar, Dr. Thomas Hermann, RNA as a Drug Target, 12-1pm, Stanford

Monday, April 26, 2010:

• LES Silicon Valley Chapter,Commercializing Technology Through the Power of IP Licensing, 8:30am-6:30pm, Stanford
• Informatics in Industry Seminar Series, Dr. David Johnson, Gene Security Network, 12:15-1:05pm, Stanford

Monday - Tuesday, April 26-27, 2010:

• Optimal Approaches to Oncology Clinical Trial Design and Analysis, San Francisco
• UCSF Brecher Lecture, Dr. Stephen Baylin, Reversing the Abnormal Cancer Epigenome - The Therapeutic Promise for Leukemia and Other Cancers, 4-5pm, San Francisco

Tuesday, April 27, 2010:

• San Jose BioCenter, Startup Strategies: How to Maximize the Value of Your BioPharma IP, 8:30am-11:45am, Palo Alto
• Bio2Device Group,Launching a Consumer Medical Start-up: the Aardvark Medical Experience, 8:30am, Sunnyvale

Wednesday, April 28, 2010:

• Life Sciences Financing Seminar, You Survived 2009--Now What?, 8am-10am, Palo Alto

Thursday, April 29, 2010:

• Frontiers in Gene and Molecular Therapies, Dr. Eric Nestler, New Insight Into the Neurobiology and Treatment of Depression, 3-4pm, Stanford

Monday, May 3, 2010:

• Informatics in Industry Seminar Series, Dr. John Sninsky, Celera, 12:15-1:05pm, Stanford

Tuesday, May 4, 2010:

• Bio2Device Group, Have You Considered Consulting? 8:30am, Sunnyvale

Wednesday, May 5, 2010:

• Stanford Dept. of Medicine Grand Rounds,Dr. Timothy Quill, Health Policy, 8-9am, Stanford

Friday, May 7, 2010:

• CIRGE/CLB Conference, The Coming Revolution in Prenatal Genetic Testing?  Scientific, Ethical, Social, and Policy Responses to Maternal Serum-Free Fetal DNA Testing, 8am-6:30pm, Stanford

Monday, May 10, 2010:

• Informatics in Industry Seminar, West Shell III, Chairman and CEO, Healthline, 12:15-1:05pm, Stanford

Tuesday, May 11, 2010:

• BayBio Medical Device Breakfast Series, How the FDA's 510(k) Programs Are Changing, 8-10am, Palo Alto
• Dr. Thomas Stossel, The Pathophysiology and Recommended Management of "Conflict of Interest" Policies, 12-1pm, Stanford

Wednesday, May 12, 2010:

• BayBio Executive Series, Managing the Board, 5:30-7:30pm, Redwood City
• Frontiers in Biology, Dr. Stephen Quake, Is the Genome Useful in Medicine?, 4-5pm, Stanford

Friday - Saturday, May 14-15, 2010:

• TiEcon 2010: It's in Your DNA, Santa Clara

Sunday - Wednesday, May 16-19, 2010:

• 2010 AAPS National Biotechnology Conference, San Francisco

Monday, May 17, 2010:

• Informatics in Industry Seminar, Dr. Andrew Kasarkis, Sage Bionetworks, 12:15-1:05pm, Stanford

Wednesday, May 19, 2010:

• California Life Sciences Day at the State Capitol, Sacramento

Monday, May 24, 2010:

• Informatics in Industry Seminar, Ilya Kuperschmidt, NextBio, 12:15-1:05pm, Stanford

Tuesday - Thursday, May 25-27, 2010:

• The 12th Annual C21 BioVentures Conference, Napa

Thursday, May 27, 2010:

• BayBio Therapeutic Breakfast Series, Alternative Partnering and Financing Approaches for Emerging Companies, 8-10am, Redwood City

Wednesday, June 2, 2010:

• San Jose BioCenter, BioCenter Open House Tour, 2:30-3:30pm, San Jose

Thursday, June 3, 2010:

• San Jose BioCenter, Financing Alternatives: Where's the Money?, 3:00pm-6:30pm, Menlo Park

Wednesday, June 23, 2010:

• San Jose BioCenter, Meet with...Gilead, 9am-5pm

BayBio 2010 Conference Panel on Next Generation Sequencing - April 7, 2010

I have really enjoyed having an opportunity to help organize the upcoming BayBio 2010 conference (via the BayBio 2010 Advisory Board and the BayBio 2010 Company Presentations Advisory Board).  It will be held on Wed., April 7, 2010 in Burlingame, CA, so I'm putting one last plug in to try to reach those who might be thinking about attending.

In particular, I'm looking forward to having a chance to moderate what should be a fun (and hopefully very useful) panel in the conference's innovation track on the implications of emerging next generation sequencing technologies for the Bay Area biotech industry. 

Here's the lineup:

Moderator

• Matt Mealiffe, MD - Founder/Principal, Clinical Utility Consulting

Panelists

• Rade Drmanac, PhD - Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Complete Genomics, Inc.
• Omead Ostadan - Vice President, Marketing, Illumina, Inc.
• Eric Schadt, PhD - Chief Scientific Officer, Pacific Biosciences, Inc.
• Daixing Zhou, PhD - Director, Business Development, Life Technologies, Inc.

Hope to see you there!

Upcoming West Coast Biotech Events

San Francisco Bay Area (Scroll Down for All Other West Coast Areas Below)

Monday, February 22, 2010:

• FountainBlue's Life Science Entrepreneurs' Forum, Show Me the Money: Resourceful Ways to Secure Money for Your Life Science Company in This Economy, 5:30-7:30pm, Palo Alto

Tuesday, February 23, 2010:

• qed@qb3 Special Event:Risk Management and Insurance Primer for Life Science Companies, 12:00-1:00pm, San Francisco
• Bio2Device Group, Stem Cell Biology: Progress, Hopes, Hypes, and Hurdles, 8:30-10:30am, Sunnyvale

Wednesday, February 24, 2010:

• BayBio CEO & CFO Roundtable: What's Ahead for the Biotech IPOs, 5:30-7:30pm, Redwood City
• BayBio SBIR-STTR Grant Writing Workshop, 9:00-11:00am, Menlo Park
• Bioscience Forum USPTO Event, 7:30am-5:00pm, Millbrae
• Stanford Medicine Grand Rounds, George Demetri, MD, Accelerating Anticancer Drug Development: Paradigms from Kinase Inhibition in GIST and Other Sarcomas, 8:00-9:00am, Stanford

Thursday, February 25, 2010:

• BayBio Therapeutic Breakfast Series, Clinical Trials Abroad: Options for Smaller Companies with Limited Funds, 8:00-10:00am, Redwood City

Thursday, February 25, 2010 - Friday, February 26, 2010:

• 2010 Epilepsy Pipeline Update, San Francisco

Friday, February 26, 2010:

• Stanford Neurology and Neurosciences: An Update on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, 8:00-9:00am, Stanford

Tuesday, March 2, 2010:

• Bio2Device Group, Life Sciences Product Development: Weaving People, Processes, and Procedures
  Together for Success, 8:30-10:30am, Sunnyvale
• San Jose BioCenter, The Ten Mistakes that Senior Management Teams Make with Investigational New Drug Applications, 12:00-2:00pm, San Jose

Wednesday, March 3, 2010:

• California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Grant Writing Webinar, 1:00-4:00pm, Webinar
• South San Francisco Life Sciences Career Fair, 10:00am-4:00pm, South San Francisco
• Stanford Frontiers in Biology: Goncalo Abecasis, Sequencing 1000s of Human Genomes, 4:00-5:00pm, Stanford

Thursday, March 4, 2010:

• Medical Device Conference 2010, 8:00am-3:00pm, San Francisco
• qed@qb3: Lessons Learned from Living Through a Couple of Spin-Out Companies, 12:00-1:00pm, San Francisco

Sunday, March 7, 2010:

• UCSF Global Health Sciences, Global Health: Translating Ideas Into Action, 8:00am-5:00pm, San Francisco

Tuesday, March 9, 2010:

• BayBio Medical Device Breakfast Series,Strategies to Expedite Revenue, 8:00-10:00am, Palo Alto
• Biotech Bay Career Fair, 2:00-7:00pm, South San Francisco 

Thursday, March 11, 2010:

• BayBioNEST Venture Spotlight Series, Heart Matters, 8:00-10:00am, Menlo Park
• Stanford Frontiers in Gene and Molecular Therapies Lecture: Dr. Willem Stemmer, Design and Development of Non-Human Therapeutic Proteins with Improved Efficacy, Convenience, Safety, and Manufacturing, 3:00-4:00pm, Stanford
• Stanford Neurosciences Institute: Dr. Connie Cepko, Strategies to Prolong Photoreceptor Survival in Diseases Leading to Blindness, 4:30-5:30pm, Stanford

Wednesday, March 17, 2010:

• BayBioNEST 7th Annual Life Sciences Investor and Entrepreneur Roundtables, 5:30-9:00pm, Palo Alto

Thursday, March 18, 2010:

• Medical Device Manufacturer's Association,PMA and 510(k) Premarket Notification Seminar, 7:30am-5:00pm, Palo Alto
• San Jose BioCenter, How to Become a VC Magnet?, 3:30-6:30pm, Menlo Park

Monday, March 22 and Tuesday, March 23, 2010:

• Avance: License Contract and Company Valuation in Excel, San Francisco

Monday, March 22 - Friday, March 26, 2010:

• Keck Graduate Institute: Life Science Business Development Series, Santa Clara

Tuesday, March 23, 2010:

• Biofacilities - 1 Day Class, 8:30am-4:30pm, Menlo Park
• Bio2Device Group,Starting Out Right: The Key Legal Considerations in Setting Up a Life Sciences Company, 8:30-10:30am, Sunnyvale

Thursday, March 25, 2010:

• BayBio Therapeutic Breakfast Series: Establishing and Successfully Managing Strategic Alliances, 8:00-10:00am, Redwood City

Monday, March 29 - Tuesday, March 30, 2010:

• Medical Device Research and Development Conference: Leading Trends in Project Management and Selection for Developing Medical Devices, Including Challenges with Funding, IP, and Risk Mitigation, San Mateo

Wednesday, March 31, 2010:

• UCSF Health Policy Seminar Series: Dr. Kathryn Phillips,Translating Personalized Medicine into Clinical Care and Health Policy: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, 12:00-1:30pm, San Francisco

San Diego Region

Monday, February 22, 2010:

• Sanford-Burnham Institute, Dr. Avi Ashkenazi (Genentech), Targeting Cancer with Pro-Apoptotic Receptor Agonists, 12:00-1:00pm

Tuesday, February 23, 2010:

• BIOCOM Medical Device Event, Telemedicine: Where is the Real Opportunity Today?  Tomorrow?, 5:00-7:00pm, La Jolla
• TSRI, Next Generation Therapeutic Targets: Multidrug Resistance and Regenerative Medicine, 2:30pm, La Jolla

Wednesday, February 24, 2010:

• ACS San Diego Section: Outsourcing and the Changing Paradigm of Drug Discovery, 6:00-9:00pm, San Diego

Thursday, February 25, 2010:

• Southern California Translational Modeling and Simulation Community Kick-Off Meeting, 12:00-4:30pm, San Diego
• 7th Annual Counseling Workshop for Careers in Biotechnology and Medical Devices, 8:00am-2:00pm, La Jolla
• San Diego Venture Group, Funding Life Sciences: Where to Now?, 7:00-9:00am, La Jolla
• CONNECT FrameWorks Workshops, Realizing Value from Innovation: Successful Business Models for New Technologies, 8:00-11:00am, La Jolla

Friday, February 26, 2010:

• 1st Annual Sanford-Burnham Symposium on Rare Diseases: Collaborations That Drive Discovery, Therapy, and Advocacy, 8:30am-6:30pm, La Jolla

Tuesday, March 2, 2010:

• CONNECT FrameWorks Workshops: The Venture Capital Process, 8:30am-12:00pm, La Jolla

Wednesday, March 3, 2010:

• 2nd Annual La Jolla Research and Innovation Summit, 8:00am-5:00pm, La Jolla

Friday, March 5 - Saturday, March 6, 2010:

• Scripps - The Future of Genomic Medicine III, La Jolla

Monday, March 8, 2010:

• BIOCOM BioBriefing Course, 8:30am-5:00pm, San Diego

Tuesday, March 9, 2010:

• BIOCOM Reimbursement Series, Adding Value to Your Product - Building a Market Access Plan, 8:00-10:00am, San Diego
• Scripps Translational Science Institute Seminar Series, Dr. Robert Elston,Using the Optimal Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve to Design a Predictive Genetic Test, 3:30pm, La Jolla

Thursday, March 11, 2010:

• Bagels at BIOCOM, 8:30-10:00am, San Diego
• Sanford-Burnham President's Lecture Series, Dr. Peter Carmeliet,The Neurovascular Link in Health and Disease: From Genetic Insights to Medical Implications, 12:00-1:00pm, La Jolla

Saturday, March 13, 2010:

• SABPA: Breakthroughs in Stem Cell Research and Clinical Applications, La Jolla

Monday, March 15 - Friday, March 19, 2010:

• CHI XGEN Congress, San Diego

Wednesday, March 17, 2010:

• BIOCOM Breakfast Meeting, Lessons from the Pandemic: Influenza A (H1N1) and the Biotech Industry, 7:00-9:00am, La Jolla
• CONNECT FrameWorks Workshops, Understanding the VC Term Sheet, 8:30-11:30am, San Diego

Wednesday, March 17 - Wednesday, April 28, 2010:

• From the Laboratory to Leadership Program, San Diego

March 31, 2010:

• San Diego Biotechnology Discussion Group Meeting

 

Los Angeles and Orange County

Thursday, February 25, 2010:

• SoCalBio Networking Forum, The Life-Science Industry in the Media: Insights on How to Use the Media to Promote Your Company and Technology, 4:00-7:00pm, Los Angeles

Monday, March 15, 2010:

• BIOCOM Orange County Open House, 5:00-8:00pm, Costa Mesa

Thursday, March 25, 2010:

• SoCalBio Networking Forum, 7:00-9:30am, Irvine

Portland, OR

Tuesday, February 23, 2010:

• BioPro Training: Preparing for Regulatory Inspections, 1:00-5:00pm, Portland

Thursday, March 18, 2010:

• Bio on the Rocks Networking Event, 6:00-9:00pm, Portland

Seattle

Wednesday, February 24, 2010:

• Academia to Industry, 9:00-11:00am, Seattle

Thursday, March 4, 2010:

• Celebration of Life: The Promise of Immunotherapy Luncheon, 11:30am, Seattle

Tuesday, March 16 - Wednesday, March 17, 2010:

• Life Science Innovation Northwest, Seattle

Friday, March 19 - Saturday, March 20, 2010:

• The UW Biosimilars Conference, Seattle

Monday, March 29, 2010:

• Xconomy Forum: What's Your Breakthrough Idea?, 1:30-5:30pm, Seattle

Wednesday, March 31 - May 5, 2010:

• From the Laboratory to Leadership, Bothell

Vancouver, BC

Friday, February 26, 2010:

• Life Sciences British Columbia, The Impact of Science and Innovation in the Evolving Global Health Paradigm: HIV and AIDS - A Global Challenge of Olympic Proportion, Vancouver

Thursday, March 4, 2010:

• Patent Practice in Europe: Current Issues, 12:00-1:30pm, Vancouver

Friday, March 26, 2010:

• Biotechnology Laboratory Operational Management Workshop, 9:00am-4:00pm, Vancouver