Las Vegas, NV -- (SBWire) -- 01/02/2012 --John Herrmann, Senior Director, Global External Research & Development, Oncology at Eli Lilly to give a Featured Presentation on “Partnering with Lilly Oncology: Bring Proof-of-Relevance or Go Lean-to-POC” at the Oncology Partnering and Deal-making Conference to be held on February 27-28, 2012 in Las Vegas, NV by GTC.

Partnering with Lilly Oncology: Bring Proof-of-Relevance or Go Lean-to-POC

Presentation will provide the audience with insight into some of the thinking that larger companies, like LILLY apply when they evaluate partnering opportunities, particularly those innovating pre-clinical to early clinic stage assets.

- Risk assessment by LILLY oncology. Will highlight why proof-of-relevance is becoming increasingly important as a new threshold for partnering in an increasingly payer constrained environment

- Lilly’s evolving R&D model. Will highlight what Lilly is doing to open alternative financing (“Mirror funds” and development channels to remain open to early stage innovation (including “parked” assets) that is conceptually higher risk than Lilly’s typical tolerance

- What sort of assets are we looking for
- What’s in it for the innovator(s)
- What’s in it for the fund management
- What’s in it for Lilly

John Herrmann received his Ph.D. from The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center with a research focus on mechanisms of tumor metastasis and ways to overcome mutli-drug resistance conferred by members of the Bcl-2 family. This work lead to focus on the Ubiquitin-proteasome pathway as a new intervention point and ultimately to a collaboration with Proscript/Leukocyte/Millennium that was the first to bring Velcade/Bortezomib to clinical evaluation. John subsequently joined CuraGen as chief of a cancer discovery team applying genome-wide methods of gene expression, protein-protein interactions and functional assays to support such alliances as Abgenix to generate full human Mabs against qualified targets. The end result was several clinical stage ADCs (antibody drug conjugates), two of which are still active in mid to late stage clinical trials. John then joined CEPTYR, Inc., where as head of discovery he lead a team focused on prioritizing the PTPome with respect to disease linkage through standard and conditional knock-out mouse studies, transgenic and systematic siRNA screens, broad IHC surveys and other methodologies. John switched career tracks and joined Serono (pre Merck KGaA and after the acquisition creating Merck Serono) to lead a new team to source & risk assess external innovations in oncology attuned to portfolio management needs and balance.

John also drove translational planning of early stage oncology programs (allosteric MEK, Aurora Kinase, C-Met), resulting in patient tailoring collaborations with Dana Farber and MD Anderson Cancer Centers. In his current role John leads efforts to source and diligence oncology business opportunities in support of Lilly Oncology’s long range plan and portfolio challenges.

The Oncology Partnering & Deal Making Conference is a partnering and business development conference that gives global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies an opportunity to network with high-level executives from top pharma and various biotech/pharmaceutical companies, as well as explore potential collaborations, and learn about relevant issues in Oncology and partnerships that will affect the industry. This event also provides a unique venue for attendees to learn about Oncology business development trends, market, and novel technologies that shape up the industry.

The top companies and experts in the Oncology field will come together to discuss the latest discoveries, technologies and partnership opportunities from their organization. Companies include Array Biopharma, A&G Pharmaceutical, Amgen, Astellas Pharma, Aveo ¬¬¬¬¬¬Pharmaceuticals, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eisai , Eli Lilly, Endocyte, Epizyme, Epic Sciences, Micromet, Novartis, OncoMed, Pfizer , Plexxikon , Pullan Consulting, QIAGEN, SAIC-Frederick, Seattle Genetics, Third Rock Ventures, YM Biosciences, and many more!

The conference is part of the Targets and Strategies in Drug Discovery Summit, which consists of 4 tracks including the 2nd Ubiquitin Research and Drug Discovery , 4th Ocular Diseases & Drug Discovery , and 3rd Cancer Targets and Therapeutics Conference.

For more information, please visit http://www.gtcbio.com