Cancer Nanomedicines: Promises and Challenges

Vahe Bedian

Director of Oncology External Projects, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals

Cancer Nanomedicines: Promises and challenges

Nanotechnologies have the promise of bringing a number beneficial aspects to cancer therapeutics, including improvement in solubility, tunable pharmacokinetics, and improving therapeutic index. Of these, delivering drugs to tumors preferentially has been the most challenging to accomplish. The novelty and complexity of nanoformulations present unique challenges for the clinical development, regulatory considerations, and commercial aspects of cancer nanomedicines.

Vahe Bedian, Ph.D., is a member of the AstraZeneca Oncology Strategy team responsible for external evaluations and licensing. His background is in therapeutic antibodies and immune-oncology, and he has championed or supported a number of approaches for enhancement of anti-tumor immunity at AstraZeneca/MedImmune. In his previous position as Senior Research Fellow at Pfizer, he has managed external collaborations in therapeutic antibody related platforms, developed biotherapeutics strategies across various therapeutic areas, and supported the discovery and early clinical development of therapeutic antibody drug candidates. At AstraZeneca Vahe has been involved in the strategic and technical evaluation of nanotechnologies for enhancing the therapeutic index and clinical benefit of cancer therapeutics. Vahe has a Ph.D. in Biophysics, and has conducted post-doctoral work and academic research in developmental biology and genetics.