Cancer Nanomedicines: Promises and challenges

Date: 03/30/2016
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Location: 121 Snell Library
Speaker: Vahe Bedian, Ph.D., Director, Search and Evaluation, Global Product and Portfolio Strategy, at AstraZeneca

Vahe Bedian, Ph.D.

Director, Search and Evaluation, Global Product and Portfolio Strategy at AstraZeneca

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 while sparing normal tissues has been the most challenging to accomplish. The novelty and complexity of nanoformulations present unique challenges for the clinical development, regulatory approval, and commercial potential of cancer nanomedicines. A case study of a Pharma – Biotech partnership will be used to illustrate the key points.

Vahe Bedian, Ph.D., is the Director, Search and Evaluation, Global Product and Portfolio Strategy, at AstraZeneca. Vahe has led discovery and early development of cancer biotherapeutics, particularly in the area of immuno-oncology. More recently he has focused on scouting and evaluation of external assets for oncology. Vahe has also led assessment of nanoparticle delivery platforms for their potential impact on improving characteristics and therapeutic index of cancer therapies, and has supported pilot projects and licensing agreements for AstraZeneca portfolio molecules. 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. Vahe has a Ph.D. in Biophysics, and has conducted post-doctoral work and academic research in developmental biology and genetics.