Pharma & Drug Discovery agenda

Day one | Monday, 21 June 2021

09:40 | Welcome remarks by Informa
Deepa Narwani, Senior Editor, Omnia Health Insights, Informa Healthcare, EMEA, Dubai, UAE (In-person)

09:50 | Opening remarks
Chair: Dr Mohamed Al-Gamal, Associate Professor, College of Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry, Group Coordinator, Drug Design and Discovery Group, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE (In-person)

Session: Strategies in building a sustainable Drug Discovery infrastructure
Moderator: Dr Mohamed Al-Gamal, Associate Professor, College of Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry, Group Coordinator, Drug Design and Discovery Group, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE (In-person)

• 10:00 | Special address: China’s roadmap to innovation in R&D: What to expect next?
  Dr Yang Xiaoming, Chairman, China National Biotech Group (CNBG), Beijing, China (Remote)
• 10:30 | Market aspects and needs of vaccines and immunotherapy
  Dr Magdy Fahmy, Chief Executive Officer, LIFEPharma, VPS Healthcare, Dubai, UAE (In-person)

11:00 | Coffee break

• 11:30 | Oxford university and AstraZeneca partnership towards broad and equitable access to COVID-19 Vaccine
  Qutaiba Al Manaseer, Government Affairs Director, Middle East and Africa, AstraZeneca, Dubai, UAE (In-person)
• 12:00 | Application of Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence to drug discovery from OMICS data
  Prof Graham Ball, Professor of Bioinformatics, Nottingham and Trent University, Nottingham, UK (Remote)

12:30 | Lunch Break

Session: Vaccine development
Moderator: Dr Hanan Anbar, Assistant Professor at Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacotherapeutics, Dubai Pharmacy College for Girls, Dubai, UAE (In-person)

• 14:30 | Update on the anti-tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, VPM1002
  Prof Dr Stefan H.E. Kaufmann, Director and Scientific Member, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany (Remote)
• 15:00 | Keynote: COVID-19 vaccines and variants
  Prof Peter Hotez, Director, Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), Dean, National School of Tropical Medicine, Professor of Paediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA (Remote)
• 15:30 | An overview of clinical trials on vaccines
  Prof Mirza Baig, Professor and Chairman of Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacotherapeutics, Dubai Pharmacy College for Girls, Dubai, UAE (In-person)

16:00 | Coffee break

• 16:30 | Interactive discussion: New techniques and technologies to develop and manufacture vaccines and therapeutic drugs
  Moderator: Prof Dr Mohammad Semreen, Professor and Chairman of Medicinal Chemistry Department, College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE (In-person)
  Panelists:
  Prof Mirza Baig, Professor and Chairman of Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacotherapeutics, Dubai Pharmacy College for Girls, Dubai, UAE (In-person)
  Farshad Guirakhoo, Chief Scientific Officer, COVAXX, United Biomedical, Chief Scientific Officer, Vaxxinity, New York, New York, USA (Remote)
  Prof Graham Ball, Professor of Bioinformatics, Nottingham and Trent University, Nottingham, UK (Remote)
  Prof Dr Gunnveig Grødeland, Senior Researcher and Group leader, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway (Remote)
  

17:30 | End of conference