Achieving Oral Delivery of Peptides through Formulation and Molecule Design Approaches

Dr Lipa Shah is Director Science and Technology, leading Novel Delivery Technologies (NDT) at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. In her matrix leader role, Dr Shah engages with Novartis teams to implement novel drug technologies to bring value to the drug products. She holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Northeastern University, Boston USA. In 17+ years with Technical Research and Development at Novartis in USA and Switzerland, Dr Shah achieved deep understanding of drug product development, made significant contributions as Team Lead and Project Lead, role modeling inclusive and collaborative culture in the teams.

Annette Bak, Ph.D., MBA leads Advanced Drug Delivery at Astra Zeneca and serves on the Pharmaceutical Sciences leadership team. Advanced Drug Delivery has the mission to transform diverse modalities, small molecules and new modalities alike, into investigational medicines and is a global organization based in Sweden, UK, and US.Since joining AstraZeneca in 2016, Annette has been instrumental in delivering new modality formulations for clinical studies, notably VEGF mRNA for cardiac regeneration, building intracellular drug delivery capabilities, and sponsoring initiatives on augmenting drug discovery with artificial intelligence. Annette previously worked for Amgen and Merck in the US with responsibility for small molecule and peptide formulations, building outsourcing partnerships in China, in licensing and partnership evaluations, and contributing to getting small molecule therapies to the market.Annette has published more than 40 articles, has more than 35 invited presentations, and serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She holds several patents for pharmaceutical technologies enabling drug delivery of small molecules and biologics.A key volunteer in American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS). She is the President for the association and responsible for leading implementation of  the 2021-2025 strategic plan and ensuring that the AAPS communities are thriving. Annette was the 2020 co-recipient of the AAPS Alice E Till Women in Pharmaceutical Science Recognition, honoring women who has made significant contributions to the to the mentorship, advancement, and support of women in the pharmaceutical sciences

Dr Suman Luthra is currently Director in Discovery Pharmaceutical Sciences at Merck Boston site and is responsible for providing strategic and technical leadership at the discovery-development interface to enable the discovery of new drug candidates including small molecules, peptides and biologics. She oversees preclinical drug product development activities that include nomination of candidate for clinical development through developability risk assessment and application of insights to assess and mitigate CMC drug product developability risks. Dr Luthra’s team enables the transition of the right molecules from discovery to clinical formulation development with clinical formulation strategies in place. With 30+ active programs including various modalities and stages of development, she provides scientific oversight and make strategic decisions for acceleration. She is passionate about advancing patient friendly drug delivery solutions of diverse modalities including macrocyclic peptides which is the focus of the panel discussion today.

Dr Andrew (Andy) Lewis is the Chief Scientific Officer at Quotient Sciences. As the leader of Quotient Sciences' scientific teams and drug development consultants, Andy is responsible for driving efficiency and innovation within our scientific organization, both to better serve our customers and drive growth for the Company. Andy has over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and drug delivery industry and is a member of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Scientists of Great Britain. Additionally, Andy has served on the board of directors of the Controlled Release Society, most recently as secretary. Prior to joining Quotient Sciences, Andy was Director of Novel Drug Delivery Technologies at Ipsen. He holds a Ph.D. in Tissue Engineering and a Bachelor of Pharmacy, both from the University of Nottingham.