Partnering to Advance Drug Delivery Innovation

Ester is a multidisciplinary scientist with a background in biotechnology, biochemistry, and bioengineering. She has held diverse roles across startups, pharma, and consulting, and currently serves as Director of Strategic Innovation at Chiesi USA. In this role, she scouts cutting-edge technologies and companies to advance treatments for patients with rare diseases. At MIT, she developed an oral insulin pill, earning recognition as one of MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35. Ester advises international startups and academic programs, speaks seven languages, and advocates for women’s career development in science.

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

Sean Bedingfield is a drug delivery specialist bridging gene editing & gene therapy early discovery and clinical translation with work spanning multiple platforms and modalities. Currently in Lilly’s Genetic Medicine division, he leads a small team in a blend of specific portfolio projects, internal platform development, external collaborations and vetting external technologies. Lilly’s interests are broad and ambitious in genetic medicine, as highlighted by their public partnerships including Dicerna Therapeutics, Scribe Therapeutics and Sangamo Therapeutics and acquisitions such as Prevail, Akouos and Verve Therapeutics. Receiving his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, his publications include high impact papers relating to intracellular assay development, RNA delivery leveraging targeted nanoparticles, protein engineering applications (now licensed by Anchor Biologics), and nanomedicine-related material science investigations. Prior to this role, he worked as a technical lead in business development for Pendant Biosciences.

Jaymin Shah is a Senior Research Fellow in Pharmaceutical Sciences and heads a global biopharmaceutics group in Pfizer R & D. He also holds an adjunct faculty appointment at the University of Houston and University of Connecticut. He obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutics from University of Houston. From 1988-1999 he served as Associate Professor (Tenured) of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Medical University of South Carolina, where he led a lab developing sustained release parenteral delivery systems and modeling of skin transport and mentored 7 PhD and 2 MS graduates. Jaymin joined Pfizer in 1999 where he has led formulation groups and project teams supporting development of various candidates as parenteral/ophthalmic dosage forms, peptide and oligonucleotides development and research initiatives in parenteral and ophthalmic delivery including LAI, depots, sterile suspensions, implants, and nanoparticles. Jaymin has been recognized with achievement awards for leadership and innovation in Pfizer. Jaymin has published 70 papers, 10 patents/patent applications, 75 abstracts and made more than 114 presentations at various scientific forums such as Arden House Conference, AAPS symposia, CRS, FDA and academic centers. His current research interests include PBPK modeling and in vitro translational studies to predict biopharmaceutics risk for drug candidates, topical drug delivery, parenteral sustained release (depot), nanoparticles, ophthalmic delivery, and topical formulation development. Currently he leads a global biopharmaceutics group providing biopharma risk assessment and strategy for biopharmaceutical aspects for drug development using in vitro performance and PBPK modeling.

Dr Rashmi Thakur is Director of GPS (global product strategy) Business Development and CMC strategy in the Portfolio Strategy and Integration group at Bristol Myers Squibb. She provides guidance for evaluating in-licensing/ co-development opportunities, M&As, collaborating closely with Search and Evaluation, R&D, Commercial, and Finance teams. She recently served as a key interface in the due diligence and post-agreement integration of BioNTech-BMS deal for co- development and co-commercialization of BioNTech’s investigational bispecific antibody across numerous solid tumor types. With over two decades of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Rashmi brings deep expertise in drug development and cross-border collaboration. Rashmi joined BMS in 2023 as a cross-functional matrix team lead for multiple programs. She also spearheaded the initiative to develop a delivery device strategy playbook. Prior to BMS, she spent 15 years at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, where she held roles in formulation development, MS&T and CMC/Value chain leadership. She led projects in continuous manufacturing, oligonucleotide development, and completed an international assignment in Asia focused on CRO management. Earlier in her career, she held scientific roles at McNeil Consumer (now Kenvue), Hoffmann-La Roche, and marketing roles at Alkem labs and Wyeth. Rashmi holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Rutgers University and an MBA with a marketing focus from the University of Mumbai.