How and Why Devices Play a Key Role in Delivery

Sudhakar Garad received his Ph.D. from the Bombay College of Pharmacy, University of Mumbai, India in 1998 in Pharmaceutical Drug Delivery Technology with Dr, M.S Nagarsenker. Soon after completion of his Ph.D., he worked with Pfizer, India for less than a year in clinical research. Taking into consideration his excellent credentials during his Ph.D, he was selected as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Connecticut to understand micro-environmental properties above dissolving surface of the polymers. After his post-doctoral fellowship, he worked with Vertex pharmaceutical for a period of three years as Senior Investigator in formulation development group. After Vertex, he joined Novartis as a Group Head. He worked with Novartis for 9 years and joined as a Director of formulation development at Cubist Pharmaceuticals/Merck for 2.5 years. Currently Sudhakar is working as a Global head of Chemical and Pharmaceutical profiling (Discovery Pharmaceutics) and Disease Area Head (New Indications) at Novartis. His primary role is collaborate with research colleagues and build the right biopharmaceutical properties into new chemical entities, if not enable them via solubility/dissolution enhancement technologies to expedite molecules into tox and clinical studies. He is also responsible for enabling research, clinical and commercial molecules via novel delivery technologies (Brain targeting, permeability enhancement, TI improvement etc). He has many publications, book chapters and patents. In last 20 years of his career he has taken more than 200 new chemical entities in clinical studies across dozen disease areas ( CVM, Oncology, ATI, MS, Respiratory, NS, GI, Antibacterial, Tropical diseases, HCV etc), via oral, parenteral, inhalation and transdermal route of administration. He serves as a technical R and D expert to research Disease Area for hematology, hepatology and kidney disease area.

Paul is a Senior Principal at Roche / Genentech where he leads the Smart Device Technology Center. Paul has 20 years of experience in medical device R&D, strategic marketing, product management, clinical research, and medical informatics. Prior to Roche / Genentech, Paul was with Becton Dickinson(BD), as Worldwide Director of Strategic Marketing in their Pharmaceutical Systems business. Paul and his team were responsible for all upstream and downstream marketing strategy for BD's self-injection business, including pen injectors, autoinjectors, and wearable patch injectors. Prior to that role, Paul was with WellDoc, Inc. as Director of Product Marketing, where he built and led the marketing team and was responsible for product management activities for WellDoc’s portfolio of mobile health solutions. He was also the Core Team Leader for WellDoc’s landmark BlueStar™ product, a class II medical device and the world’s first reimbursed, prescription-only software for type 2 diabetes. Paul’s prior experience includes 10 years at BD in the Diabetes Care business. Paul was responsible for the development and launch of the award-winning BD InterActiv® Diabetes Software, and was a member of the joint BD / Medtronic core team that launched ParadigmLink®, the world’s first wireless blood glucose meter. Paul holds three issued patents in medical software and drug delivery devices and multiple patent applications covering software and medical devices. He is also an author and co-author of numerous peer-reviewed articles in medical informatics and in diabetes. His education background includes undergraduate studies in cognitive science and graduate work in health informatics and finance at the University of Minnesota and New York University.

Scott Brown has over 30 years of experience in device development and combination products. He currently leads Merck’s Device Development group. He has a long history of successfully introducing products to the market and has played a key role in the successful development and commercialization of over 19 products. He joined Schering Plough in 1998 to start a Device Development group in support of the growing need for combination products. While building and leading this group he has also been the recipient of Schering Plough’s President’s Award for Development in 2003, Merck’s Presidential Fellowship Award in 2012 and New Jersey’s Thomas Edison Patent Award for the development of Merck’s next generation dry powder inhaler. Prior to joining Schering-Plough/Merck, he collaborated with engineers and scientists at MIT and Therics to develop a 3D printing machine used for complex tissue implants and oral dosage forms. Prior to this he worked for the UK based PA Consulting Group as a medical device and general technology consultant for many organizations including Biogen, Upjohn, J&J Ethicon, Amgen, Bayer, Alcon, Smith and Nephew, Abbott, Nycomed, Cardiac Pacemakers Inc., Chrysler, Ford and General motors. His academic background includes an MS in Engineering Management, and BS degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Psychology.

Dr. Gerhard Mayer works in Business Development for Sensile Medical AG, a Swiss company specializing in liquid drug delivery devices. As of July 2018, Sensile Medical has become part of the Gerresheimer Group. Gerhard joined Sensile Medical in 2011. He has a broad background in the business of Drug Delivery Systems and Pharmaceutical Marketing, both in Europe and the U.S. His extensive experience of over 30 years covers Business Development, Lifecycle Management and Marketing in the areas of parenterals; vials, cartridges and pre-fillable syringes; self-injection systems labeling and brand security solutions to the pharmaceutical industry; as well as treatment for MS, Betaferon. His academic background is Economics, with a PhD from the University of Kiel in Germany.