As a Senior Pharma Consultant for Informa Pharma Custom Intelligence, Amanda Micklus works with pharma and biotech clients on disease landscaping and market opportunity assessments involving both primary and secondary market research. Amanda has experience in searching and mining Informa’s portfolio of pharma intelligence solutions for valuable insights and regularly contributes content across multiple products including In Vivo, Scrip, and The Pink Sheet. With a focus on research and analysis of corporate strategy and deal-making, Amanda provides analysis of market-moving events that influence business development at leading companies.

Jeffrey has over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry. Jeffrey is instrumental in Vigene’s $350 million acquisition by Charles River Labs in 2021. He joined Vigene in 2016 and orchestrated the acquisition of Omnia Biologics. He has overseen Vigene’s expansion into GMP manufacturing and new product areas such as biosensors. An experienced entrepreneur, Jeffrey was instrumental in successfully growing GenScript and SABiosciences, two previous companies, to IPO and acquisition stage, respectively. He also previously held the position of Chief Marketing Officer at ATCC. Jeffrey is the author of multiple patents, publications, and book chapters. He holds a Ph.D. in genetics from Cornell University, an MBA from UC Berkeley, and a B.S. in biology from Peking University.

Shesh is a managing principal of Innolynx Inc., a boutique life sciences management consulting firm based in Irvine, CA. Shesh is an experienced Biotech operations executive and management consultant with over fifteen years in life sciences, including five years in cell and gene therapy operations. Shesh has a proven track record of driving strategic, operational, and tactical initiatives covering Pre-clinical through Phase III/launch. Shesh is recognized for his deep expertise in operations strategy, clinical and commercial supply chains, supply planning, CDMO relationship management, GxP sourcing, cold chain logistics, COI/COC business process integration, and related commercial launch operations. Shesh worked with Kite Pharma from Phase II through post-launch and acquisition and helped developed Kite’s capabilities in clinical/commercial supply chain, raw material risk management & governance, end-end business process integration, and revenue cycle management in support of the launch of Kite’s first immunotherapy drug “Yescarta”, both in the US and European markets. Shesh recently worked with Poseida Therapeutics in developing their global supply chain, logistics, and direct raw material sourcing capabilities. Shesh is currently advising a CDMO on their warehouse and 3PL strategies and a cell and gene therapy manufacturer to scale their operations for commercial manufacturing. Shesh has previously worked with top-tier management consulting firms A. T. Kearney and PRTM. Shesh graduated from the Ross School of Business with an MBA in 2001. He also has a MS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Florida, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Bangalore University, India.

Ben is an experienced consultant with ICON’s Global Pricing, Market Access, and Reimbursement (PMAR) team. He has been largely focused on drugs in development, aiming to help clients understand their asset’s value and price potential and the evidence needed to support this.

Ben’s experience and knowledge of the payer landscape and pricing and access projects spans the US, Europe, and rest of world and emerging markets and has focused multiple engagements on cell and gene therapies.

In Europe, he has worked with HTAs, including early scientific advice with GBA, NICE, HAS, ZIN, and EUnetHTA, and primary research with payers focused on product value, HTA evidence expectations and price implications.

Ben also has a deep understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of cell and gene therapy from his experience as an NIH-NHRA post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania where he studied the molecular mechanisms of induced pluripotent stem cells and CRISPR mediated genome editing.

Ben is an author on 25 peer reviewed publications in scientific and medical journals and he earned his Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Cancer Cell Biology from the University of West Virginia School of Medicine.

Matthew Durdy is Chief Executive of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, having been part of the founding team in 2012. Prior to 2020, he was Chief Business Officer and was responsible for strategy, communications, marketing, and business development. He is credited with leading the design and implementation of the commercial model for the highly successful Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult manufacturing center and being a global champion for the early integration of healthcare economics and reimbursement expertise into decision-making and clinical product design.

He began his career in international investment banking and venture capital, and has successfully invested in and managed a number of biotechnology SMEs and regional operations of multinational organizations. He has an MA from the University of Oxford in Pure and Applied Biology, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. He is also Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the charity Parkinson’s UK.

Kevin Grogan has been writing about pharmaceuticals for over twenty years in roles that have included online editor for PharmaTimes. After four years freelancing, which involved writing for all the principal titles in the sector, as well as consultancy work with major pharmaceutical companies, he joined Scrip as Managing Editor, Europe, Commercial in the summer of 2017.

Covering all aspects of the pharma industry, Kevin has interviewed pretty much all the leading figures in the sector, both in the UK and globally. A regular attendee at financial and medical conferences worldwide (and moderating at some), he has also appeared on BBC television and radio, ITV and Channel 4 to discuss events in the pharmaceutical industry.

Benjamin Yerxa serves as the CEO for the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the world’s leading private funder of research on retinal degenerations. He also serves as CEO of the Retinal Degeneration Fund, not-for-profit venture philanthropy investment arm. Dr. Yerxa has more than 25 years’ experience in biotechnology, drug development, and in translating promising research discoveries into clinical milestones and treatments. Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Yerxa was president and co-founder of Envisia Therapeutics, a company focused on developing novel ocular sustained delivery therapies for the front and back of the eye. Dr. Yerxa holds 60 U.S. patents and is an inventor of DIQUAS™, an innovative treatment for dry eye approved in Japan. Dr. Yerxa earned his PhD in organic chemistry from University of California, Irvine, and BA in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego.

Martin has headed up ICON’s Oncology and Cell Therapeutics Project Management Group since 2012, lending operational and indication expertise across a group of over 240 international project management staff globally, dedicated to oncology and cell therapy drug development. Martin has worked in developing key oncology site networks in the US and the UK and in 2020 was a member of a clinical trial review panel for University of Sydney affiliated hospitals. Martin was at the heart of establishing ICON’s Cell Therapy service capabilities from 2016.

Martin has a BSc in Biotechnology and after completing a PhD thesis (cell biology, breast cancer) at the University of Manchester in the UK, Martin’s career has spanned laboratory research in large bio-pharma, clinical development in CROs and Imaging Core Labs. Martin has held Project Management Professional Certification (PMP), from the Project Management Institute (PMI) for 19 years.

Martin has produced a number of position papers in the Pharmaceutical Press as well as hosting/presenting at numerous international events at scientific and pharma industry meetings. Recently the key focus of his publications has been thought leadership related to Cell Therapies in oncology.

Dr. Andrews joins Flexion Therapeutics with more than 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience in clinical development, medical affairs, and medical/commercial strategy, including seven product launches. Dr. Andrews most recently served as CMO at Akcea Therapeutics, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of RNA-targeting antisense oligonucleotide therapies for rare diseases. Prior to Akcea, Dr. Andrews served as CMO for Acer Therapeutics, where he managed and led clinical development programs for rare diseases in multiple therapeutic areas. In addition, Dr. Andrews held senior leadership positions and roles of increasing responsibility at Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Santhera Pharmaceuticals, Sepracor, and ClinQuest.

Dr. Andrews practiced Internal Medicine full-time for seven years before joining industry and continued practicing after joining industry through 2012. During this time, he served as Clinical Faculty in Internal Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Attending Physician in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He earned his B.A. in Biology from Harvard University and his M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine.

Richard Francis is the CEO of Purespring Therapeutics a gene therapy company focused on the kidney, he is also an operating partner for Syncona. Prior to his current role, Richard was the CEO of Sandoz a global leader in generics and biosimilars. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis. Sandoz. Richard joined Novartis from Biogen Idec, where he was most recently Senior Vice President of US Commercial. Prior to this role and during his 13 year career at the company he was the Head of Global Strategy and Marketing, Managing Director of Canada, Managing Director of the UK & Ireland. From 1998 to 2001, Richard was at Sanofi in the United Kingdom, and held various marketing roles across the company’s urology, analgesics and cardiovascular products. he also held sales and marketing positions at Lorex Synthelabo and Wyeth. Richard received a B.A. in economics from Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK.