In the run up to our 2nd Annual Drug Discovery USA Congress 2015, we spoke with Matthew Wagoner a discovery safety specialist from AstraZeneca, a confirmed speaker at the congress where he will talk about Bromodomain And ExtraTerminal (BET) Domain Inhibitors Induce A Loss Of Intestinal Stem Cells And Villous Atrophy.

Big Pharma is keen to increase drug discovery productivity; which strategies do you think will help to increase R&D output?

“I think the strategies for increasing drug discovery productivity will be multifaceted. We do quite a bit of the traditional internal repurposing and rescue, which is a great way of accelerating a nascent project idea with more advanced chemistry. The most promising of these approaches, in my opinion, is opening up your pharmacology toolbox and clinical compound bank to academics so they can test their best hypotheses with our best molecules. AstraZeneca has done that with great success through the NIH/NCATS and MRC, with 10+ clinical and translational research projects being initiated in academia with AstraZeneca’s patient-ready compounds.”

Read the full interview

The 2nd Annual Drug Discovery USA Congress is taking place on the 29th & 30th of October 2015 in Boston, USA. Over 150 senior delegates will represent global pharmaceutical organisations, leading biotech companies and internationally renowned academic institutions. The conference will provide over 40 presentations and case studies focusing on the key issues in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry.

Register your interest today to hear over 40 presentations, case studies and panel discussions across 4 interactive streams:

• Target Based Discovery
• Screening & Assays: Enabling Technologies
• Discovery Chemistry & Drug Design
• Supporting Innovation: Translational Approaches & Informatics Tools

• Full access to the 2 days of conference presentationsLunch and refreshments during the congress
• Access to all networking activities
• Access to exhibition area