Neurotranslation to address the attrition problem in neuroscience drug discovery

Ismail Kola (Chief Scientific Officer at UCB, Belgium) describes the problem of attrition in neuroscience drug development. Efficiency in neuroscience drug development is a major concern due to high costs (billions) and low success rates (10%).

About speaker:
Dr. Ismail Kola joined UCB from Schering Plough Corporation where he was Senior Vice President of Discovery Research and Early Clinical Research & Experimental Medicine at the Schering-Plough Research Institute, the pharmaceutical research arm of Schering-Plough Corporation, and Chief Scientific Officer of the Schering Plough Corporation. Ismail came to Schering-Plough from Merck, where he was Senior Vice President of Basic Research and Site Head for Rahway, Montreal and Madrid. He also chaired Merck's Antibacterial and Antifungal Worldwide Business Strategy Team. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Research, and Global Head of Genomics Science and Biotechnology, at Pharmacia Corporation. Prior to his move to industry, Dr. Kola received a PhD in Medicine from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and was a Professor of Human Molecular Genetics at Monash University Medical School and Director of the Research Center for Functional Genomics and Human Disease. He was at Monash for approximately 15 years.

Dr. Kola holds Adjunct Professorships of Medicine at Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, USA, and Monash University Medical School, Melbourne, Australia; a Foreign Adjunct Professorship at The Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; and is a William Pitt Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, UK. He is a member of the Board of Athersys Inc., Biotie Therapies, and Astex Pharmaceuticals.