Horsham, Pa (PRWEB) June 21, 2013
Ashley Appell, 26, has a rare disease that could kill her at age 30.
Appell and her fellow panelists at the DIA 2013 49th Annual Meeting, taking place June 2327 in Boston, hold the power to help develop a drug that can save her and others with Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome.
The meeting, beginning on Monday at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, will include thousands of professionals from around the world representing all aspects of the drug and medical device industrykey innovators, patient advocates, drug regulatory officials, industry executives and esteemed researchersto collaborate and advance therapies for patients like Appell.
DIA is proud to bring these highly respected thought leaders and patient advocates to the table to address how to improve the development of much-needed therapies, said Susan Cantrell, director of DIA North America. The collaborative conversation among these key professionals and patients illustrates the power of the DIA 2013 49th Annual Meeting to drive improvement in all areas of the industry.
Internationally acclaimed innovator Dr. Daniel Kraft will give the keynote address on Monday during the opening plenary session at 8:30 a.m. As the inventor of the MarrowMiner, an FDA-approved device for the minimally invasive harvesting of bone marrow, and founder of RegenMed Systems, a company developing technologies to enable adult stem-cell-based regenerative therapies, Kraft has extensive experience examining how technology trends will affect health and medicine.
On Monday at 10:15 a.m., Donna Appell will join her daughter, Ashley, on a panel of patient advocates selected for the DIA Patient Advocate Fellowship Program for their determined efforts to accelerate drug development and access. The panel also includes Steve Mikita, Utahs assistant attorney general and a spinal muscular atrophy survivor, and Karen Ball, a patient advocate whose inspiring work with researchers helped to detect a genetic mutation that can result in Sturge-Weber syndrome, her daughters rare disease.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg will discuss collaboration among global drug regulatory agencies at Cooperation Among Regulators: Impact on Stakeholders on Monday at 2:30 p.m. Hamburg will be joined by Guido Rasi, European Medicines Agency executive director, and Paul Glover, assistant deputy minister of the Health Products and Food Branch at Health Canada.
Merck Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Michael Rosenblatt, M.D., will provide the keynote address for a panel discussion on how big data may transform health care in Big Data: Impact on Innovation on Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. The discussion will help attendees from a wide range of global health industry sectors gain a greater sense of the impact big data has on their work, and learn how to effectively use big data to advance therapeutic innovation.
Harvard Medical School professors Dr. Rudy Tanzi, director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit of the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, and Dr. Reisa Sperling, director of the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Brigham and Womens Hospital, will join a panel of experts discussing collaboration to support the recent focus on genetic research for Alzheimers at Advancing Alzheimers Innovation: A Call to Action on Wednesday at 10:15 a.m.
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ABOUT DIA: DIA is a neutral, global, professional and member-driven association of nearly 18,000 professionals involved in the discovery, development and life cycle management of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices and related health care products. Through our international educational offerings and myriad networking opportunities, DIA provides a global forum for knowledge exchange that fosters the innovation of products, technologies and services to improve health and well-being worldwide. Headquarters are in Horsham, Pa., USA, with offices in Basel, Switzerland; Tokyo, Japan; Mumbai, India; Beijing, China; Washington, D.C.; and Latin America. Visit our website at http://www.diahome.org and follow DIA at: LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and Pinterest.