Pre-Conference Workshop Day

8:00 am Registration & Morning Coffee

Workshop A: 8:30 - 10:30 am
Discovery & Translational Workshops

Workshop D: 8:30 - 10:30 am
Clinical & Market Access Workshops

Investigating Rare Kidney Diseases Through Genetic Studies, -Omic Approaches & Epidemiology

  • Sean Eddy Assistant Scientist - Research, University of Michigan
  • Dongwon Lee Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

Synopsis

  • Powering up the rare kidney disease drug development by leveraging genetic and -omic patient profiles from natural history of disease studies in FSGS, MCD, MGN, and IgAN to identify and validate therapeutic targets
  • Mapping models and response profiles in models to rare and genetic kidney disease patients to predict mechanistic markers of patient response
  • Matching gene profiles to biomarkers and predictors of response to therapies to strategize patient selection approaches

Reaching, Enrolling, & Retaining Participants in Rare Disease Clinical Trials

  • Jee Yeon Kim Associate Clinical Research Medical Director (Renal), Novartis AG
  • William Smoyer Vice President - Clinical & Translational Research, Nationwide Children's Hospital
  • Rachel McComb Senior Manager, Clinical Operations Program Lead, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Synopsis

  • Dissecting real-world examples to prepare for the length and ambition of studies
  • Evolving strategies to identify patients for rare disease clinical trials: Using electronic health records (EHRs) to identify computable phenotypes and conduct life-course research
  • Discussing friction points and strategy for pharmacological interventions, as well as combination trials alongside preexisting patient care, and gene therapies
  • Working with private physicians and Centres of Excellence for patient recruitment

10:30 am Morning Refreshments & Networking Break

Workshop B: 11:00 - 13:00
Discovery & Translational Workshops

Workshop E: 11:00 - 13:00
Market Access Workshops

11:01 am Pinpointing Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Podocytopathies

  • Laurence Beck Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology); physician, Boston University
  • Weining Lu Associate Professor of Medicine, Boston University

Synopsis

  • Understanding capacity for podocyte protection in the context of rare and genetic kidney diseases, such as nephrotic syndrome
  • Exploring molecular predictors and regulators of steroid resistance in nephrotic syndrome
  • Identifying novel approaches and potential future therapies that reduce podocyte injury and proteinuria in nephrotic syndrome

Integrating Patient-Centric Outcome Measures to Enable More Holistic Assessments

Synopsis

  • Developing tools to study improving symptom experience to be incorporated in tandem with traditional endpoints during clinical decision making
  • Collaborating to ensure that evidence-based approaches capture patient perspectives of the clinical trial experience and more effectively evaluate drug efficacy
  • Discussing development of a data dictionary in collaboration with clinicians in the context of rare disease

1:00 pm Lunch & Networking Break

Workshop C: 14:00 - 16:00
Discovery & Translational Workshops

Workshop F: 14:00 - 16:00
Clinical & Market Access Workshops

Leveraging In Vitro, In Vivo, & In Silico Tools to Recapitulate Genetic & Non-Genetic Renal Disorders

Synopsis

  • Following guidance that the FDA no longer requires animal models for drug development, what preclinical approaches are being harnessed to study rare and genetic kidney diseases?
  • Exploring tissue-bioengineering approaches for modelling rare kidney diseases
  • Understanding considerations for preclinical investigation of rare and genetic kidney diseases
  • Applying computational tools alongside preclinical modelling to mitigate preclinical development risk

Commercialization & Communication Through the Clinical Experience in the Rare & Genetic Kidney Disease Space

  • Chris Smith President & CEO, SmithSolve LLC
  • Doug Paul VP Commercial Strategy & Founder, Cypress BioPharma

Synopsis

  • Discussing pricing, reimbursement and market access in the context of standard of care and prescriber burden
  • Understanding payer concerns around rare disease coverage for therapeutic interventions
  • Communicating the clinical value of orphan drugs in the rare and genetic kidney disease setting to a breadth of stakeholders
  • Outlining stories of value demonstration to private insurers to incentivise prescription and enrolment

4:00 pm End of Pre-Conference Workshop Day