The Dermatology Summit, held in January 2016 in San Francisco, CA, brought together leaders from the scientific, medical, industry, and investment communities in dermatology. Advancing Innovation in Dermatology, the meeting’s nonprofit organizer, holds the tenet that patient and consumer care in medical and aesthetic dermatology is strongly served by having a multisourced stream of scientifically-based innovations moving toward clinical translation.
Moreover, our organization believes that innovation for our field should continually incorporate 2 other elements in its planning—attracting financial investment to fund the complex, multifaceted development process, and having commercialization in mind as a means for instilling quality and value into emerging technologies. Consistent with and enabling for these principles, the Dermatology Summit is an open meeting where diverse stakeholders who have a shared interest in innovative dermatology product development can communicate with, learn from, and have opportunities to collaborate with each other.
Having completed its third annual meeting, which is held on the eve of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, the Dermatology Summit has become established as a venue that brings together an ecosystem of people and companies whose products define current day skin therapeutics and whose strategic decisions portend its future. With each conference, attendance continues to grow, with 337 individuals representing 163 organizations on-site this year. Attendees spanned a range from researchers with ideas for applying their discoveries for solving unmet clinical needs to chief executive officers from dermatology companies charting their business paths forward.
The schedule for the daylong conference was split into 2 portions. The morning had a very well attended and energetic networking café; and the afternoon had didactic talks and panels full of information and insights. The technologies featured at the Dermatology Summit are in phase 2 clinical testing and beyond. Advancing Innovation in Dermatology also hosts the Dermatology Entrepreneurship Conference that focuses more on earlier-stage innovations. This year that conference was held on March 3 in Washington, DC, before the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology. Combined together, these venues aim to grow and enhance an ecosystem, stretching from idea to commercialization, from which can come an increased number of innovative products that substantially improve skin health.
Growth and Value
In 2016, the Dermatology Summit welcomed a roster of distinguished speakers. David Steinberg, MBA, managing director and senior research analyst at Jefferies, provided a State of the Industry address. The keynote speakers were Gitte Aabo, MBA, chief executive officer at LEO Pharma A/S, and Brent Saunders, MBA, JD, chief executive officer at Allergan plc. Stephen Clark, chief executive officer at Clark Pharmaceuticals and past president at Coria Laboratories and Galderma Laboratories, took part in a Fireside Chat. As in past years, the conference featured both a regulatory panel and an investor panel. Sharing their recent experience and practical advice regarding the evolving landscape of regulatory strategies were Jim DiBiasi, partner at 3D Communications; Nancy McGee, JD, DrPH, MPH, executive vice president at Avalere Health; Diane Stroehmann, MS, RAC, former vice president of regulatory affairs at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals; and Patricia Walker, MD, PhD, FAAD, president and chief scientific officer at Brickell Biotech. Providing their insights on investing, especially with respect to buy-side perspectives, were Mark Bussard, MD, MBA, managing director at Rock Springs Capital; Tomas Kiselak, managing director at RA Capital Management; and John Doux, MD, MBA, FAAD, investor at Palo Alto Investors.
Events of 2015 highlighted throughout the day provided recurring validation of the substantial valuation created through dermatology product innovation. For example, Kythera was acquired by Allergan after the FDA approval of its first-in-class deoxycholic acid (Kybella) injection product for improving appearance by reducing submental fat. Likewise, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc had a substantial increase in its market capitalization after reporting positive phase 3 results in atopic dermatitis with its novel topical drug crisaborole ointment, 2%. Successful market uptake of products such as tavaborole (Kerydin) from Anacor and efinaconazole (Jublia) from Valeant Pharmaceuticals North America LLC showed that significant demand exists for topical treatments for nail fungus.
In addition, 2015 saw some large global vertically-integrated pharmaceutical organizations with multiple therapeutic areas re-entering the dermatology space. For example, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation obtained approvals internationally for secukinumab (Cosentyx) to treat psoriasis, and Pfizer entered into a merger agreement with Allergan.
Trends in Product Innovation
With an eye towards future pipelines, keynote and other speakers stressed the significant and growing importance of blending in-house innovation with that from extramural partners. Companies with exciting products emerging in development were highlighted in the Dermatology Summit’s Entrepreneurial Company Showcase. A mix of medical and aesthetic dermatology-focused companies; novel drug, device, and topical delivery technologies; and targeted indications whose prevalence ranged from widespread in the general population to those qualifying for orphan disease status were included.
The continuing mergers and acquisitions by dermatology manufacturers can potentially result in less aggregate research and development investment after consolidation. Multiple speakers highlighted that this environment provides substantial opportunities for smaller companies. By successfully advancing early-stage products, these entities can either attract capital to remain independent and grow, or they can become valuable resources in the innovation pipeline of larger companies. There were examples of this in the Today’s Movers & Shakers From Past Summits session that included presentations from Paul Berns, chief executive officer at Anacor; Keith Leonard, Jr, MBA, past chief executive officer at Kythera; and Eduardo Sanchiz Yrazu, MBA, chief executive officer at Almirall. Anacor, Kythera, and Suneva Medical (in which Almirall made a significant equity investment in 2015) were all selected to the Entrepreneurial Company Showcase at the 2014 Dermatology Summit. At that time, they were clinical stage companies, and in the 2 years since then, each has created substantial value through further development of their products.
Representing an even earlier stage of development, the Research in Dermatology You Need to Know About session featured prominent dermatology physician-scientists speaking about research that could become the basis of important future products. Anthony Oro, MD, PhD, DABD, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, gave a Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer Update, including potential targets downstream in the hedgehog pathway. Jenny Kim, MD, PhD, FAAD, professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, reviewed Innovative Therapies for Acne: Bench to Clinic, including for example, delivery of nitric oxide as an antimicrobial agent. Michael Rosenblum, MD, PhD, DABD, assistant professor at UCSF Medical School, presented Harnessing the Potential of Regulatory T Cells to Treat Skin Inflammation, reviewing its possibilities for conditions such as alopecia areata, cutaneous lupus, psoriasis, and vitiligo.
Changes in the US health systems are and will continue to deeply affect strategies for product development and commercialization. Topics of discussion included how scrutiny of prices and value-based reimbursement in general are increasingly influencing utilization by policymakers, payers, providers, and patients. Development of a new but only incrementally better and thus essentially “me-too” product is increasingly viewed as a nonviable strategy, despite its apparent benefits of reduced scientific and technical risk.
Additionally, the allocation of resources for medical dermatology products deserves close watch, with the prospect of investors and corporate strategies becoming even keener on aesthetics and cash-service products.
Continuing Bright Future
This past Dermatology Summit meeting demonstrated to us at Advancing Innovation in Dermatology that the ecosystem for dermatology product innovation is robust and continues to grow. The presentations, discussions, and other interactions during the day also indicated that the dermatology product development environment remains in a virtuous circle. That is, global demand for better products for skin health continues to grow; accelerating advances in cutaneous science support meaningful invention; and investors and companies are applying resources for moving diverse types of opportunities forward. Recent successes affirm the ventures and feedback into the cycle, creating more interest and demand in turn boosting the future of dermatology product innovation.
Dr Ju is a board-certified dermatologist and has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including dermatology. He is president and a founding trustee of Advancing Innovation in Dermatology, Inc (www.advancing-derm.org). Dr Ju has been president and chief executive officer of Follica, Inc and chief operating officer at PTC Therapeutics, Inc (PTCT). In addition, he has held executive positions at Pharmacia Corporation/Pfizer, Inc, Merck & Co, Inc, and Hoffmann La Roche, Inc in a broad-spectrum of product development functions.
Disclosure: The author reports no relevant financial relationships.
The Dermatology Summit, held in January 2016 in San Francisco, CA, brought together leaders from the scientific, medical, industry, and investment communities in dermatology. Advancing Innovation in Dermatology, the meeting’s nonprofit organizer, holds the tenet that patient and consumer care in medical and aesthetic dermatology is strongly served by having a multisourced stream of scientifically-based innovations moving toward clinical translation.
Moreover, our organization believes that innovation for our field should continually incorporate 2 other elements in its planning—attracting financial investment to fund the complex, multifaceted development process, and having commercialization in mind as a means for instilling quality and value into emerging technologies. Consistent with and enabling for these principles, the Dermatology Summit is an open meeting where diverse stakeholders who have a shared interest in innovative dermatology product development can communicate with, learn from, and have opportunities to collaborate with each other.
Having completed its third annual meeting, which is held on the eve of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, the Dermatology Summit has become established as a venue that brings together an ecosystem of people and companies whose products define current day skin therapeutics and whose strategic decisions portend its future. With each conference, attendance continues to grow, with 337 individuals representing 163 organizations on-site this year. Attendees spanned a range from researchers with ideas for applying their discoveries for solving unmet clinical needs to chief executive officers from dermatology companies charting their business paths forward.
The schedule for the daylong conference was split into 2 portions. The morning had a very well attended and energetic networking café; and the afternoon had didactic talks and panels full of information and insights. The technologies featured at the Dermatology Summit are in phase 2 clinical testing and beyond. Advancing Innovation in Dermatology also hosts the Dermatology Entrepreneurship Conference that focuses more on earlier-stage innovations. This year that conference was held on March 3 in Washington, DC, before the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology. Combined together, these venues aim to grow and enhance an ecosystem, stretching from idea to commercialization, from which can come an increased number of innovative products that substantially improve skin health.
Growth and Value
In 2016, the Dermatology Summit welcomed a roster of distinguished speakers. David Steinberg, MBA, managing director and senior research analyst at Jefferies, provided a State of the Industry address. The keynote speakers were Gitte Aabo, MBA, chief executive officer at LEO Pharma A/S, and Brent Saunders, MBA, JD, chief executive officer at Allergan plc. Stephen Clark, chief executive officer at Clark Pharmaceuticals and past president at Coria Laboratories and Galderma Laboratories, took part in a Fireside Chat. As in past years, the conference featured both a regulatory panel and an investor panel. Sharing their recent experience and practical advice regarding the evolving landscape of regulatory strategies were Jim DiBiasi, partner at 3D Communications; Nancy McGee, JD, DrPH, MPH, executive vice president at Avalere Health; Diane Stroehmann, MS, RAC, former vice president of regulatory affairs at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals; and Patricia Walker, MD, PhD, FAAD, president and chief scientific officer at Brickell Biotech. Providing their insights on investing, especially with respect to buy-side perspectives, were Mark Bussard, MD, MBA, managing director at Rock Springs Capital; Tomas Kiselak, managing director at RA Capital Management; and John Doux, MD, MBA, FAAD, investor at Palo Alto Investors.
Events of 2015 highlighted throughout the day provided recurring validation of the substantial valuation created through dermatology product innovation. For example, Kythera was acquired by Allergan after the FDA approval of its first-in-class deoxycholic acid (Kybella) injection product for improving appearance by reducing submental fat. Likewise, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc had a substantial increase in its market capitalization after reporting positive phase 3 results in atopic dermatitis with its novel topical drug crisaborole ointment, 2%. Successful market uptake of products such as tavaborole (Kerydin) from Anacor and efinaconazole (Jublia) from Valeant Pharmaceuticals North America LLC showed that significant demand exists for topical treatments for nail fungus.
In addition, 2015 saw some large global vertically-integrated pharmaceutical organizations with multiple therapeutic areas re-entering the dermatology space. For example, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation obtained approvals internationally for secukinumab (Cosentyx) to treat psoriasis, and Pfizer entered into a merger agreement with Allergan.
Trends in Product Innovation
With an eye towards future pipelines, keynote and other speakers stressed the significant and growing importance of blending in-house innovation with that from extramural partners. Companies with exciting products emerging in development were highlighted in the Dermatology Summit’s Entrepreneurial Company Showcase. A mix of medical and aesthetic dermatology-focused companies; novel drug, device, and topical delivery technologies; and targeted indications whose prevalence ranged from widespread in the general population to those qualifying for orphan disease status were included.
The continuing mergers and acquisitions by dermatology manufacturers can potentially result in less aggregate research and development investment after consolidation. Multiple speakers highlighted that this environment provides substantial opportunities for smaller companies. By successfully advancing early-stage products, these entities can either attract capital to remain independent and grow, or they can become valuable resources in the innovation pipeline of larger companies. There were examples of this in the Today’s Movers & Shakers From Past Summits session that included presentations from Paul Berns, chief executive officer at Anacor; Keith Leonard, Jr, MBA, past chief executive officer at Kythera; and Eduardo Sanchiz Yrazu, MBA, chief executive officer at Almirall. Anacor, Kythera, and Suneva Medical (in which Almirall made a significant equity investment in 2015) were all selected to the Entrepreneurial Company Showcase at the 2014 Dermatology Summit. At that time, they were clinical stage companies, and in the 2 years since then, each has created substantial value through further development of their products.
Representing an even earlier stage of development, the Research in Dermatology You Need to Know About session featured prominent dermatology physician-scientists speaking about research that could become the basis of important future products. Anthony Oro, MD, PhD, DABD, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, gave a Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer Update, including potential targets downstream in the hedgehog pathway. Jenny Kim, MD, PhD, FAAD, professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, reviewed Innovative Therapies for Acne: Bench to Clinic, including for example, delivery of nitric oxide as an antimicrobial agent. Michael Rosenblum, MD, PhD, DABD, assistant professor at UCSF Medical School, presented Harnessing the Potential of Regulatory T Cells to Treat Skin Inflammation, reviewing its possibilities for conditions such as alopecia areata, cutaneous lupus, psoriasis, and vitiligo.
Changes in the US health systems are and will continue to deeply affect strategies for product development and commercialization. Topics of discussion included how scrutiny of prices and value-based reimbursement in general are increasingly influencing utilization by policymakers, payers, providers, and patients. Development of a new but only incrementally better and thus essentially “me-too” product is increasingly viewed as a nonviable strategy, despite its apparent benefits of reduced scientific and technical risk.
Additionally, the allocation of resources for medical dermatology products deserves close watch, with the prospect of investors and corporate strategies becoming even keener on aesthetics and cash-service products.
Continuing Bright Future
This past Dermatology Summit meeting demonstrated to us at Advancing Innovation in Dermatology that the ecosystem for dermatology product innovation is robust and continues to grow. The presentations, discussions, and other interactions during the day also indicated that the dermatology product development environment remains in a virtuous circle. That is, global demand for better products for skin health continues to grow; accelerating advances in cutaneous science support meaningful invention; and investors and companies are applying resources for moving diverse types of opportunities forward. Recent successes affirm the ventures and feedback into the cycle, creating more interest and demand in turn boosting the future of dermatology product innovation.
Dr Ju is a board-certified dermatologist and has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including dermatology. He is president and a founding trustee of Advancing Innovation in Dermatology, Inc (www.advancing-derm.org). Dr Ju has been president and chief executive officer of Follica, Inc and chief operating officer at PTC Therapeutics, Inc (PTCT). In addition, he has held executive positions at Pharmacia Corporation/Pfizer, Inc, Merck & Co, Inc, and Hoffmann La Roche, Inc in a broad-spectrum of product development functions.
Disclosure: The author reports no relevant financial relationships.
The Dermatology Summit, held in January 2016 in San Francisco, CA, brought together leaders from the scientific, medical, industry, and investment communities in dermatology. Advancing Innovation in Dermatology, the meeting’s nonprofit organizer, holds the tenet that patient and consumer care in medical and aesthetic dermatology is strongly served by having a multisourced stream of scientifically-based innovations moving toward clinical translation.
Moreover, our organization believes that innovation for our field should continually incorporate 2 other elements in its planning—attracting financial investment to fund the complex, multifaceted development process, and having commercialization in mind as a means for instilling quality and value into emerging technologies. Consistent with and enabling for these principles, the Dermatology Summit is an open meeting where diverse stakeholders who have a shared interest in innovative dermatology product development can communicate with, learn from, and have opportunities to collaborate with each other.
Having completed its third annual meeting, which is held on the eve of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, the Dermatology Summit has become established as a venue that brings together an ecosystem of people and companies whose products define current day skin therapeutics and whose strategic decisions portend its future. With each conference, attendance continues to grow, with 337 individuals representing 163 organizations on-site this year. Attendees spanned a range from researchers with ideas for applying their discoveries for solving unmet clinical needs to chief executive officers from dermatology companies charting their business paths forward.
The schedule for the daylong conference was split into 2 portions. The morning had a very well attended and energetic networking café; and the afternoon had didactic talks and panels full of information and insights. The technologies featured at the Dermatology Summit are in phase 2 clinical testing and beyond. Advancing Innovation in Dermatology also hosts the Dermatology Entrepreneurship Conference that focuses more on earlier-stage innovations. This year that conference was held on March 3 in Washington, DC, before the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology. Combined together, these venues aim to grow and enhance an ecosystem, stretching from idea to commercialization, from which can come an increased number of innovative products that substantially improve skin health.
Growth and Value
In 2016, the Dermatology Summit welcomed a roster of distinguished speakers. David Steinberg, MBA, managing director and senior research analyst at Jefferies, provided a State of the Industry address. The keynote speakers were Gitte Aabo, MBA, chief executive officer at LEO Pharma A/S, and Brent Saunders, MBA, JD, chief executive officer at Allergan plc. Stephen Clark, chief executive officer at Clark Pharmaceuticals and past president at Coria Laboratories and Galderma Laboratories, took part in a Fireside Chat. As in past years, the conference featured both a regulatory panel and an investor panel. Sharing their recent experience and practical advice regarding the evolving landscape of regulatory strategies were Jim DiBiasi, partner at 3D Communications; Nancy McGee, JD, DrPH, MPH, executive vice president at Avalere Health; Diane Stroehmann, MS, RAC, former vice president of regulatory affairs at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals; and Patricia Walker, MD, PhD, FAAD, president and chief scientific officer at Brickell Biotech. Providing their insights on investing, especially with respect to buy-side perspectives, were Mark Bussard, MD, MBA, managing director at Rock Springs Capital; Tomas Kiselak, managing director at RA Capital Management; and John Doux, MD, MBA, FAAD, investor at Palo Alto Investors.
Events of 2015 highlighted throughout the day provided recurring validation of the substantial valuation created through dermatology product innovation. For example, Kythera was acquired by Allergan after the FDA approval of its first-in-class deoxycholic acid (Kybella) injection product for improving appearance by reducing submental fat. Likewise, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc had a substantial increase in its market capitalization after reporting positive phase 3 results in atopic dermatitis with its novel topical drug crisaborole ointment, 2%. Successful market uptake of products such as tavaborole (Kerydin) from Anacor and efinaconazole (Jublia) from Valeant Pharmaceuticals North America LLC showed that significant demand exists for topical treatments for nail fungus.
In addition, 2015 saw some large global vertically-integrated pharmaceutical organizations with multiple therapeutic areas re-entering the dermatology space. For example, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation obtained approvals internationally for secukinumab (Cosentyx) to treat psoriasis, and Pfizer entered into a merger agreement with Allergan.
Trends in Product Innovation
With an eye towards future pipelines, keynote and other speakers stressed the significant and growing importance of blending in-house innovation with that from extramural partners. Companies with exciting products emerging in development were highlighted in the Dermatology Summit’s Entrepreneurial Company Showcase. A mix of medical and aesthetic dermatology-focused companies; novel drug, device, and topical delivery technologies; and targeted indications whose prevalence ranged from widespread in the general population to those qualifying for orphan disease status were included.
The continuing mergers and acquisitions by dermatology manufacturers can potentially result in less aggregate research and development investment after consolidation. Multiple speakers highlighted that this environment provides substantial opportunities for smaller companies. By successfully advancing early-stage products, these entities can either attract capital to remain independent and grow, or they can become valuable resources in the innovation pipeline of larger companies. There were examples of this in the Today’s Movers & Shakers From Past Summits session that included presentations from Paul Berns, chief executive officer at Anacor; Keith Leonard, Jr, MBA, past chief executive officer at Kythera; and Eduardo Sanchiz Yrazu, MBA, chief executive officer at Almirall. Anacor, Kythera, and Suneva Medical (in which Almirall made a significant equity investment in 2015) were all selected to the Entrepreneurial Company Showcase at the 2014 Dermatology Summit. At that time, they were clinical stage companies, and in the 2 years since then, each has created substantial value through further development of their products.
Representing an even earlier stage of development, the Research in Dermatology You Need to Know About session featured prominent dermatology physician-scientists speaking about research that could become the basis of important future products. Anthony Oro, MD, PhD, DABD, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, gave a Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer Update, including potential targets downstream in the hedgehog pathway. Jenny Kim, MD, PhD, FAAD, professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, reviewed Innovative Therapies for Acne: Bench to Clinic, including for example, delivery of nitric oxide as an antimicrobial agent. Michael Rosenblum, MD, PhD, DABD, assistant professor at UCSF Medical School, presented Harnessing the Potential of Regulatory T Cells to Treat Skin Inflammation, reviewing its possibilities for conditions such as alopecia areata, cutaneous lupus, psoriasis, and vitiligo.
Changes in the US health systems are and will continue to deeply affect strategies for product development and commercialization. Topics of discussion included how scrutiny of prices and value-based reimbursement in general are increasingly influencing utilization by policymakers, payers, providers, and patients. Development of a new but only incrementally better and thus essentially “me-too” product is increasingly viewed as a nonviable strategy, despite its apparent benefits of reduced scientific and technical risk.
Additionally, the allocation of resources for medical dermatology products deserves close watch, with the prospect of investors and corporate strategies becoming even keener on aesthetics and cash-service products.
Continuing Bright Future
This past Dermatology Summit meeting demonstrated to us at Advancing Innovation in Dermatology that the ecosystem for dermatology product innovation is robust and continues to grow. The presentations, discussions, and other interactions during the day also indicated that the dermatology product development environment remains in a virtuous circle. That is, global demand for better products for skin health continues to grow; accelerating advances in cutaneous science support meaningful invention; and investors and companies are applying resources for moving diverse types of opportunities forward. Recent successes affirm the ventures and feedback into the cycle, creating more interest and demand in turn boosting the future of dermatology product innovation.
Dr Ju is a board-certified dermatologist and has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including dermatology. He is president and a founding trustee of Advancing Innovation in Dermatology, Inc (www.advancing-derm.org). Dr Ju has been president and chief executive officer of Follica, Inc and chief operating officer at PTC Therapeutics, Inc (PTCT). In addition, he has held executive positions at Pharmacia Corporation/Pfizer, Inc, Merck & Co, Inc, and Hoffmann La Roche, Inc in a broad-spectrum of product development functions.
Disclosure: The author reports no relevant financial relationships.
