When:
Time: 6:30am PDT, 9:30am EDT, 2:30pm BST, 3:30pm CEST
Duration: 180 minutes
Join us on our final day of talks to discover how Chiesi Farmaceutici and CSL Behring are using NLP with topics such as:
- Innovating drug development with natural language processing: focus on safety
- Identification of potential targets for drug repurposing in neonatology
- NLP for MedDRA Coding: Piloting in ICSR processing at CSL Behring
- Panning for gold: Surfacing novel content to drive richer conversations
Innovating drug development with natural language processing: focus on safety - Jane Reed (IQVIA)
Life science organizations face the challenge of handling ever-increasing volumes of text information within drug safety processes. Natural Language Processing (NLP) can be applied to optimize safety platforms and lower clinical development costs. NLP transforms unstructured text into structured data that can be rapidly analyzed or visualized.
This session will explore how these capabilities can be applied for safety case processing, medical coding (e.g. to MedDRA), publication search for potential Adverse Events situations and medical review of Adverse Events, and indeed, at every stage through the safety lifecycle of a drug
Identification of potential targets for drug repurposing in neonatology - Paolo Grossi (Chiesi)
SKIR, together with members from Pre-Clinical departments, would like to investigate repurposing hypothesis to associate genes/proteins involved in a given disease towards drugs already known. Historically, such discoveries were the results of serendipity. The rapid growth in electronic clinical data and text mining tools makes it feasible to systematically obtain this kind of information. The overall process consists of two different workflows: first, we retrieved any genes related to the indication, sorting those by an internal defined Scoring System, based on descriptive and qualitative metadata.
Comparing molecules with the internal knowledge, we were able to produce a Top Tier list of genes of interest. Later, we developed a specific query by correlating genes selection and all potential drugs as pharmaceutical substances possessing definite properties. Once again, we applied an analytical Scoring System to determine which could be most interesting drugs to use as repurposing target for future developments.
NLP for MedDRA Coding: Piloting in ICSR processing at CSL Behring - Martin Menke (CSL Behring)
For processing of adverse event reports, the information provided by a reporter in natural language is transferred (coded) into a standardized format to allow database processing. For the adverse event, indication, medical history, etc. the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities – MedDRA must be used. Most of the coding is manual and time consuming. Only when the verbatim exactly matches a MedDRA term, coding is automatic (currently about 30%).
Natural language processing (NLP) is programming computers to process and analyze natural language data, to recognize relevant content and act upon it in a specific way, e.g. recognize a verbatim as an adverse event and assign a respective MedDRA code.
Panning for gold: Surfacing novel content to drive richer conversations - Hywel Evans (IQVIA)
As organizations engage with key stakeholders such as physicians, key opinion leaders and digital though leaders it is vital to be able to find relevant, specific content to answer questions and drive rich discussions. Over time these rich interactions can themselves form the basis for rich datasets that inform teams about emerging topics and effectiveness of communications. Find out more about text mining can unlock valuable data in pharma for stakeholder engagement.
Speakers
Jane Reed
Director, NLP, Safety & RegulatoryJane Reed
Jane Reed is Director of NLP at Linguamatics, an IQVIA company. She is responsible for leading the strategic vision for Linguamatics product portfolio and business development for the pharma and biotech market, with a focus on safety and regulatory. Jane has 20+ years’ experience in vendor companies supplying data products, data integration and analysis, and consultancy to pharma and biotech—with roles at Instem, BioWisdom, Incyte, and Hexagen. Before moving into the life science industry, Jane worked in academia with post-docs in genetics and genomics. Jane holds a MA from Cambridge University and a PhD from Birmingham University.
Paolo Grossi
Data Scientist, Scientific Knowledge & Information Resources, Chiesi FarmaceuticiPaolo Grossi
Paolo is a data scientist at Chiesi Farmaceutici where he works primarily on scouting, testing and adopting new technologies, particularly in Big Data, AI and Machine Learning, also seeking optimum tools to improve scientific research and access to biomedical knowledge. Before joining Chiesi, Paolo obtained master’s in Data Science & Business Intelligence from University of Pisa, specializing in Natural Language Processing methodologies and applications.
Martin Menke
Global Medical Coding Lead, CSL BehringMartin Menke
Martin A.O. H. Menke graduated with a Diploma in Biology (Microbiology, Botany, and Biochemistry) at Christian Albrecht University, Kiel, Germany, followed by 10 years of cancer research at the University hospitals in Kiel and Ulm, Germany (Departments of Haematopathology, Pathology, and Dermatology).
He started in Pharmacovigilance in 1999 as freelance for Merck programming a MedDRA Browser and doing case processing. From 2000 until 2014 he has been a (snr.) Pharmacovigilance Manager at Mundipharma in various roles including medical evaluation, head of case processing, business lead for implementation of a new PV data base and 5 years of PV Quality Management (SOPs, Compliance, and PV Contracts). During all this time, he was also responsible for monitoring the MedDRA coding quality.
In 2015 he moved to CSL Behring becoming the Global Medical Coding Lead in Nov 2015 responsible for the Medical Concept Management in Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance and is monitoring MedDRA coding quality.
In this role he is supporting case processing, signal detection, and risk management processes. This includes leading projects to evaluate the use of NLP in MedDRA coding.
Martin has been active with the European MedDRA User Community as part of the EU-User Group Steering Committee since 2009 and became chair of the MedDRA Focus group in March 2017.
Hywel Evans
Director, NLP for Medical Affairs & CommercializationHywel Evans
Hywel Evans leads the development, application and delivery of IQVIA’s (formerly Linguamatics) NLP offerings within Medical Affairs and Commercial Pharma teams and has been with IQVIA for over 6 years. He also leads the NLP Insight Hub offering, which transforms and integrates information from a wide range of structured and unstructured data sources into a single convenient platform. Hywel was previously a Principal leading Real World Technology & Analytics for the APAC region based in Singapore, leading a team of data scientists and consultants in the design & delivery of analytics solutions, and the development of real-world data assets and collaborations. Hywel has consulting and technology experience across life sciences, healthcare, financial services and consumer industries. He has expertise in building analytics and data teams, delivering data driven strategies, designing and executing behavioral insights and stakeholder engagement initiatives. Prior to joining IQVIA, Hywel was a consultant at Booz&Co and EY. He holds a Master’s degree (MEng) in Engineering from the University of Cambridge.
