Moderated by:

Michael Bestwick – DMPK Director, Drug Discovery at Pharmaron

Michael Bestwick joined Pharmaron in September of 2023.

Prior to joining Pharmaron Michael was working for Benevolent AI where he spent 3 years as a Senior Principal Scientist supporting discovery projects focusing on small molecule research in the Oncology and CNS therapeutic areas and helping to lead the DMPK strategy for the Drug Discovery group.

Before working at Benevolent, Michael spent time at Astex Therapeutics and Takeda supporting small molecule CNS projects as a DMPK project rep.

Michael brings over 10 years of experience working as a DMPK project representative supporting projects in early drug discovery through to first in human trails. He has specific experience in CNS and Oncology therapy areas but enjoys the challenge of learning other indications.

Speakers:

Susie Zhang – Regulatory Strategies at Simulations Plus

Xinyuan (Susie) Zhang, Ph.D., is Vice President of Regulatory Strategies at Simulations Plus. Her career spans both the pharmaceutical industry and regulatory sectors, including influential roles at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Zhang’s expertise covers biopharmaceutics, clinical pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and drug–drug interactions, with a strong emphasis on modeling and simulation. She has authored or co-authored nearly 70 scientific publications and has contributed significantly to the development of regulatory guidances for both innovative and generic drug products. Dr. Zhang earned her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.?

Simon Teague – Senior Director, PBPK Drug Discovery at Pharmaron

Simon Teague is Head of PBPK Modelling at Pharmaron responsible for strategy, development and implementation of PBPK modelling across the organization from discovery to clinical. Prior to joining Pharmaron, Simon worked at GSK, MSD and Roche and has over 25 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Simon held the position of Director PBPK/PD modeling at GSK prior to joining Pharmaron.

Simon has worked in drug discovery leading DMPK strategy from H2L, Lead optimisation, candidate selection through to FTiH for multiple therapeutic areas including, Neurosciences, Immunology and Respiratory. In these roles Simon focused on the importance of physiochemical properties and PK/PD modelling to develop high quality molecular entities and predict outcomes such as human PK and efficacious clinical dose. The importance of predicting robust human outcome evolved into specialising in physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling to evaluate lead series, select candidate compounds and enable human studies using mechanistic modeling.