Editor’s note: Joe Magno is Executive Director, the North Carolina Center of Innovation Network, which is a partner with WRAL TechWire
DURHAM – Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business recently hosted the Precision Medicine World Conference for the first time in RTP. The fact that attendees and speakers from around the country and world congregated here is a testament to North Carolina’s growing prominence in the expanding field of Precision Medicine.
Globally recognized speakers and luminaries, including Ralph Snyderman, Chancellor Emeritus of Duke University, Jack Bailey, President of GSK, and many others discussed how Precision Medicine research and development and its positive impacting our lives.
Conference sessions covered a wide range of topics, including genome sequencing, healthcare decision-making, cancer immunology, genomics and other areas, but most exciting was the fact that some of our local companies engaged in developing and providing health care solutions were also showcased, and attendees were also given the opportunity to hear from researchers and executives from our growing cadre of local precision medicine companies.
Touring Metabolon
Interested attendees also had the opportunity to tour Metabolon, a locally grown company that is rapidly being recognized as a leader in the field of Metabolomics with products and services such as Meta IMD, a first-line clinical tool that can save valuable time in diagnosing and potentially saving thousands of dollars in associated costs by offering a comprehensive analysis of hundreds of metabolites associated with a wide range of inherited metabolic disorders.
Panaceutics presents
Another locally grown company, Panaceutics, also presented at the conference. A personalized medicine and clinical nutrition company, Panaceutics recently expanded its facilities for the third time since it was founded four years ago when it started operations at the First Flight Venture Center in RTP.
Panaceutics CEO, Edison Hudson’s presentation focused on how precision medicine could be a game changer for patient adherence while reducing prescription costs and improving patient outcomes.
Last year Panaceutics acquired a 503b compounding pharmacy and since its inception has garnered of $6M in funding, and the company is currently applying its specialized patented formulation technology in a Florida hospital system for the treatment of cardiac patients. Hudson is no stranger to inventing new technologies that automate manual systems and was a leader in several technology and robotics companies, including iRobot, Adept Technology, and Redzone Robotics, spending over a decade in the semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley.
“Cutting-edge development”
Geoff Ginsberg, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Duke Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine and PMWC Program Co-Chair summed up by stating, “As a team, we are bringing cross-functional stakeholders of this exciting field together to exchange ideas and the learnings gathered so far that can be translated into new winning strategies for the future of precision medicine as cutting edge development in healthcare”.
