Pharmaceutical R&D Information Systems Management Executives Forum

PRISME Forum is a formally incorporated not-for-profit organization with the mission to provide a forum for the exchange of non-commercially sensitive information among its members in order to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of global research and development information management and information technology organization within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

MEETINGS

PRISME Forum meets twice a year, spring and fall, once in Europe and once in North America.

Each one and a half day Business Meeting is followed by a one day Tech Meeting which includes lectures, breakouts, poster presentations and panel discussions.

COMPLIANCE

PRISME will be devoted to improvement of general business conditions in the biotech and pharma industry and will not provide any services that would normally be carried out for profit. PRISME will observe all relevant anti-trust requirements and will not facilitate or allow discussions regarding commercially sensitive or confidential information. PRISME will not engage in any political or legislative activities.

RECENT and NEXT MEETINGS

The most recent PRISME Forum Business and Technical Meetings was held in Boston, November 14-16, 2023.  The next meeting will be held in Saclay, France on May 21-23, 2024.

PRISME Forum ORGANIZATION

Mission

The mission of PRISME will be to provide a forum for the exchange of non-commercially sensitive information among its Members in order to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of global Research and Development Information Management and Information Technology (“R&D IT”) organizations within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical (“biotech and pharma”) industries.

PRISME will be devoted to improvement of general business conditions in the biotech and pharma industries and will not provide any services that would normally be carried out for profit. PRISME will observe all relevant anti-trust requirements and will not facilitate or allow discussions regarding commercially sensitive or confidential information. PRISME will not engage in any political or legislative activities.

Goals

The major goals of PRISME will be to:

1. Establish and maintain a network among the Members that fosters open communication of non-commercially sensitive information.

2. Educate Members regarding best practices in R&D IT in the biotech, pharma and other industries.

3. Promote the development and use of open standards for applications utilized in biotech and pharma R&D.

4. Create opportunities for open and informal dialogue between the Membership and suppliers of IT products used in biotech, pharma R&D and related life sciences organizations.

5. Alert Members to new and emerging information technologies and products of special relevance to biotech and pharma R&D.

6. Operate at all times within the statement of compliance as set out below.

Activities

The major activities of PRISME will include:

1. Semi-annual meetings of the Members (usually once in Europe/once in North America);

2. Commissioning of working groups to conduct research and investigation into topics of interest to the Members;

3. Inviting experts to present technology and product development overviews to the Members;

4. Conducting benchmarking exercises regarding general directions and trends in R&D IT management or technology among the Member companies (without disclosing directly or indirectly any proprietary or commercially sensitive information);

5. Special Interest Groups will be utilized to focus on specific topics of note to the Membership.

PRISME Forum MEMBERSHIP

PRISME Forum Membership Qualification

Membership in PRISME is to a senior R&D Information Management, Information Technology, Informatics, or equivalent leader (the “Member”) of any company that conducts discovery, development and/or regulatory submissions for proprietary pharmaceutical products. A company, in circumstances dictated by its organization structure and activities may have more than one person as a member.  Any person satisfying these requirements may become a Member by agreeing in writing to abide by the terms of this Organizational Charter and remitting payment of dues in accordance with Section XI.

Statement of Compliance

All meetings, working groups and communications will be open to all Members and any records thereof will be non-confidential and available for inspection by any Member.  The Members acknowledge that discussing any commercially sensitive topics, including costs, volumes, inventories, sales level methods, channels of distribution, access to future products, markets, current or future prices, profitability, contract pricing or trading terms is prohibited. The Members of PRISME will strictly comply with all laws relevant to their activities, including US state and federal anti-trust laws and European competition laws.

PRISME Forum Obligations of Members

Each Member of PRISME agrees to:

  1. Attend and participate in at least one meeting per year;
  2. Abide by the rules and intent of the Organizational Charter;
  3. Vote on issues submitted to the Membership by the Chair;
  4. Conduct himself or herself in a manner that respects diversity among the Members;
  5. Not disclose any commercially sensitive information or information that may be deemed confidential by the Member’s company or any supplier to, or customer of, the Member’s company;
  6. Pay all dues owing from their Membership;
  7. Pay for all costs of transportation, lodging and other individually incurred costs as a result of participation in PRISME activities and meetings;
  8. Delegate attendance at any meetings of the Membership may occur only with prior approval by the Chair. Member participation is encouraged;
  9. Meet agreed commitments and deadlines;
  10. Respond promptly to communications from other members.

Membership rights of Members may be terminated by the Chair for repeated failure to meet the above obligations.  Members may terminate their own participation in PRISME immediately upon notice to the Chair. In neither instance will any portion of the Member’s dues be refunded, however, dues are transferable to another qualified person within the same company as the terminated Member.

PRISME Forum Member Rights

Each Member in good standing of PRISME will be entitled to:

  1. Attend and participate in semi-annual meetings and all other activities sponsored by PRISME;
  2. Vote on all issues submitted to the Membership by the Chair for decision;
  3. Receive all documentation and materials made generally available at meetings and in working groups;
  4. Delegate attendance and participation in any PRISME working groups;
  5. Receive the results of any informal benchmarking activities in which they choose to participate.

PRISME Forum Dues and Contributions

PRISME will collect revenues only to the extent necessary to defray the costs of its meetings and activities.  Annual dues will be proposed by the Chair and voted upon by the Membership.  Contributions may be solicited in appropriate circumstances from vendors participating in meetings or other activities to defray operating expenses directly related to such vendor’s participation.  PRISME is not organized to generate a profit and no part of its earnings, if any, will benefit any member or member company.

Voting

Any official decision or action of PRISME will be presented to the Membership by the Chair for voting on the basis of one vote per dues paying member or members emeritus.  Voting may occur at semi-annual meetings and/or via electronic mail.  Decisions will be made by majority vote provided a quorum of two-thirds of the Members participates in the vote.  In the case of voting via electronic mail, Members will have five business days in which to cast their vote by return electronic mail.  A quorum will have been established when two thirds of the Members have cast their vote by the end of the fifth business day. If at the end of the fifth business day no such quorum has been obtained, the vote will not be effective.

TERMINATION

PRISME will continue to operate indefinitely unless terminated by vote of two-thirds of the Members or by declaration of insolvency by the Chair. Upon termination, the Secretary/Treasurer will liquidate any assets, pay all legal debts, and donate the balance of funds to a charitable organization selected by the Chair that is qualified under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service code. No payment or refund of dues will be made to any Member or Officer as a result of termination except for reimbursement of expenses incurred on behalf of PRISME in the normal course of its business.

PRISME Forum OFFICERS and COMMITTEES

PRISME is intended to operate as an informal association of qualified and interested parties (as defined in section II).  The business of PRISME will be conducted in accordance with fair and democratic parliamentary procedure.

Officers will be appointed by the Membership to coordinate activities and ensure the continuity of PRISME as follows:

Chairperson

A Chairperson (the “Chair”) will be appointed from the Membership by a majority vote of the Members for a two-year term. The obligations of the Chair will be to:

  1. Establish and communicate meeting agendas;
  2. Conduct business and facilitate discussion at meetings;
  3. Assist in recruiting new Members;
  4. Appoint Committees as necessary to further the goals of PRISME and recruit volunteers from among the Members to serve on such Committees;
  5. Ensure the appointment of Officers;
  6. Oversee the work of the Officers and Committees;
  7. Approve the annual budget, membership dues, and major expenditures;
  8. Review the financial status of PRISME at least once per year;
  9. Transfer responsibilities to the Chair’s successor.
Secretary/Treasurer

A Secretary/Treasurer will be appointed upon nomination by the Chair and vote of the Membership for a two-year term coextensive with the term of the Chair. The Secretary/Treasurer may be appointed from the Membership or externally.  Where the Secretary/Treasurer is not a Member, he or she will not have voting rights.  The obligations of the Secretary/Treasurer will be to:

  1. Establish and maintain a corporate record book containing the Charter, meeting minutes, and legal documents establishing and defining the status of the organization;
  2. Assure the accurate preparation and timely distribution to the Members of meeting minutes;
  3. Propose an annual budget and membership dues prior to each fiscal year;
  4. Collect dues;
  5. Review and approve hotel, restaurant and other contracts for meeting related expenses provided the contract prices are within budgeted amounts;
  6. Review meeting expenses and submit them to the Chair for approval;
  7. Remit payment for obligations incurred by the organization and approved by the Chair;
  8. Submit all forms due to governmental agencies including but not limited to tax filings;
  9. Report to the Members annually on the financial and legal status of the organization;
Member Emeritus

Upon occasion, the Membership has the option to elect a former member “Member Emeritus”.  This would be granted in the case where an individual who no longer qualifies under “Member Qualifications” above as a member.  This would generally be applied to an individual retiring from a member company and would be bestowed as an honor.  The individual would be excused from the Membership Fee and would maintain all the obligations and rights of members including voting on issues brought before the membership.

Board of Directors

PRISME will maintain a standing Board of Directors as follows:

  1. The Board of Directors will be chaired by the PRISME Chair. Members for the Board of Directors will be selected by the Chair in consultation with the membership.
  2. It will either directly conduct or commission sub-committees of the Members in order to complete the following activities or others as determined during the normal course of business:

Plan PRISME meetings as follows

  • Schedule and lead Program Committee teleconference meetings and distribute minutes of same;
  • Prepare an agenda for the next regular meeting of Members in conformance with the guidance provided by the Members at the previous meeting;
  • Recruit speakers and consult with the speakers on the development of appropriate content for the meeting;
  • Work with the meeting coordinator to select the venue, meals, and provide lodging support;
  • Review and approve meeting materials prepared by the meeting coordinator;
  • Communicate the agenda and meeting logistics to the Members; and
  • Review the materials to be distributed to the Members following the meeting including but not limited to handouts and CDs.
  1. Recruit new member companies to participate in PRISME
  2. Recruit replacements for Members who are no longer eligible for membership due to changes in job or role and enhance the diversity of the group;
  3. Resolve issues regarding qualification for membership;
  4. Review the Membership Directory published by the meeting coordinator at each meeting for completeness and accuracy.
  5. Act as a smaller leadership group for the organization as deemed appropriate by the Chair and the membership. All activities of the Board of Directors will be communicated to the Membership, and if approval is needed, voting as describe below will be conducted.
MARTIN ERKENS, PhD

MARTIN ERKENS, PhD

PRISME Forum Chair

Martin Erkens, PhD, leads the Pharma Research and Early Development Informatics organization (pREDi) of Roche. Data science supporting drug projects as well as Research and Early Development workflow solutions are among the key contributions of Dr. Erken’s organization. He was responsible for supporting multiple mergers and acquisitions, implementing a wide range of diverse solution including a digital media environment for early development, a research imaging data warehouse, a efficient data review tool for early clinical studies and a LIMS for the omics labs.

Prior to becoming head of pREDi, Dr. Erkens ran various IT teams in the clinical space and was responsible to implement global systems for drug project and portfolio planning, global sales reporting, electronic data capture of clinical trials (the first large cloud system at Roche), clinical imaging and a system environment for the internal clinical Phase I unit. During this time he also led a program establishing a complete new blue print of the system landscape supporting clinical development resulting in an investment program over 5 years and 100+ mUSD investment.

Dr. Erkens received his PhD in Mathematics (stability theory) from Albert Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg. He also holds two degrees in Mathematics and Physics (“Diplom” and “Staatsexamen”) from the same university.

Dr. Erkens was elected PRISME Forum Chair on October 9, 2023.

Past Chairs

Dan Chapman

Dan Chapman, PhD, leads the IT Early Solutions Information Management at UCB.

Dr. Chapman has 15 years experience working within the Pharmaceutical industry in a variety of roles.  After completing a PhD in Chemistry at Warwick University, he transitioned to informatics during post doctoral research at Cambridge University as part of the CLIC consortium.

He joined AstraZeneca in 1997 and worked on a variety of global projects before joining UCB in his present role in 2005. Since then, Dr. Chapman has driven several projects to revolutionize the informatics platform within UCB and is currently actively involved in promoting Data Science across UCB.

Dr. Chapman was elected PRISME Forum Chair at the November 2018 PRISME Forum Business Meeting and re-elected at the November 2022 PRISME Forum Business Meeting.

Olivier Gien

Olivier Gien, PhD, served as PRISME Forum’s Chair between 2014 and 2018.

He is a Chemical Engineer by training and holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry. His PhD work focused on leveraging Artificial Intelligence technologies and retro-synthetic analysis to build a system helping chemists in the design of synthetic routes.

Dr. Gien started his career in the Exploratory Unit of Sanofi’s Hungarian affiliate in Budapest then took charge of Information Systems for Industrial Chemical development at Sanofi’s Sisteron site. He then led Global Discovery Research Information Systems at Sanofi-Synthelabo, then Sanofi-Aventis in Montpellier, before taking on the role of Global Head, R&D IT in 2010, Global Head, Clinical IT in 2015 and then Global Head, Medical IT in 2017.

Matteo di Tommaso

Mr. di Tommaso served as PRISME Forum’s Chair between 2012 and 2014. Currently, he is SVP, Drug Development Digital & IT at BMS where he & his team focus on technology and data capabilities that enable the best of human and machine capabilities to accelerate medicines that improve outcomes for patients.

Prior to his current role, Mr. di Tommaso built teams and technology capabilities for Sanofi as CTO and VP of R&D and Medical IT, and Biogen as acting CIO and Vice President of R&D IT. Before joining Biogen, he led Research IT teams at Pfizer delivering IT products and services for groups working between idea and clinical proof of concept. His teams have contributed to OpenSource software initiatives and won multiple industry awards. Matteo joined Pfizer from Celera Genomics, where he built software as a service to deliver the first human genome. Prior to that, he built bioinformatics and data services for Genetics Computer Group, and led development of public information services for the European Bioinformatics Institute.

He began his career in science and technology at Warner-Lambert Parke-Davis, with a degree in Chemistry from Indiana University.

Susie Stephens

Susie Stephens is a strategic leader in the pharmaceutical industry with over two decades of experience in informatics, science, and technology. She is currently Corporate Vice President at Novo Nordisk for Data Management and Infrastructure for Research & Early Development.

She was previously Head of Data & Analytics Architecture across Pfizer and prior to that Head of R&D IT for Oncology and Vaccines at Pfizer. Before that she was responsible for exploratory data analysis from disease understanding to Phase IV in the immunology therapeutic area at Johnson & Johnson. She has also worked at Oracle and Sun Microsystems where she had roles spanning pre-sales, product management and market segment management.

Susie has a Ph.D. in Physiology; post-doctoral experience in Molecular Biology; and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School. Susie has over 20 peer reviewed papers and has presented at many industry conferences on data, advanced analytics, precision medicine, and innovation. She has Chaired two World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Interest Groups on semantic technologies and was the founding Chair of the PRISME Forum (a pre-competitive consortium for leaders in R&D IT).

OUR MEMBERS INCLUDE:

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Christian Baber

Head of Scientific & Pharmaceutical Data, Informatics & Systems

Christian Baber, PhD, is a chemist by training and holds undergraduate and PhD degrees in computational chemistry with a focus on AI techniques to assess the synthetic accessibility of de novo design compounds.

Christian continued this work with a post-doctoral fellowship on the automated design of targeted combinatorial libraries at the Department of Knowledge Engineering, Osaka University, Japan before moving into industry initially as a computational chemist and cheminformatician.

Christian has a wide breadth of R&D experience across companies ranging from startups to large pharma and diverse therapeutic areas with a focus on informatics and predictive modeling for drug discovery but has also managed lab and automation teams including compound management and high-throughput purification.

After spending the previous 6 years leading Scientific Computing & Informatics and R&D IT at Shire Takeda, Christian moved to Janssen (J&J) in 2021 where he now leads the global Scientific & Pharmaceutical Data, Informatics and Systems function in R&D.

In addition to his day job, Christian sits on a number of scientific & industry advisory boards, including the Pistoia Alliance.

Alastair Binnie - Executive Director, PRISME Forum

Executive Director, PRISME Forum

Alastair Binnie has recently retired from Bristol-Myers Squibb where he was Head of Information Technology for Research & Development.  In this role he was accountable for planning and delivering all aspects of IT’s value proposition to BMS R&D, which includes digital platforms supporting discovery, preclinical, translational medicine, clinical development, regulatory sciences, pharmacovigilance, and medical affairs. His mission was to enable R&D by providing the right tools and the right data, to the right scientists, at the right time. He joined BMS in 1999 as the leader of the Discovery Automation team in Wallingford, Connecticut, and progressed through a range of leadership roles in research technology and IT.

From 1994-99 he led the Discovery Technologies group at Glaxo Wellcome R&D in the UK. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Alastair worked as a design engineer in the space industry, developing instrumentation for microgravity research for the European Space Agency. He is a current or recent Board member of global life-science technology industry groups, including PRISME, the Society of Laboratory Automation and Screening, and the Pistoia Innovation Alliance. He represented BMS on the New Jersey Technology Council.

Alastair grew up in Scotland. He has degrees in mechanical engineering, design engineering and industrial design from Brunel University, Imperial College of Science and Technology, and the Royal College of Art.

Dan Chapman - Immediate-Past Chair, PRISME Forum

Head of IT New Medicines Information Management, UCB

Dan Chapman, PhD, is part of the leadership team within Informatics at UCB with responsibility for Software Development and Architecture and Therapeutic Informatics (UK).

Dr. Chapman has 15 years’ experience working within the Pharmaceutical industry in a variety of roles.

After completing a PhD in Chemistry at Warwick University, he transitioned to informatics during post-doctoral research at Cambridge University as part of the CLIC consortium.  Dr. Chapman joined AstraZeneca in 1997 and worked on a variety of global projects before joining UCB in his present role in 2005.

Since then, he has driven several projects to revolutionize the informatics platform within UCB and is currently actively involved in promoting Data Science across UCB.

Martin Erkens - Chair, PRISME Forum

Executive Leader, pRED Informatics, F. Hoffmann La Roche Ltd.

erkens]Martin Erkens, PhD, leads the Pharma Research and Early Development Informatics organization (pREDi) of Roche. Data science supporting drug projects as well as Research and Early Development workflow solutions are among the key contributions of Dr. Erken’s organization. He was responsible for supporting multiple mergers and acquisitions, implementing a wide range of diverse solution including a digital media environment for early development, a research imaging data warehouse, a efficient data review tool for early clinical studies and a LIMS for the omics labs.

Prior to becoming head of pREDi, Dr. Erkens ran various IT teams in the clinical space and was responsible to implement global systems for drug project and portfolio planning, global sales reporting, electronic data capture of clinical trials (the first large cloud system at Roche), clinical imaging and a system environment for the internal clinical Phase I unit. During this time he also led a program establishing a complete new blue print of the system landscape supporting clinical development resulting in an investment program over 5 years and 100+ mUSD investment.

Dr. Erkens received his PhD in Mathematics (stability theory) from Albert Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg. He also holds two degrees in Mathematics and Physics (“Diplom” and “Staatsexamen”) from the same university.

Andreas Friese

Head of IT for Drug Discovery, Research & Early Development, Bayer

frieseAndreas Friese started his professional career as a software developer in 1987 at Schering AG, Berlin, Germany. From the beginning, he was focused on IT solutions that addressed specific needs of the Research organization.

Over the years, he held various positions as system analyst and project manager – all with focus on Research specific systems or projects.

In 1999, Mr. Friese moved to Richmond, CA, USA as an IT Business Partner for the Medicinal Chemistry department of Berlex Biosciences. During the merger of Schering AG with Bayer AG, he returned to Germany.

Based in Wuppertal, he is Director of Research-IT for Drug Discovery, Research & Early Development, for Bayer.

Lars Greiffenberg

Sr. Director BTS-Information Research, Research Fellow, Abbvie Library Information Sciences, AbbVie

Lars Greiffenberg, PhD, MS, holds a MS in Biology and a PhD in Microbiology and has more than 15 years of experience in the field of integrated R&D IT solutions and translational informatics. He held different R&D IT management positions at Aventis Pharma and Sanofi-Aventis in Frankfurt before relocating to the Sanofi site in Toulouse, France where he was Global Head of Solution Center Translational Medicine with responsibility to manage and lead a global program to enable translational science at Sanofi.

In 2014 he joined AbbVie in Ludwigshafen (Germany) as director of R&D IT and Translational Informatics. In this role he is heading business IT support covering data and solutions from early discovery up to Medical Affairs. In 2017 he extended his responsibilities including now global Library Sciences at Abbvie. He is driven by the ambition to transform the way we access, consume and leverage literature in the future. He recently established a team at AbbVie, dedicated to use modern methods and algorithms to extract and visualize mechanistic disease information from literature content.

In 2018 he further enlarged his area of responsibility to incorporate the Academic Partnerships Organization which is leveraging an AbbVie-Campus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Lars is active in several pre-competitive organizations including IMI, PRISME Forum, Pistoia Alliance and EIT-health.

Hongmei Huang

Vice President, Development Sciences Informatics, Genentech

Hongmei Huang, PhD, is the Vice President of Development Sciences Informatics at Roche Genentech, and is responsible for the strategic leadership around data management, informatics systems and analytics platforms for translational research and development functions. She is among the key leaders driving the Roche wide effort to make our data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR).

By connecting science and technology, Hongmei leads organizational drives to transform the data and informatics landscape for the advancement of medicines and healthcare. She is an accomplished scientific and informatics leader with over 25 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry. She started her career as a Research Investigator at Bristol-Myers Squibb and transitioned into Informatics over the course of her career, with leadership roles in various companies including Novartis and Johnson & Johnson.

She received her B.S. from Beijing University, M.S. from University of Michigan, and Ph.D. in BioOrganic Chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute.

Amrik Mahal

Global IT Head for Research, AstraZeneca

Dr. Amrik Mahal is the Global Head of Information Technology for Research at AstraZeneca. In this role he is accountable for developing and driving the IT strategy, partnering with R&D senior leaders and delivery all IT projects, services and capabilities. He is currently on secondment in Gothenburg where he is the also Head of IT – Sweden, a member of the Site Leadership Team and works with the AZ Bioventure Incubator Hub.

Dr. Mahal is a versatile leader working on the intersection of life sciences and technology to serve the unmet needs of patients. Extensive experience in building and leading diverse and engaged teams to support pharmaceutical R&D. Multiple years of experience working in pharmaceutical research (Glaxo Wellcome, Oxford Asymmetry, Evotec) and academic career in the life sciences. Experienced global leader with proven ability to identify strategic initiatives, align stakeholders, scaling innovation and deliver solutions on time and on budget.

Tomoyuki Matsunaga

Business Partner & Shonan Site IT Head in Scientific Informatics, Takeda

Tomoyuki Matsunaga is Business Partner & Shonan Site IT Head in Scientific Informatics at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. His role is to lead discussion of strategic IT demands and priority with Research & Pharmaceutical Sciences in Shonan, Japan as the Point of Contact. He also oversees and manages site specific IT-related activities and resources​ including IT supports for integration, divestiture or external collaborations associated with Takeda Shonan R&D Business.

Mr. Matsunaga started his career in Central Research of Pfizer Japan in 1991 as a research scientist. After 5 years in Natural Product Screening department, he moved to Research IT group in the company and worked on various projects of global discovery research information systems. He joined Takeda in 2008 as an Associate Director in Research IT, and took the current position in 2019.

He obtained his MBA from Kenichi Ohmae Graduate School of Business and MSc, Medical Sciences from University of Tsukuba.

Scott Oloff

SVP of Data & Analytics, F. Hoffmann La-Roche

Scott Oloff, PhD, started his career as a Computational Chemist in Research where he worked for both Biogen and Boehringer Ingelheim.

His primary expertise was building and using machine learning algorithms for potency/ADMET predictions, docking, and research project support. In 2008 he took a position in Research IT within Boehringer Ingelheim overseeing data analytics and mining technologies. In 2022, Scott moved to F. Hoffman La-Roche as SVP of Data and Analytics.

Over time he has expanded into a number of IT R&D roles where he now oversees all technologies that are shared across the Research, Development, and Medicine business areas (Analytics, Chemistry tools, ELN’s, Lab technologies, LIMS, Document Mgmt tools, etc.).

Scott holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University and a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of North Carolina.

Errol Sandler - Vice-Chair/Treasurer, PRISME Forum

PRISME Forum Board Secretary/Treasurer

Errol Sandler, PhD, worked in the information technology industry for 30 years. His career focused on research and development computing problems in the life sciences.

Dr. Sandler provided leadership and technical expertise for Research & Development computing in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, he led teams to provide information technology support at several Pfizer Global research and development sites in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Sandler received his PhD in Physics and Astronomy in July of 1977 from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

John CM Wise

Consultant, PRISME Forum

John CM Wise, MA, is a consultant with the non-profits PRISME Forum and the Pistoia Alliance with responsibilities that include business development and member relations. John has spent the past decade or so specialising in the coordination of pre-competitive collaborations in life science R&D IT and healthcare.

John has had a long-time commitment to encouraging pharma to use expert, third-party, cost-effective, regulatory-compliant, secure, hosted information services.

Previously, John has held Informatics leadership roles in a variety of organizations including the University of London, Sandoz, the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now CRUK), Roche, Ipsen and Daiichi Sankyo. John has also worked in the technology supply side of the industry. In these roles, he has gained direct hands-on experience writing analytical software, teaching computation, delivering IT capabilities, and providing computer-based services to the discovery, non-clinical development, clinical development, and regulatory affairs domains of the life-science industry.

John graduated in physiology from the University of Oxford and received a post-graduate certificate in education from the University of London.

The Spring 2024 PRISME Forum Meeting will be held May 21-23 in Saclay, France.