About Us
PRISME Forum
In 2011, two pioneering organizations—PRISM and PRIME—joined forces to form the PRISME Forum. This union was born out of a shared vision to foster collaboration, innovation, and excellence within the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. By combining their strengths and expertise, PRISM and PRIME created a platform that has since become a cornerstone for knowledge exchange and strategic partnerships. The PRISME Forum stands as a testament to the power of unity, bringing together the best of both worlds to drive forward our collective mission.
PRISME Forum is 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 Forum observes all relevant anti-trust requirements and will not facilitate or allow discussions regarding commercially sensitive or confidential information. PRISME Forum will not engage in any political or legislative activities.
Our Mission
The mission of the PRISME Forum 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 Forum 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 Forum 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 and Value
PRISME Forum Goals
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.
Our Value…
… TO OUR MEMBERS
- External perspectives from trusted peers, “safe space” for advice
- Early insights in emerging trends, validation of industry-wide challenges
- Long-term professional networking
- Development opportunities for team members/ delegates
… TO THE INDUSTRY
- Well-connected leaders drive innovation
- Technical Meetings create high-quality interactions between innovators
- PRISME members are key influencers in other pre-competitive collaboration groups
PRISME Forum Board Chair
Martin Erkens, PhD
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, an 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 blueprint 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.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Alastair Binnie
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.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dan Chapman, PhD
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.
Dr. Chapman had served as the PRISME Forum Chair between 2018-2023.
Shubha Chaudhari, MMIS, MBMI
Shubha Chaudhari is a senior entrepreneurial informatics leader with over 20 years broad based management experience leading business and technology function growth. She is accomplished in directing the strategic application of end to end technologies to advance business priorities and leading complex transformations in multi-national corporations. Empowering team builder and coach, Shubha is skilled at harnessing organization talents to orchestrate and deliver complex initiatives within time and resource constraints.
Shubha is a recognized leader at building start-up units in diverse organizational ecosystems. A technologist who can lead and deliver specialized functional objectives with impactful positive outcome, she is committed to lifelong learning and forever readiness to stretch beyond core competencies.
Martin Erkens, PhD
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 Board of Directors’ Chair on November 15, 2023.
Lars Greiffenberg, PhD
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, PhD
Hongmei Huang, PhD, is the Vice President and Global Head of Digital Strategy and Enablement for clinical development at Roche. She is an opinion leader on data and digital and is among key leaders for large scale data initiatives and the application of AI and digital solutions for pharmaceutical research and development.
Hongmei received her PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry from Scripps Research, and has been in leadership roles both in research and data sciences in various companies. In her three decades of experience in the industry, Hongmei has been leading organizational drives to transform the data and digital landscape across pharma domains, by connecting science and technology.
Cathy Kuang, MBA
Cathy Kuang is Head of Research Technology and Lab Systems at Takeda. In this capacity, Cathy spearheads innovative advancements through digital technologies and assumes responsibility for leading global teams dedicated to business collaboration, innovation lab initiatives, and service delivery, all in support of Takeda’s Research organization and Lab Systems.
Cathy brings a wealth of experience as a seasoned and results-driven leader in Business Technology, specializing in enterprise strategy and roadmap development, team cultivation, process enhancement, transformative changes, and the design of applications and infrastructures across diverse global business sectors. Before joining Takeda, Cathy spent over 16 years at Johnson & Johnson, where she held various roles in the Supply Chain and R&D Technology Organization. During her tenure, she oversaw Technology Reliability Operations, provided strategic direction, managed a portfolio, and had oversight of 15 Manufacturing Sites and 11 R&D sites. Additionally, she served as the primary technology partner for the functional leadership team, with comprehensive responsibility for the technology product roadmap, portfolio, and investment strategy aligned with Business Segment and Technology strategy. Cathy’s reputation as a technology leader was well-established, as she introduced innovative ideas and solutions such as enabling R&D engineers to remotely participate in labs using Double robots during the pandemic. Under her guidance, her team implemented digital thread, digital twin, Intelligent Automation RPAs, and Real-Time Release across multiple manufacturing sites, resulting in the receipt of five digital transformation awards.
Prior to her time at J&J, Cathy held roles with increasing responsibilities at Pfizer R&D in Connecticut and Cantest in Canada, where she delivered and managed Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) solutions. Cathy has accumulated over two decades of experience in life sciences lab technologies across the medical devices and pharmaceutical industries. While her career has been predominantly focused on lab informatics, she has also held positions in Human Resources, Payroll, IT infrastructure, and Database Administration.
Cathy’s educational background includes a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Florida and a BA in Computer Science. She is certified as a Release Train Engineer (RTE) and Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM) in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), in addition to holding various professional certifications in technologies and lab solutions.
Amrik Mahal, PhD
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.
Errol Sandler, PhD
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.
Mike Sullivan, MBA
Mike Sullivan is an Information Technology Executive with more than 25 years of experience with global, multi-national companies. Mike is a seasoned leader with a deep understanding of how technology adds value across the drug development life cycle.
Mike is currently responsible for driving the strategic partnership between IT and Global Development Operations at Bristol Myers Squibb.
John CM Wise
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.