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.