Interview with: Thomas S. Jensen, Intomics, a sponsor company at the marcus evans Discovery Summit 2014, on taking better advantage of drug discovery data available in the public domain

1. Doubling Drug Discovery Success
Interview with: Thomas S. Jensen,
Chief Executive Officer, Intomics
“Pharmaceutical companies are not
always taking full advantage of publicly
available data,” according to Thomas S.
Jensen, Chief Executive Officer,
Intomics. “Instead of focusing on a few
experiments and basing their decisions
on them, they can use quality data
available publicly in an integrative
approach and improve, sometimes even
double, the success rate of their follow-
up experiments,” he recommends.
Intomics is a sponsor company at the
marcus evans Discovery Summit
2014, in Lisbon, Portugal, 31 March -
1 April.
What are the biggest issues in drug
discovery today?
There has been a paradigm shift in the
area of data-driven drug target
identification, with biotechnology
measurement capabilities continuously
increasing and data generation getting
cheaper, leading to more and more
data. The challenge here is in getting a
holistic view of the underlying biology
from that data and using it to find the
right targets for the right patients in the
right disease population.
How could pharma companies
better leverage the research
conducted within the organisation?
Our experience with clients is that they
start out with a very simplistic approach
but quickly realise that much of the
information they need in order to
leverage their activities already exists.
They may have generated it in-house in
a different project or context, or it is in
the public domain.
The more high quality data they base
decisions on, the more accurate they
will be and the better outcomes they will
get. It will take less time to go through
a given phase. When picking the right
patients for a given drug, they will have
a much higher response rate in the
clinical trials. Utilising data available in
the public domain leads to more cost
effective drug discovery.
How does Intomics’ database
support drug discovery?
We have taken the research data
available publicly, and spent time
cleaning and reanalysing it to create
whole new ways of looking at it, to help
in extracting their true biological
significance.
Most individuals typically have 400,000 -
800,000 mutations in their genes.
Across a cohort of patients, that
translates into millions of mutations.
The question is, which of those lead to
the disease or can help identify the
patients most likely to respond to a
given treatment?
Our method is network-based inter-
pretation of genetic data, where we can
pinpoint the biological sub-systems
being mutated. We have a database of
how biological molecules interact, how
the proteins touch each other inside the
cell, which provides a strong indication
of functional relationships. It is quite
similar to how social networks such as
Facebook or Linkedin work, and helps
companies analyse and interpret the
various types of big data sets they are
generating or have access to.
Any final comments?
Companies are not taking full advantage
of the possibilities that are available to
them in this era of big data. The better
they understand a disease, the better
options they have for taking the right
targets to the right patients, and the
higher the success probability of their
project will be, irrespective of where
most of the data was generated.
Utilising data
available in
the public
domain leads
to more cost
effective
drug
discovery

2. The Pharma Network – marcus
evans Summits group delivers
peer-to-peer information on
strategic matters, professional
t r e n d s a n d b r e a k t h r o u g h
innovations.
Please note that the Summit is a
closed business event and the
number of participants strictly
limited.
About the Discovery Summit 2014
This unique forum will take place at the Grande Real Villa Itália Hotel & Spa,
Cascais, Lisbon, Europe, 31 March - 1 April 2014. Offering much more than any
conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together
esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and
interactive networking event. The Summit includes presentations on boosting
pipeline productivity, understanding disease mechanism, finding promising targets,
and reviewing economic and regulatory challenges.
www.discovery-summit.com
Contact
Sarin Kouyoumdjian-Gurunlian, Press Manager, marcus evans, Summits Division
Tel: + 357 22 849 313
Email: press@marcusevanscy.com
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About Intomics
Intomics, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, is a consultancy and contract research organization highly specialized in analysis and
integration of biomedical big data, both at molecular level and patient level. Through the use of our world-leading expertise, unique
data sets, and our proprietary systems biology platform, we help our clients in the pharmaceutical industry identify the right drug
targets for the right patients.
www.intomics.com
About marcus evans Summits
marcus evans Summits are high level business forums for the world’s leading decision-makers to meet, learn and discuss
strategies and solutions. Held at exclusive locations around the world, these events provide attendees with a unique opportunity to
individually tailor their schedules of keynote presentations, case studies, roundtables and one-to-one business meetings.
For more information, please visit: www.marcusevans.com
Upcoming Events
Evolution Summit (North America) - www.evolutionsummit.com
Evolution Summit (Europe) - www.evolution-summit.com
To view the web version of this interview, please click here: www.discovery-summit.com/ThomasSJensen