Parallax: A Whimsical Perspective of the Biopharmaceutical Industry

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

4:00 PM-5:30 PM

BIOMED Hybrid Seminar

CLICK HERE TO ATTEND VIA ZOOM

Title:
Parallax:  A Whimsical Perspective of the Biopharmaceutical Industry

Speaker:
W. Scott Willett, PhD
Professor of Experimental Therapeutics and Translational Medicine
Director of Academic Affairs
Baruch S. Blumberg Institute
Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center

Details:
The biopharmaceutical industry is relatively new compared to our history of innovation and manufacturing. Yet, amazing strides have been made in a few short decades increasing our understanding and ability to harness the potential of biological systems to address human diseases. This presentation provides a personal perspective of the biopharmaceutical industry in the context of highlights from a couple of case studies of recombinant therapeutic protein projects.  
 
Biosketch:
W. Scott Willett, PhD, has 30 plus years experience in the biopharmaceutical industry developing and manufacturing recombinant protein human therapeutics. Since October 2021, Dr. Willett has served as Director of Academic Affairs of the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center in Doylestown, PA. In March 2021, Dr. Willett founded Pentrávalent, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing a platform technology for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of infectious diseases. From 2006-2020, Dr. Willett was at Promedior, where he led the development of their lead clinical-stage antifibrotic, PRM-151, from research through Phase II clinical manufacturing. In 2020, Promedior was acquired by Roche, after which Dr. Willett completed the technology transfer of the PRM-151 project to the Roche team, ending in 2021.

Prior to Promedior, Dr. Willett served as Director of Process Development at Neose Technologies, leading development and technology transfer for clinical-phase glyco-engineered protein therapeutics. Before joining Neose, Dr. Willett was a Process Development Scientist at Amgen, Thousand Oaks, where he led teams in the development of Phase I cGMP purification processes for several recombinant therapeutic proteins, in addition to supporting Amgen’s commercial products. Dr. Willett holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California at San Francisco and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Contact Information

Lisa Williams
ltw22@drexel.edu