Professor Ruth Roberts and Dr Paul Duffy recently spent some time with the Servier nonclinical safety team in Paris, hosted by Dr Nancy Claude, Director of Non-Clinical Safety at Servier and Patrick Genissel, Director Centre of Excellence Research & Biopharmacy, R & D VP.
The discussions focused on science-led strategies to nonclinical development of new molecules, especially complex biologics. Paul presented a number of interesting case studies to illustrate how things can be done differently followed by a round table discussion on projects led by the Servier experts. The day was a great success with many areas identified for future collaboration.
“It was great to catch up with Nancy”, said Ruth. “We have worked together as friends and colleagues for over 15 years and it’s a real pleasure to meet the Servier team”.
Professor Ruth A Roberts, PhD, ATS, FBTS, ERT, FRSB, FRCPath
Director and Cofounder, ApconiX, UK and Chair and Director of Drug Discovery, University of Birmingham, UK
Ruth is chair of drug discovery at Birmingham University, UK and Cofounder of ApconiX, an integrated toxicology and ion channel company that brings together a team of world-renowned nonclinical safety experts with over 400 years of drug discovery and development experience. Previously, Ruth was Global Head of Regulatory Safety at AstraZeneca and Director of Toxicology for Aventis. Ruth is an established science professional bringing rigorous expert thinking to toxicology, drug discovery and drug development. With >140 publications in peer reviewed journals, she is focused on reducing attrition attributable to safety and toxicity. A former president of the British Toxicology Society, former president of EUROTOX, former secretary to SOT and president elect of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences, Ruth was the recipient of the SOT Achievement award in 2002, the EUROTOX Bo Holmstedt Award in 2009 and the SOT Founders award in 2018 for outstanding leadership in toxicology.