I am Senior Director Sales & Marketing for WuXi LabNetwork, WuXi’s online marketplace for research products. My goal is to support the WuXi AppTec vision that every drug can be made and every disease can be treated through building the open-access platform with the most comprehensive capabilities and technologies in the global healthcare industry.

From small molecule R&D and manufacturing, cell and gene therapy to drug R&D and medical device testing and clinical services, WuXi offers a platform of services and technologies in breadth and depth exceeding that of competitors. As an innovation-driven and customer-focused company, WuXi AppTec provides a broad and integrated portfolio of services to help our worldwide customers and partners shorten the discovery and development time and lower the cost of drug and medical device R&D.

Demand for new and more affordable therapies has never been greater. Better therapies require open-access approaches to lower the entry barrier for innovation, and to harness collective capabilities and experience to improve the chance of success. At WuXi, our commitment is to make the most meaningful difference to patients and society by enabling anyone and any company with great minds to discover and develop new medicines and products more efficiently and cost effectively to benefit patients.

It is difficult to pinpoint which is the biggest, but given the direction of the industry as a whole, our goal of reaching out to and getting integrated with smaller companies and start-ups is a key challenge. The landscape is changing and small companies are coming about at a rapid pace and in a variety of new technologies and geographies.

Even with the increase in knowledge and technology, barriers to entry are still substantial. There are still many resources involved in starting a venture and new companies with limited capabilities need to seek assistance in advancing their technology to effective therapeutic practice. One challenge is speeding up timelines. A platform company like WuXi, with a full suite of services and capabilities, can help clients cut timelines by years by removing the handoff costs associated with dealing with multiple vendors. Sharing of information is another one. There is no doubt that information gained by organizations is often held in confidence so that the broader intellectual community cannot act on it for the benefit of scientific advancement. We support independent organizations, such as the Pistoia Alliance, that work with industry to create and promote sharing platforms.

We continue to seek new relationships and we expect the DDIP to help with that. We expect to learn of new approaches and new technologies while making meaningful new connections with potential partners.

I came to Sai Life Sciences from global telecom firm with a finance background to help with business development. It has been a remarkable experience working with all our great partners and being a small part of their success stories. In the 14 years I have been with Sai, it has been great to witness our transformation from a 30 member chemistry services provider to an integrated discovery, development and commercial service provider with over 2,000 employees.

At Sai, we truly focus on our partner’s success. Our fundamental belief is that we can add true investor value by building long terms customer relationships, as opposed looking at profitability at a transactional level. This ensures that we take a long term view of the business over a 10 year horizon, enabling us to make larger investments in the business and offering customers the framework to have a truly collaborative relationship. We are committed to our motto of “Making things better together”.

The rate of innovation is going to accelerate. The real game changer will be the ability of companies to be flexible and aggressive in adopting new technologies and getting products to market faster.

Talent is always a fundamental driver of company’s success. Our challenge will always be to attract and groom the best talent, while creating a supporting environment for them to truly excel.

Discovery Technologies: Placing the right bets on what technologies you want to adopt. Every move involves substantial investment and takes times to implement. This really presents some high risk reward choices companies will have to make.Information Technology: We are in a major transition phase where IT technology will be integral part of how we innovate and how we analyze data. Every company needs to develop the core IT architecture in their organizations now, if they want to stay relevant. Regulatory framework: The regulations are getting much more stringent. How do you stay fast and still ensure minimum regulatory risk.

It is now more critical than ever to stay current and really understand trends in the industry. DDIP is a great place for us to network and keep us at the front end of innovation trends.