The Economist Presents: "The War on Cancer: Scaling Progress"

BOSTON, Mass., Sept. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Economist Events will hold the second annual War on Cancer Forum, on the theme of "Scaling Progress" on September 28^th 2016 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Boston.

Will small steps or giant leaps yield the highest returns in the "War on Cancer"? In 2015, Vice President Joe Biden called for a "moonshot" to find a cure. But when it comes to today's fight, how does one define and determine progress? Today's "War on Cancer" is also about addressing high drug prices, ensuring access to critical, new therapies, and making preventative and diagnostic advances a common reality. In spite of the significant progress that has been made in treating these deadly diseases, such as faster and more precise technologies and more collaborative health models, cancer is still among the leading causes of death worldwide.

The Economist editors and a cadre of multi-sector experts will debate and offer new insights on these topics at the "War on Cancer: Scaling Progress" forum. The event's closing keynote interview will feature Greg Simon, Executive Director of the Cancer Moonshot Task Force. Other confirmed speakers include:  

• Amy Abernethy, Chief medical officer and senior vice-president of Oncology, Flatiron Health
• Eliza Adams, Patient advocate
• Christina Åkerman, President, International Consortium For Health Outcomes Measurement
• Sanjeev Arora, Director and founder, Project ECHO
• Peter Bach, Director, center for Health Policy and Outcomes, Memorial Sloan-Kettering
• David Bartlett, Vice-chairman, Surgical Oncology and Gastrointestinal Services UPMC and vice-chairman, David C. Koch Regional Perfusion Cancer Therapy Center
• Roy Beveridge, Senior vice-president and chief medical officer, Humana
• Hans Bishop, Chief executive, Juno Therapeutics
• Alexis Borisy, Partner, Third Rock Ventures
• Amitabh Chandra, Director, health policy research, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
• William Dalton, Chief executive, M2Gen
• Jason Efstathiou, Director, Genitourinary division, Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Rafael Fonseca, Professor of medicine and hematology, Mayo Clinic
• Gilles Frydman, Co-founder, Smart Patients
• Kathy Giusti, Founder, Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation
• Robert Grossman, Director, NCI Genomics Data Commons
• Ernest Hawk, Vice-president and division head, Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Linda House, President, Cancer Support Community
• Kathleen Kaa, Global head of pricing and market access, Oncology, Roche
• Peter Kolchinsky, Founder, portfolio manager, managing director, RA Capital Management LLC
• Howard Krein, Chief medical officer, StartUp Health
• Kelvin Lee, Co-leader, tumor immunology and immunotherapy, Roswell Park Cancer Institute
• Vivian Lee, Chief executive, University of Utah Health Care and dean, University of Utah School of Medicine
• Greg Matthews, Managing director, MDigital Life
• Amy Miller, Executive vice-president, Personalized Medicine Coalition
• Steve Miller, Chief medical officer, Express Scripts
• Josh Ofman, Senior vice-president, global value, access and policy, Amgen
• Scott Ramsey, Director, Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research and full member, cancer prevention research program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
• Kyu Rhee, Chief health officer, IBM
• Lowell Schnipper, Chair, value in cancer task force, American Society of Clinical Oncology
• Corina Shtir, Head of precision medicine, Thermo Fisher Scientific
• Zhen Su, Vice-president and head of global medical affairs, Oncology, EMD Serono
• Jonathan Wilcox, Co-founder and policy director, Patients rising and patients rising now
• Stacey Worthy, Director, public policy, Aimed Alliance

According to Natasha Loder, The Economist's health care correspondent: "Great scientific vistas are unfolding in cancer every day, but while we seem to be making leaps in some areas, we face the reality of incremental advances in others. As we inch closer to victory in what is a true war on cancer, scaling the progress made thus far remains a critical next step."

Forum attendees will come away with a wealth of knowledge encompassing policy and financing, detection, prevention, treatment, and the long-term management of cancer. Key topics we hope to address include:

• How can big pharma work collaboratively with disruptive startups to operate at a more competitive cost, and with stronger scalability?
• How does value-based pricing compare with accountable care, comparative effectiveness research, evidence-based medicine and other industry initiatives to improve the cost to value ratio of cancer drugs?
• How does the value and cost of immuno-therapy compare with that of treatments such as chemotherapy or surgery, and what is its potential impact on the overall cure rate for cancer?
• What can be learned from oncologists and pioneering genomic researchers from outside the United States working with sparse budgets?

EMD Serono and Patients Rising are the Founding sponsors of this year's event. Ketchum is the PR agency.

For more information or to register for this event, please visit: waroncancer.economist.com. This "War on Cancer: Scaling Progress" forum is part of a global event series. Another event will take place in London on December 6.

Join the conversation and connect with speakers and attendees on Twitter via #WarOnCancer.

This event is open to the press. For details on this press release please, contact Amy Losak at 646.935.3917 or [email protected].

About The Economist (economist.com)
With a growing global circulation and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current affairs publications. The paper covers politics, business, science and technology, and books and arts, concluding each week with the obituary.

The Economist Events brings the publication to life. As the leader of debate in the pursuit of progress, Economist Events tackles leading issues with an insightful, forward-looking and distinctly global perspective. It provides the necessary tools for business leaders, senior executives and policy makers to make informed decisions and to stay ahead of the game in a rapidly changing world.

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SOURCE The Economist