With the obvious financial benefits of finding new blockbuster drugs quickly and cost efficiently, especially during a time of decreased product pipelines and an unstable economic climate, novel targeted cancer therapies are quickly becoming a key area of interest due to their ability to gain market access more quickly than traditional therapies.

Approximately 7.6 million people die from cancer each year and 1 in 3 people will suffer from cancer at some time in their life according to an article published by the American Cancer Society. As such, the sale of cancer drugs is expected to nearly double by the year 2012, growing from $48 billion in 2008 to $80 billion in 2012. No longer is the development of novel therapies to target cancer undertaken by biotech companies alone, more and more pharmaceutical companies are also investing in the research and development of these next generation cancer therapies.

Through extensive research with industry experts, VIB pharma’s Next Generation Targeted Cancer Therapies conference reveals how to accelerate and improve the discovery and pre-clinical development of these new potential drugs. A series of case study based presentations and interactive discussions will cover key priorities such as improving target identification and validation, enhancing the predictability of the drug candidates effects on clinical trials, effectively using technical innovations for discovery and pre-clinical phases and giving an overview of the most promising new small molecules and new targeted therapies.