The RACE for Children Act: Early Global Impact and Ensuring Success with Pediatric Champions

Dr. Gregory Reaman, Associate Director for Pediatric Oncology, Oncology Center of Excellence, Office of the Commissioner / Associate Director for Pediatric Oncology, Office of Oncologic Diseases, Office of New Drugs, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA

Dr. Gregory Reaman is the Associate Director for Pediatric Oncology in the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, Office of the Commissioner and Associate Director for Pediatric Oncology in the Office of Oncologic Diseases, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. He is the Executive Director emeritus of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders and senior attending physician at Children’s National, Washington, D.C. He has held numerous leadership positions in clinical trial groups and professional organizations. He was the Inaugural Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group and previously served as the Associate Chair for New Agent Studies and Vice Chair for Scientific Affairs of the Children’s Cancer Group. He served on the national Board of Directors of the American Cancer Society and chaired its Task Force on Cancer in Children and on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology. He was the first pediatrician member of the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee and the first chair of its Pediatric Subcommittee. He is a professor emeritus of pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. His research interests are in the immunobiology and therapy of acute leukemia and the development of new cancer therapeutics for children. He has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed publications.

Prof. Gilles Vassal, Head of Pediatric Research Program at Gustave Roussy/Université Paris-Saclay, President ITCC, Chair of ACCELERATE, Villejuif, France

Prof. Gilles Vassal is trained as a paediatric oncologist. He got his PhD in pharmacology. He is Professor of Oncology in University Paris-Saclay and Head of Pediatric Research Program at Gustave Roussy, a large comprehensive cancer center in France. For the last 20 years, he has dedicated his research, clinical and training activities to the development of new drugs for children and adolescents with cancer and precision pediatric oncology. He is past President of SIOPE, the European Society of Paediatric Oncology (https://www.siope.eu) and currently President of the EU academic Consortium for Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer (http://www.itcc-consortium.org). He is chairing the ACCELERATE international mutlistakeholder platform (www.accelerate-platform.eu) to speed up innovation in paediatric oncology. As a SIOPE representative, he is co-leading workpackage 4 of the IMI2 Conect4Children network (https://conect4children.org/) and coordinates the development of Multistakehoder meetings to best address unmet pediatric needs. Author of more than 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals, he is member of several scientific councils.

Dr. Anjali Sharma, Pediatric Oncology Development Lead and Early Oncology Development lead, Amgen, Malibu, California, USA

Dr. Anjali Sharma received her medical degree from Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India and completed her pediatric internship and residency at University of Illinois, Chicago. She completed her fellowship in adult bone marrow and stem cell transplantation as well as pediatric hematology and oncology at Stanford University, CA. Dr. Sharma became an Attending Physician in 2006 where her research and clinical focus had been on pediatric oncology/solid tumors as well as bleeding disorders. In 2015 she joined Amgen Medical Affairs and in 2017 transitioned to Global Development as a Clinical Research Medical Director where she has been involved in pediatric filing as well as medical monitoring for several late stage studies. In 2019 Dr. Sharma assumed the role of Pediatric Oncology Development Lead for all Oncology programs in view of the impact of the RACE for Children Act and she consults on all early and late stage molecules. Dr. Sharma continues as an early Oncology development lead and currently leads two adult hematology-oncology programs. Dr. Sharma has been elected as the PhRMA rep for ACCELERATE in 2019, and is a member of CureSearch for Children’s Cancer industry advisory council.

Dr. Beth Anne Baber, Founder & President, TigoHealth, San Diego, California, USA

Dr. Beth Anne Baber is the founder and President of TigoHealth, an early-stage medical software company that connects patients to care, services and health data they need to manage their healthcare delivery. Empowering patients with easy access improves their outcomes and significantly reduces expenditures for their providers.

Dr. Baber worked closely with Congress on personalized medicine and pediatric medical research initiatives. In addition to generating over $60M in funding for cancers of children, adolescents and young adults in the Department of Defense, she was instrumental in establishing a $126M NIH pediatric research genomics initiative aimed at understanding the link between childhood cancers and structural birth defects. Dr. Baber received her Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute and continued cancer research studies at the Salk Institute. While at the Salk, she obtained an MBA from University of California – San Diego Rady School of Management.