Editor’s note: This seminar is the latest event in a series of seminars launched in May 2020 to help keep the pain research community connected during the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide all members of our community with virtual educational opportunities. The seminar series is supported by the Center for Advanced Pain Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, US.
On November 9, 2020, the IASP Pain Research Forum hosted a seminar with William Schmidt, PhD, NorthStar Consulting, LLC, Davis, US. A Q&A session moderated by Daniel Carr, MD, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, US, followed the presentation.
A recording of this webinar will soon be freely available to IASP members at the IASP Pain Education Resource Center (PERC).
About this event
Clinicians and researchers have long sought to decrease reliance on opioids for acute or chronic pain. Their initial motivation was to reduce or avoid opioid-related adverse effects such as respiratory depression or constipation. The current opioid crisis has lent urgency to this mission. William Schmidt, PhD, draws upon an unrivaled and ongoing experience in novel drug development and repurposing. He will highlight several of the clinical projects he is working on, each of which represent different and innovative approaches to improving treatment of acute or chronic pain. He will also touch back on his participation a few years ago as a member of an NIH task force formed to address the opioid crisis, and how it has influenced people to think differently about clinical development so that it can be done faster, at lower overall cost, and with a higher probability of success in establishing initial proof-of-concept in chronic pain conditions. A Q&A session after the presentation will provide attendees with up-to-the-minute resources that present the rationale for and current status of promising development-phase analgesics.
About the presenter
William Schmidt, PhD, is head of NorthStar Consulting, LLC, which specializes in providing advice on preclinical and clinical studies of novel analgesic drugs. He is simultaneously president and CEO of Catalina Pharma (Tucson, AZ), senior VP of Global Clinical Development for Helixmith Inc. (Seoul, South Korea), VP of Clinical Development for EicOsis, LLC (Davis, CA), and chief medical officer for Ensysce Biosciences (San Diego, CA). Throughout his career, Dr. Schmidt has headed both preclinical and clinical analgesic drug development activities for DuPont, DuPont Merck, Adolor, and Renovis. He has led teams in the development of Entereg (alvimopan), Acelex (polmacoxib), Nubain (nalbuphine), ReVia (naltrexone) and the oxycodone-ibuprofen formulation used in Combunox. Dr. Schmidt is the parliamentarian and a past president of the Eastern Pain Association in New York City. He received the John J. Bonica award for the development of new analgesics and his sustained contributions to the educational efforts of the Eastern Pain Association in 2014.
About the moderator
Daniel Carr, MD, is an honorary member of the International Association for the Study or Pain, and professor emeritus at Tufts University School of Medicine. He has had leadership roles in multiple pain-related professional organizations including the American Academy of Pain Medicine and American Society of Anesthesiologists. He has published extensively on pain research and education, evidence-based medicine, clinical practice and the social aspects of pain relief. He holds dozens of patents related to medicinal chemistry and has participated in varied US FDA meetings. From 2004 to 2010 he was CMO for Javelin Pharmaceuticals until its acquisition by Hospira (then Pfizer). He has served on multiple editorial and advisory boards including Massachusetts’ Governor’s Medical Education Working Group on Prescription Drug Misuse, Mass DPH’s Drug Formulary Commission, the US National Pain Strategy, the National Academy of Medicine, and NIH’s Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee.
Join the conversation about the seminar on Twitter @PainResForum #PRFSeminar
We thank the Center for Advanced Pain Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, US, for its support of the PRF seminar series.
