Taking place at 5pm–8pm PST on Tuesday, February 25th was WuXi AppTec's online event, LET SCIENCE LEAD: A Special Online Forum on COVID-19. This 18-speaker forum created a strong platform for professionals within industry and academia to discuss the challenges seen in the global management of the COVID-19. Topics such as: diagnosis, therapeutic intervention, vaccine development and global preparedness were keenly discussed in conjunction with patient-focused solutions. For speakers' bios, please click here. 

The 5000 registrant forum held a consistent viewership. "This event coming from WuXi's side is really about science," said Dr. Hui Cai, Forum Chair, VP and Head of Content Division, WuXi AppTec. "It's about how we're thinking forward, and about working together to do the right thing for the patients."

We would like to thank our event speakers around world, who stayed up late at night and got up early in the morning. It is through industry and cross-industry collaborations that important opportunities like this can be created to optimize better care for patients. To quote Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organization, "The only way we will defeat this outbreak is for all countries to work together in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation. We are all in this together, and we can only stop it together." 

Please contact us at Communications@wuxiapptec.com if you would like to access the recorded video of WuXi Online Forum on COVID-19. 

LET SCIENCE LEAD: A Special Online Forum on COVID-19

5-8pm PST Feb 25, 8-11pm EST Feb 25, 9am-12pm China time Feb 26

5:00 – 5:04

OPENING

Hui Cai, Forum Chair, Vice President and Head of Content Division, WuXi AppTec

5:04 – 5:05

A Moment of Silence for the Lives Lost to COVID-19

5:05 – 5:50

Towards Faster and More Accurate Diagnosis

Feng Zhang, Professor, MIT McGovern Institute and Broad Institute

Charles Chiu, Professor, Laboratory Medicine and Medicine / Infectious Diseases; Director, UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center

Victor Shi, CEO, Adicon Clinical Laboratories; General Partner, Serica Partners

Moderated by Nick Naclerio, Founding Partner, Illumina Ventures

5:50 – 6:40

Expediting Therapeutic Intervention

George Scangos, CEO, Vir Biotechnology

Tomas Cihlar, Vice President of Virology, Gilead Sciences

David Ho, Director of Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center; Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Chris Chen, CEO of WuXi Biologics; Chairman, WuXi Vaccines

Moderated by Zhi Hong, Co-founder and CEO, Brii Biosciences

6:40 – 7:40

Can We Move Quickly on Vaccines?

Gregory Poland, Professor and Director of Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group; Editor-in-Chief, VACCINE

Johan Van Hoof, Global Therapeutic Area Head IDV, Vaccines, Janssen Pharmaceuticals R&D and Managing Director, Janssen Vaccines & Prevention, B.V.

Joseph Kim, President and CEO, Inovio Pharmaceuticals

Xuefeng Yu, Chairman and CEO, CanSino Biologics

Mark Esser, Vice President of Microbial Sciences, AstraZeneca

Moderated by Steve Yang, EVP and CBO, WuXi AppTec

7:40 – 8:00

How to Improve Readiness for the Next Epidemic?

Arthur Reingold, Division Head of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UC Berkeley School of Public Health

Moderated by Richard Soll, Senior Advisor of Strategic Initiatives and Head of Boston Office, WuXi AppTec

8:00

CLOSING