Global Clinical Trials Playbook: Capacity and Capability Building

Menghis Bairu, M.D.—physician, editor, author, philanthropist and healthcare business executive—has more than two decades of international experience in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, global health and non-profit arenas. Dr. Bairu serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Development at Elan. His responsibilities include, but are not limited to clinical development, biometrics, regulatory, CMC, QA, safety-and-risk management, clinical operations and medical affairs. Previously he served as head of Onclave Therapeutics, a wholly Elan-owned oncology biotech company. He lectures extensively on global health and biopharmaceutical issues with particular focus on Emerging Markets (e.g. India, China, Latin America, Singapore, Middle East, South East Asia and Africa). He served as editor and co-author of Global Clinical Trials: Effective Implementation and Management (Elsevier, 2011), a textbook designed to help researchers develop and implement effective and ethical international clinical trials. Dr. Bairu is also editor/co-author of Global Clinical Trials Playbook: Management and Implementation (Elsevier, 2012), and Global Clinical Trials for Alzheimer's Disease: Design, Implementation, and Standardization (Elsevier, 2013). Prior to joining Elan, Dr. Bairu worked at Genentech for more than five years in a number of managed care, medical and commercial (Oncology, Immunology, and Cardiovascular) roles. He served as managed care Medical Director for Fremont Health Corporation/II before joining Genentech. He served on the board of directors for One World Health, a nonprofit drug development company funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and A-Cube, a privately held pharma startup. In 2013, Dr. Bairu was named to the boards of directors of Dubai-based NewBridge Pharmaceuticals (he also serves as chairman of NewBridge’s science and technology committee), and ADVentura Capital SL, a Barcelona, Spain-based venture capital firm focused on funding and mentoring promising healthcare, IT and GreenTech companies. In 2011, Dr. Bairu joined the advisory board of the China Trials 5, a global clinical trials development summit focusing on China and north Asia. He currently serves as Adjunct Faculty at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine where he lectures on global clinical trials’ design, development and conduct.

Richard Chin is the CEO of Institute for OneWorld Health, the first U.S. nonprofit pharmaceutical company and Associate Professor at UCSF School of Medicine. OneWorld Health develops affordable drugs for neglected patients in the developing world. Dr. Chin has extensive expertise in drug development, including over 45 INDs and almost a dozen drug registrations. His previous roles include CEO of a NASDAQ listed company, Senior Vice President of Global Development at Elan, and Head of Clinical Research for the Biotherapeutics Unit at Genentech. He was named by Businessweek in 2006 as one of the youngest 99 public company CEOs in the United States. Dr. Chin earned an M.D. from Harvard and the equivalent of a J.D. from Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.