Media Advisory: Roche leader to discuss critical decision-making for life sciences companies

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Rich Christie, MD, PhD, global head of development and science innovation at Roche, a Switzerland-based health care company with a focus in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, will deliver the keynote address at the Innovation Lecture Series on Thursday.

Christie will address how biotech leaders make decisions concerning science, business development and conflicts between management and the company’s board of directors and investors. He will discuss the effect these decisions have on employees and companies’ intellectual property portfolios.

An entrepreneur, inventor and life sciences executive, Christie has worked across the pharmaceutical industry. One area of focus has been developing novel collaboration structures among pharma, academic and not-for-profit groups to drive early-stage innovation.

Thursday’s free event will be from 4-5 p.m. at the University at Buffalo’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences (CBLS), 701 Ellicott St., Buffalo.

Media are encouraged to attend. To register, visit www.momentoftruth.eventbrite.com. Please contact Julianna Fortain, CBLS marketing and special events coordinator, at jellis9@buffalo.edu, for more information.

The event is sponsored by CBLS, UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Materials Informatics (CMI) and UB’s Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology (UB CAT).