Main Workshop DAY 2B - Wednesday April 15, 2026: 1pm to 5:45pm - Discussion Topic List

" Regulators' Advice on Immunogenicity/Technologies of Biotherapeutic, & Gene, Cell & Vaccine Therapies "

Session 1: Immunogenicity of Biotherapeutics

  • US FDA:

    Immunogenicity Risk Assessment of Novel Modalities using in silico, in vitro and ex vivo tools.
    Dr. Zuben Sauna, Division Director, US FDA - invited

  • Health Canada:

    Assessing the Clinical Impact of Immunogenicity in the Absence of a Neutralizing Antibody (NAb) Assay
    Dr. Adrian Wong, Senior Clinical Evaluator, Health Canada

  • US FDA:

    Immunogenicity Risk Assessment in the AI Era: A Regulatory CMC Perspective
    Dr. João Pedras-Vasconcelos, Senior Pharmaceutical Scientist, US FDA - invited

  • Austria AGES/ EU EMA:

    Reflection Paper on a Tailored Clinical Approach in Biosimilar Development
    Mr. Christian Mayer, Quality Assessor, Austria AGES/ EU EMA

  • US FDA:

    Clinical Pharmacology Evaluations of Immunogenicity Impact
    Dr. Yow-Ming Wang, Associate Director for Biosimilars & Therapeutic Biologics, US FDA - invited

  • Health Canada:

    Health Canada Review Process based on the use of Foreign Reviews
    Dr. Omar Tounekti, Manger Cell and Gene Therapies, Health Canada

  • US FDA:

    Assessing Immunogenicity of Biological Drug Products using the Immune-Humanized Mouse Model
    Dr. Kristina Howard, Research Veterinary Medical Officer, US FDA

  • US FDA:

    Immunogenicity Risk Assessment and Mitigation Strategies for Therapeutic Peptides
    Dr. Mohanraj Manangeeswaran, Senior Research Scientist , US FDA - invited

ASK THE REGULATORS!
Interactive Panel Discussion with the Regulators on Immunogenicity of Biotherapeutics

  • Regulatory Panelists on Immunogenicity of Biotherapeutics
    • Dr. João Pedras-Vasconcelos (US FDA - invited)
    • Dr. Mohanraj Manangeeswaran (US FDA - invited)
    • Dr. Yow-Ming Wang (US FDA - invited)
    • Dr. Kristina Howard (US FDA)
    • Dr. Zuben Sauna (US FDA - invited)
    • Dr. Vijaya Simhadri (US FDA - invited)
    • Dr. Luke Lindsay-Hill (UK MHRA)
    • Mr. Christian Mayer (Austria AGES/ EU EMA)
    • Dr. Adrian Wong (Health Canada)
    • Dr. Omar Tounekti (Health Canada)
    • Dr. Sarah Cummings (Health Canada)
    • Mr. Joao Tavares Neto (Brazil ANVISA)

Session 2: Gene Therapy, Cell Therapy, and Vaccines

  • UK MHRA:

    Individualized mRNA Cancer Immunotherapies
    Dr. Shirley Hopper, Medical Assessor, UK MHRA

  • US FDA:

    Immunogenicity Risk Assessment of SaCas9, AsCas12a and CasΦ 
    Dr. Vijaya Simhadri, Biologist, US FDA - invited

  • EU EMA:

    Regulatory Science Changes in the EU Vaccine Approval Processes
    Dr. Alessandra Buoninfante, Scientific Officer, Health Threats and Vaccines Strategy, EU EMA

  • US FDA:

    Immune Response to Ebola and Marburg
    Dr. Surender Khurana, US FDA - invited

  • Health Canada:

    Secondary Malignancies related to CAR-T Cell Therapies
    Dr. Sarah Cummings, Scientific Evaluator Cell and Gene Therapies, Health Canada

  • UK MHRA:

    Development of T cell Suppression Assay Controls for Cell Therapy Products
    Dr. Anna Nowocin, Principal Scientist, UK MHRA

  • US FDA:

    NGS Bioinformatics Pipeline for Detecting Adventitious Viral Agents in Gene and Cell Therapy Products
    Dr. Joshua Xu, SBRBPAS Expert and Branch Chief, US FDA

  • Health Canada:

    Use of Next-generation Sequencing (NGS) in Drug Development
    Dr. Huixin Lu, Research Scientist, Health Canada

  • UK MHRA:

    Ensuring the Safety of Cell Therapies through Standards and Assay Development
    Dr. Luke Lindsay-Hill , Senior Scientist, UK MHRA

  • Health Canada:

    Regulatory Perspective on Vaccine Clinical Assays & Current Regulations
    Dr. Chad Irwin , Senior Scientific Evaluator, Health Canada

ASK THE REGULATORS!
Interactive Panel Discussion with the Regulators on Gene Therapy, Cell Therapy, and Vaccines

  • Regulatory Panelists on Gene Therapy, Cell Therapy, and Vaccines
    • Dr. Zuben Sauna (US FDA - invited)
    • Dr. Vijaya Simhadri (US FDA - invited)
    • Ms. Leslie Wagner (US FDA - invited)
    • Dr. Surender Khurana (US FDA - invited)
    • Dr. Joshua Xu (US FDA)
    • Dr. João Pedras-Vasconcelos (US FDA - invited)
    • Dr. Mohanraj Manangeeswaran (US FDA - invited)
    • Dr. Shirley Hopper (UK MHRA)
    • Dr. Luke Lindsay-Hill (UK MHRA)
    • Dr. Anna Nowocin (UK MHRA)
    • Dr. Alessandra Buoninfante (EU EMA)
    • Mr. Christian Mayer (Austria AGES/ EU EMA)
    • Dr. Omar Tounekti (Health Canada)
    • Dr. Chad Irwin (Health Canada)
    • Dr. Sarah Cummings (Health Canada)
    • Dr. Huixin Lu (Health Canada)
    • Dr. Adrian Wong (Health Canada)




Agenda at a Glance Agenda at a Glance