Dr. Bruce Albala has been working to find a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the related dementias for over 30 years and is currently leading a global AD clinical trial. He has served as a clinical investigator, researcher and in various roles in and supporting the pharmaceutical industry during this time.
The talk will cover practical and theoretical issues on the diagnosis of AD, identifying the proper population, designing the clinical studies and implementing them on a truly global level while identifying the health, legal, business and ethical challenges.
Dr. Bruce J. Albala has extensive experience in both basic and clinical medical research. After receiving his Ph.D. in Biopsychology from Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY) in 1979 he went to Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx, NY) where he was first a research fellow in the departments of Psychiatry and Neurology and later a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Neurology. After a brief period as a visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Mental Health (Bethesda, MD) he joined the clinical research group at Ayerst Laboratories, a division of American Home Products Corporation (New York, NY) in the beginning of 1984. In 1986, Dr. Albala went on to become a principle of American BioInterface Corporation (New York, NY) serving as Vice President of Scientific Affairs and a Director of this innovative bioresearch and medical device company. Dr. Albala joined Clinical Technologies Associates (CTA), Inc. (Elmsford, NY), now Emisphere Technology in 1989 as Vice President and Director of Clinical Research. He was elected to the board of Directors of this publicly held company and served as corporate Secretary. Dr. Albala was responsible for both CTA’s specialty Contract Research Organization (CRO) activities as well as its in-patient and outpatient clinical units. In 1991 Dr. Albala became the president and CEO of CTA Bio Services, Inc. (Elmsford, NY) a CRO company that also conducted both in-patient phase I studies and outpatient clinical trials for the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Albala served as a clinical Investigator in over two dozen pharmaceutical trials. In 1996 Dr. Albala joined Medeva, now a part of UCB. Initially overseeing vaccine development in the U.S. Dr. Albala then became Senior Director of Clinical Operations for Medeva Development’s (MD) North American division and was promoted to Vice President, Clinical Operations for all of MDs world-wide units. Dr. Albala continued to provide clinical and regulatory consulting services to the pharmaceutical and medical device community as president and lead consultant in CNS Bio Services, Inc.
Dr. Albala joined Shionogi USA, Inc. in April 2002. Shionogi – one of the oldest pharmaceutical companies in Japan – was in a joint venture (JV) with GlaxoSmithKline, Inc. Dr. Albala as the Vice President of Clinical Development and Head of the CNS Program set strategy and oversaw all CNS activity for both Shionogi and as the lead CNS representative to the Shionogi-GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals JV. The global programs that Dr Albala was responsible for included Alzheimer’s disease (AD), ataxias, ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, Parkinson’s disease and a large program in obesity and another in analgesia complications. Dr. Albala joined the Neuroscience Product Creation Unit (PCU) of another major Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai Inc. as an Executive Director of Clinical Development in 2010. His major focus at Eisai is AD and he is the International Project Team Leader (IPTL) for one of the global programs exploring disease modification therapies. As IPTL he guides both the internal and external pre-clinical work in these areas as well as being directly responsible for all clinical activities on a global level and representing the group at AD and neuroscience meetings.
Dr. Albala has made numerous presentations at scientific meetings and has scientific publications in both the basic and clinical sciences and has taught courses in the biological, psychological, pharmacological and neurosciences at Syracuse University, Hunter College (City University of New York) and Cooper Union and has lectured on many industry topics. Dr. Albala has U.S. patents for both medical devices as well as instruments used in clinical research settings.
Friday, December 1, 2017
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
5 Washington Place, Room 302
Reception to follow
