Peter C. Adamson named global development therapeutic area head of oncology and pediatric innovation at Sanofi

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on email
Share on print
Peter Adamson

Peter C. Adamson was named global development therapeutic area head of oncology and pediatric innovation at Sanofi. Based in Cambridge, MA, Adamson will lead the global development in cancer, and will work with leaders across therapeutic areas to further pediatric drug development efforts.

Adamson joins Sanofi from the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was professor of pediatrics and pharmacology, and held the Alan R. Cohen Endowed Chair in Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. For almost 10 years prior to joining Sanofi, Adamson chaired the Children’s Oncology Group, an NCI-supported international consortium of more than 220 centers that conduct clinical-translational research, including large-scale clinical trials, in children and adolescents with cancer.

Adamson is board certified in hematology/oncology and clinical pharmacology. He was appointed by President Obama to the National Cancer Advisory Board, where he continues to serve. Adamson also served on the blue-ribbon panel for the Beau Biden National Cancer Moonshot Initiative.

Table of Contents

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

For nearly 25 years, business executive Lou Weisbach and urologist Richard J. Boxer have argued that finding the money to finance the cures for devastating diseases is not as difficult as it appears. To start finding the cures, the U.S. Department of the Treasury needs to issue some bonds—$750 billion worth. Next, you hire CEOs—one...

There is general agreement that the United States spends too much on health care, especially on pharmaceuticals.  But what we spend on drugs is not simply a function of price. If eggs double in price, people can simply cut the number of eggs they eat in half.  Simply stated, cost is the product of (price per unit times the number of units purchased). 
What did President Richard M. Nixon and Senator Edward M. Kennedy have in common? They each played a pivotal role in the passage of the National Cancer Act signed by Nixon on Dec. 23, 1971. The NCA established the National Cancer Program authorizing the initial investment in the NCI-designated Cancer Centers Program. 
When I first proposed targeting PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen) as a therapeutic approach, the response I got was: “No one will ever make a drug against PCNA. It’s undruggable.” The protein lacks enzymatic activity, has a disordered region, and binds to over 200 other proteins within the cell. From a traditional drug development perspective, these characteristics made PCNA an impossible target.

Never miss an issue!

Get alerts for our award-winning coverage in your inbox.

Login