The Fight against Tuberculosis:
The Forgotten Disease
A Virtual Conversation with Thierry Bernard, CEO and Managing Director, and Dr. Davide Manissero, Chief Medical Officer, QIAGEN
Tuesday, July 13, at 7 PM EDT on Zoom
Tuberculosis (TB), a bacterial infection that mainly infects the lungs, is believed to have caused more deaths than famines and wars combined. Although it is often seen as an ailment of the past, a total of 1.4 million people died from TB in 2019. Worldwide, TB is one of the top 10 causes of death and the leading cause from a single infectious agent (above HIV/AIDS).
Science Writers in New York invites you to a virtual conversation with Thierry Bernard, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of QIAGEN, and Davide Manissero, MD, the company’s Chief Medical Officer, Infection & Immune Diagnostics.
They will talk with SWINY co-chair David Levine (@dlloydlevine) about the challenges of detecting and treating TB as well as their breakthrough test, QuantiFERON-TB Access (QFT® Access) for low-resource, designed to advance tuberculosis control in areas with limited infrastructure, including countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Additionally, they will talk about their easy-to-use digital test for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, which was granted emergency use authorization by the FDA.
About one-quarter of the world’s population may be infected with latent tuberculosis, in which the bacterium infects a person but produces no symptoms unless it progresses to active disease, when the patient becomes highly contagious. Overall, a relatively small proportion (5 to 15 percent) of the estimated 2 to 3 billion people infected with TB will develop TB disease during their lifetime. However, if a person’s immune system becomes weakened, the TB bacteria are much more likely to multiply, spread and cause active disease. People living with HIV are more likely than others to become sick with TB. Worldwide, TB is one of the leading causes of death among people living with HIV.
About Thierry Bernard
Thierry Bernard joined QIAGEN in February 2015 to lead QIAGEN’s growing presence in Molecular Diagnostics, the application of Sample to Insight solutions for molecular testing in human healthcare. He was named Chief Executive Officer in March 2020, after having previously served in this role on an interim basis.
Mr. Bernard previously worked at bioMérieux, where he served in roles of increasing responsibility for 15 years, most recently as Corporate Vice President, Global Commercial Operations, Investor Relations and the Greater China Region. He has earned degrees from Sciences Po (Paris), Harvard Business School, London School of Economics and the College of Europe and is a member of French Foreign Trade Advisors.
About Davide Manissero, MD
Dr. Davide Manissero is a pediatrics and tropical medicine trained physician who contributed to advancing tuberculosis management in both public health and industry roles. He served as WHO Medical Officer for Childhood TB and Research in Indonesia under the WHO SEARO Office where he coordinated pediatric and research work leading the first TB prevalence survey in the region.
He subsequently led the TB and respiratory infection Programmes at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) where he spearheaded the launch of the EU Framework to Fight TB as well as coordinating the establishment of the first network of reference laboratories in the European Union. He later transitioned to industry roles as Public Health, Clinical and Medical roles contributing to the development and launch of new antibiotics including Delamanid (Deltyba) – the first novel multidrug-resistant-TB drug in half a century, while at Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Global Health at the University College London (UCL) and currently serves as Chief Medical Officer at QIAGEN where he helped launch QuantiFERON TB Gold-Plus and currently leads the clinical, regulatory and medical teams across the organization. Dr. Manissero has published over 65 peer reviewed articles, of which over 50 are on tuberculosis management and control.
Have a question for Thierry Bernard or Davide Manissero you would like answered? Submit it here!
When:
Tuesday, July 13
7 to 8 PM EDT
Register:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FfeePaWCQUeoI1XoOxno1w
