Anthony Shock
Director UCB
Anthony Shock received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of London in 1987 followed by post-doctoral work at the National Heart & Lung Institute in London. He was then employed by a Biotech company called Celltech which eventually transformed into the global biopharmaceutical company, UCB. He has researched on a wide range of drug targets, both small molecule- and antibody-based therapies, including two antibody targets that have been evaluated in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, namely epratuzumab and dapirolizumab pegol.
Seminars
This workshop is a mechanism-focused deep dive into disease heterogeneity across MG, CIDP, MMN and GBS, bringing together drug developers to interrogate immunologic origins, autoantibody uncertainty and responder variability. By aligning biological nuance with development strategy, attendees will move beyond buzzwords around precision medicine and confront the mechanistic gaps that are currently limiting predictive biomarker validation and subtype stratification. Participants will leave with a clearer framework for integrating disease pathophysiology into patient selection, sequencing decisions and biomarker development, ultimately accelerating precision-driven clinical progress.
Key Questions to be Addressed:
- Dissecting how AChR-positive, MuSK-positive and seronegative MG differ mechanistically and determining how those differences should influence therapeutic positioningInterrogating the uncertain immunologic origins of CIDP and MMN to clarify where immunomodulatory approaches are biologically justified versus potentially misaligned
- Examining why heterogeneity is limiting predictive biomarker development and defining what evidence would be required to validate assays end-to-end for clinical use
- Debating how to biologically stratify patients before Phase III rather than retrospectively explaining nonresponse
- Exploring whether collaborative industry approaches are required to close development gaps in rare, heterogeneous populations
