Dr. Winson Cheung, MD, MPH, FRCPC
A GI medical oncologist, a clinician-scientist, and a cancer health services researcher. From 2010 to 2016, Winson was a clinician-investigator at the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver. He was recruited to Alberta in 2017. He is currently a Full Professor in the Departments of Oncology, Medicine and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary where he is also the Chair and Provincial Director of the Health Services Research Program at Cancer Control Alberta. He conducts comparative effectiveness and population-based outcomes studies across all tumor groups. He is also involved in a number of patient-centric, patient-oriented research projects. He has contributed significantly to building capacity and knowledge generation in the area of real world evidence in oncology. In addition, Winson is the Co-Lead of the Health Systems, Services, and Policy research program at the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control and the Chair of the International Cancer Health Outcomes Research Database Consortium. Previously, he served as Leader for the Health Services Research Track at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. Recently, he founded the Alberta Cancer Outcomes Research Network.
Dr. Roxana Alexa joined Health Canada in 2007, and for the past 9 years, she has managed diverse clinical review teams in the Office of Clinical Trials, Therapeutic Products Directorate. She oversees the activities related to the review and authorization of clinical trial applications across a broad range of therapeutic areas, including for oncology drugs.
She has been involved in multiple projects contributing to improvements of internal processes, the development of Canadian regulatory guidance documents, providing input into wide-ranging matters in relation to the life-cycle regulatory approach, and the legislative renewal concerning Canadian Clinical Trials Modernization.
She is a member of the ICH E20 working group, working in close collaboration with a colleague from the Biologic and Radiopharmaceutical Drugs Directorate (BRDD) and other ICH members on the development of a new guideline on “Adaptive Clinical Trials”.
Dr. Alexa keeps abreast of the emerging trends and challenges with conducting clinical trials for oncology drug development that use innovative design methods via inter-regulatory agency collaboration, participating in various information sharing sessions, and workshops organized by the US FDA and other international regulatory agencies.
Dr. Winson Cheung, MD, MPH, FRCPC
A GI medical oncologist, a clinician-scientist, and a cancer health services researcher. From 2010 to 2016, Winson was a clinician-investigator at the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver. He was recruited to Alberta in 2017. He is currently a Full Professor in the Departments of Oncology, Medicine and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary where he is also the Chair and Provincial Director of the Health Services Research Program at Cancer Control Alberta. He conducts comparative effectiveness and population-based outcomes studies across all tumor groups. He is also involved in a number of patient-centric, patient-oriented research projects. He has contributed significantly to building capacity and knowledge generation in the area of real world evidence in oncology. In addition, Winson is the Co-Lead of the Health Systems, Services, and Policy research program at the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control and the Chair of the International Cancer Health Outcomes Research Database Consortium. Previously, he served as Leader for the Health Services Research Track at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. Recently, he founded the Alberta Cancer Outcomes Research Network.
Neil Palmer is a pharmaceutical industry consultant with more that 30 years of pharmaceutical pricing and market access experience. He is a Senior Strategic Adviser with PDCI Market Access (PDCI), Canada’s leading pricing and reimbursement consultancy that he co-founded in 1996. PDCI was acquired by McKesson Canada in December 2020 and Neil continues to provide strategic advice and expertise on health technology assessment (HTA), pricing and market access for pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies. From 2016-19 he was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy graduate program in Health Care Decision Analysis where he lectured on HTA, pricing and market access from a global perspective.
Prior to PDCI, Neil worked with the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) where his responsibilities included policy development, overseeing the price review of patented medicines and conducting economic research. Prior to the PMPRB, he worked with the Health Division of Statistics Canada where he was responsible for economic and statistical analysis of health care costs and utilization.
After completing his studies at the University of Western Ontario, Neil began his career in Montreal with the research group of the Kellogg Centre for Advanced Studies in Primary Care. He has written extensively on pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement issues and is a frequent speaker at conferences in North America and Europe.