Phastar is building up its data science group as AI and machine learning ‘are rapidly modernizing clinical trials’ and Synteract boosts its centers of development in oncology and rare/orphan diseases, among other people on the move this month.
Phastar is building up its data science group as AI and machine learning ‘are rapidly modernizing clinical trials’ and Synteract boosts its centers of development in oncology and rare/orphan diseases, among other people on the move this month.
Click through the following slides to hear what this month's new hires hope to achieve in their new roles.
Boyds has added a consultant pharmaceutical physician, Susan Tansey, to its team.
Tansey joins Boyds from Iqvia where she was vice president and global head of therapeutic strategy. A pediatrician specializing in respiratory pediatrics and neonatology, she has more than 20 years of experience in rare disease clinical trials.
She also has worked at Premier Research, the UK National Institute of Health Research, Clinical Research Network, and TMC Pharma Services, and holds the Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (MRCPUK) qualification and has a Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCST) in Pharmaceutical Medicine.
“I am looking forward to the opportunity to expand my knowledge of the new technologies coming through in the rare disease field such as gene therapy and stem cell research,” she told us.
“In addition I look forward to working with the experienced regulatory team at Boyds to assist companies with their pediatric drug development and in navigating the necessary regulatory requirements.”
Dr. Jennifer Bradford is leading Phastar’s data science group, which is applying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to ‘maximize the value of clinical trial data.’
According to the global contract research organization (CRO), the new team complements its existing offerings and will enable the ‘best use’ of data and metadata.
After completing her post-doc studies at the University of Manchester, she joined the advanced analytics group at AstraZeneca, before taking a role at Cancer Research UK.
"The advancement of technologies such as AI and machine learning are rapidly modernizing clinical trials and improving their efficacy,” said Bradford.
“Phastar already employs robust statistics and data analysis methods – leading our professional data science group, I am looking forward to guiding our biotech, pharma, and medical device customers to see the business possibilities in this new era," she told us.
Altasciences has added two new hires to its team of clinical veterinarians, both of whom have their Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM)
Dr. Andrew Gorman has experience in animal health in veterinary hospitals, emergency, and research settings and previously held a veterinary role at Columbia University, during which time he was participant in the IACUC and contributed to the commissioning of Columbia’s largest vivarium.
“I hope to be able to contribute to Altasciences’ commitment to being an industry leader in animal welfare by providing excellent clinical and surgical care. I am a big believer that cohesive teamwork improves overall employee morale and animal welfare,” Gorman told us.
“I hope to parlay my collaborative research, team building, and process refinement experiences from academic research settings into my new role as a clinical veterinarian with Altasciences,” he added.
Also joining Altasciences in September, Dr. Sylvia West recently completed her training in laboratory animal medicine and has experience with small animal medicine and laboratory animal care.
West told us, “In my new role as a clinical veterinarian for Altasciences I hope to achieve new experiences with animal models while offering my expertise in comparative medicine to support the scientific community and ensuring that animal welfare continues to be a priority focus for our operations.”
Based in Mechelen, Belgium, Steven Thys has joined SGS as its director of global clinical operations. In this role, he will be responsible for all SGS’s clinical trial management hubs in Europe and North America.
Thys held a number of positions in clinical operations at Servier and has more than 18 years of experience within the pharmaceutical and drug development industry.
“After having worked many years in the pharma industry, I am really excited to join a world class company like SGS,” Thys told us.
“Its clinical research services offer is truly unique and can make the difference for pharma and biotech companies in bringing therapeutic innovations to the patient faster. Being part of this exceptional team feels great and I look forward to contribute to its success by leading and growing the global clinical operations.”
The global benchmarking company STEM Healthcare (STEM) named Daisaburo Sakurai as senior vice president and representative director of Japan.
Previously, Daisaburo was director and head of Biogen’s neurology business unit in Japan. He has more than 24 years of experience in the global pharmaceutical industry and several leadership positions in Japan and Canada at Bayer.
Daisaburo said: “It is a privilege to be joining STEM as the senior vice president and representative director in Japan at such an exciting time. I am thrilled to work with STEM’s innovative and talented team as we work for helping Pharma companies to accelerate their performance. I am sure that we will become the best partner for them, and developing the ‘new era’ of STEM in Japan with a sustainable growth.”
Worldwide Clinical Trials hired Aman Khera, as its global head of regulatory strategy, part of the company’s scientific solutions team.
Khera joins Worldwide after 17 years with PRA Health Services, most recently serving as the head of Americas for the regulatory strategy and agency liaison team. She also has worked on the Orion Clinical Services and Parexel regulatory teams.
“I am thrilled to join the Worldwide team – industry experts drawn from top global biopharma companies, academic institutions and key regulatory agencies,” said Khera.
“Whether we are determining the best regulatory strategy for developing a drug or device in the early phases of research, ensuring a product in development is on the optimal path for regulatory approval or negotiating with regulatory agencies, Worldwide is one of the few CROs with capabilities and staffing specifically designed to help emerging and midsized biopharma sponsors successfully navigate this new global landscape, shorten time to market, and position a product for commercial success.”
The CDMO and pharmaceutical supply service company announced a new vice president of business development, Denise Sabaday.
Sabaday told us she joined Experic to manage the business development strategies and initiatives “that were designed to address the unmet needs impacting pharma and biotech companies facing challenges within the overcrowded clinical supplies vendor space.”
“This negative impact is directly affecting the amount of time it takes for a drug to get to market and become accessible to patients who need it,” she said. “With the increased effort in business development activities and exposure of Experic’s breadth of depth of expertise and capabilities, the market will be able to enjoy the high-quality service we provide and our innovative equipment solutions in our state-of-the-art facility.”
During her first 90 days with the company, Sabaday said her focus will be do enhance the company’s current branding and communication through strategic client outreach activities.
“I will also develop a targeted business development strategy, with a heavy emphasis on leveraging the expertise and collaboration of our partner, Harro Hofliger,” Sabaday added.
To strengthen its centers of development in oncology and rare/orphan diseases, the CRO has hired two new experienced leaders
A certified hematologist, Hassan Aly, MD, PhD, joins Synteract as senior medical director supporting the company's Oncology Center of Development. Prior to Synteract, he held roles at other CROs as well as AstraZeneca and Boehringer-Ingelheim.
Said Aly, “I look forward to leveraging my experience in hematology, oncology, medical research, and patient treatment across our teams to help advance treatments for hematologic diseases and hematology-based rare cancers.”
Derek Ansel, who joins Synteract as director of rare and orphan disease development, was previously a clinical strategy lead at the Center for Rare Diseases and a co-founder of the gene therapy working group at a CRO.
Ansel is an ACRP member and holds a Certified Clinical Research Associate (CCRA) credential. He also is an IRB member at the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and a member of Cochrane, a non-profit organization that promotes evidence-based decision making in health care.
“I’m thrilled to join Synteract where I’m committed to developing and operationalizing global strategies for rare disease trials,” Ansel told us. “My goal is to make Synteract the rare disease service provider of choice by leveraging our deep knowledge within advanced therapies and providing our clients with innovative solutions to streamline their rare disease studies.”
The platform as a service (PaaS) provider expanded its leadership team with the addition of the vice president of client development, Charlie Mains, and senior director of client development, Christian Knaus.
With more than 20 years of experience in the eClinical sector, Mains spent the last nine years as the senior director of business development at CRF Health (now Signant Health). He also has worked at Medidata and PHT.
"I am excited to be part of the snapIoT team. We are bringing a disruptive mobile-connected technology-centric platform to a market that is filled with long deployment timelines,” Mains told us.
“The snapIoT platform is deployed faster than anything I have ever seen. I look forward to helping our clients use our technology to reduce the time and cost, associated with bringing drugs to market.”
Now snapIoT’s senior director of client development, Christian Knaus, previous has worked at Icon, ERT, and CareFusion.
“No one in the industry can do what we do,” said Knaus, “it’s the culmination of seven years of determination to produce a product that has never been seen before. I am thrilled to be part of the snapIoT team delivering a simplified approach to eCOA and patient engagement deployment.”
Based in San Diego, CA, with offices in Europe, snapIoT provides ‘mobile-connected self-service platform solutions' for clinical trials.
