Didier Meulendijks

Senior Director, Global Development Scientist – Oncology – Late Clinical Development - AstraZeneca

Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

About

Experience

  • AstraZeneca (7 yrs 5 mos)
    • Senior Director, Global Development Scientist – Oncology – Late Clinical Development
      Feb 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 5 mos

      My responsibilities as senior director include the role of Clinical Lead for a large pivotal Ph3 in metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer, responsible for: - All clinical/scientific aspects and strategy related to study design (towards Ph3ID) and now during study execution and delivery of the study - Driving all governance interactions - Delivery of health authority interactions representing the clinical/science function (FDA, EMA, PMDA) - Engaging with KEEs, forming and overseeing the steering committee & IDMC I further support the broader clinical development programme in the context of health authority interactions, efficacy & safety data reviews & stakeholder interactions.

    • Senior Director, Global Development Scientist – Oncology – Late Clinical Development
      Jun 2022 - Jan 2024 · 1 yr 8 mos

    • Director, Global Development Scientist – Oncology – Late Clinical Development
      Feb 2019 - Jul 2022 · 3 yrs 6 mos

  • Clinical Assessor Oncology/Hematology at Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board
    Sep 2015 - Jan 2019 · 3 yrs 5 mos

  • European Medicines Agency (London Area, United Kingdom)
    • Oncology Working Party (add. assessor)
      Nov 2017 - Nov 2018 · 1 yr 1 mo

      As member of EMA's Oncology Working Party I contributed to updating of the main EMA guideline for anticancer drug development, "Evaluation of anticancer medicinal products in man".

    • HMA/EMA Joint Task Force on Big Data
      May 2017 - Nov 2018 · 1 yr 7 mos

      Member of The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) joint task force, which aimed to describe from a regulatory perspective the big data landscape and identify practical steps for the European medicines regulatory network to make best use of big data in support of innovation and public health in the European Union (EU). The reports that we generated from this task force can be found here: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/about-us/how-we-work/big-data

  • The Netherlands Cancer Institute (4 yrs 5 mos)
    • Clinical pharmacologist (Board-certified: 2016 - present)
      Sep 2013 - Sep 2015 · 2 yrs 1 mo

    • PhD thesis: "Improving Safety and Effectiveness of Fluoropyrimidine-Based Chemotherapy"
      May 2011 - May 2015 · 4 yrs 1 mo

      The research I performed at the Netherlands Cancer Institute focused on identifying biomarkers to determine patients' risk of treatment-related toxicity during chemotherapy with fluoropyrimidines: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=meulendijks+D The research we performed made a significant impact on the decision to clinically implement DPYD genotype testing in clinical practice across many regions, as well as regulatory action in relation to testing of patients for these biomarkers. The European Medicines Agency now recommends that patients should be tested for the lack of the enzyme dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) before starting cancer treatment with fluoropyrimidines: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/referral/fluorouracil-fluorouracil-related-substances-article-31-referral-assessment-report_en.pdf https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/ema-recommendations-dpd-testing-prior-treatment-fluorouracil-capecitabine-tegafur-flucytosine

  • PhD thesis: "Improving Safety and Effectiveness of Fluoropyrimidine-Based Chemotherapy" at Slotervaart Hospital
    May 2011 - May 2015 · 4 yrs 1 mo