Brooklyn, New York, United States
I am a board-certified neurologist who led a Department of Neurology at Queens Hospital Center, for over a decade, after starting medical school at the Universite Catholicize de Louvain, Belgium, then getting my Medical Degree at the Albert Einstein College of Med., Bronx. My postgraduate medical training started with 2 years of internal medicine at Harlem Hospital, followed by 3 years of neurology residency at Albert Einstein and then a fellowship in neuromuscular medicine at the Hospital for Special Surgery, Cornell. Simultaneously I worked at the Montefiore Headache Unit. Started Pharma, after Queens Hospital Center, with Merck & Co., as a regulatory editor. I edited the New Drug Application for Singulair, among others. It encompassed 42 study reports and an integrated summary of efficacy (ISE) and safety (ISS) with the package insert (PI) or label consistent with the data. Subsequently I came to Pfizer Inc to work in Medical Affairs on Relpax, then launched Bextra and followed by Celebrex, after Bextra was discontinued. Started working on Eliquis (apixaban) the anticoagulant, for both the atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism indication launches. Pfizer and medical affairs team collaborated with our Alliance partners at Bristol, Myers, Squibb (BMS). I got to work in Advocacy for both patient advocacy groups and professional societies, leading many of these efforts over the years. We were able to focus on helping patients and clinicians who care for them, with grant support and discussing projects with the various organizations, suggesting how they could better move the needle. Also was instrumental in the above-brand No Time to Wait campaign to get people with symptoms to see a clinician to get checked out. This successful campaign is supported by 14-18 patient advocacy and professional organizations. I led the connections between the Alliance commercial organization and the advocacy organizations. I co-led the teams support of Eliquis (apixaban) investigator-initiated or investigator sponsored research (ISRs) for the past decade. Many important trials came through this program including the US ADAM Trial, investigating apixaban anticoagulation versus dalteparin, which was a precursor to the subsequent larger CARAVAGGIO Trial demonstrating an important clinical benefit for treating with apixaban in cancer patients with acute DVT/PE. Treating cancer patients over a longer term was demonstrated by the API-CAT study presented at ACC 2025. I am able to connect the dots among all these activities for the benefit of organizations.