Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland
Santiago is an HEOR leader with 17+ years driving value-based access across the pharmaceutical industry and public sector. Recognized for his strategic vision and execution at leading organizations, including Novartis, Roche, and Menarini. Currently, Santiago leads a high-performing team at Menarini, overseeing global HEOR value demonstration and HTA access strategy across Menarini’s entire oncology and primary/specialty care portfolio. His leadership spans in-market products and pipeline indications. Notable achievements include: - Leading Novartis’ first successful EU Joint Clinical Assessment (JCA) submission for Rydapt® - Representing Roche in the EMA/EUnetHTA Joint Scientific Consultation (JSC) for Hemlibra® - Publishing influential HTA and payer policy research - Representing Menarini on the EFPIA HTA Coordination Group Santiago holds a PhD in Medical Statistics from the University of Leicester, UK, and excels at navigating complex environments, fostering cross-functional alignment, and delivering transformative strategies that advance patient access to innovative therapies. [Links to media coverage can be found below.]
As a dedicated leader at Menarini, Santiago leads a high-performing team of 3 FTEs responsible for the Global HEOR value demonstration and HTA strategy across the entire Menarini portfolio, which includes Solid & Liquid Tumors, Primary and Specialty Care. His leadership spans both in-market products and pipeline indications, such as ELACESTRANT, SELINEXOR, and OBICETRAPIB. In this capacity, Santiago oversees all HEOR activities, sits in the GPT, ensuring that the evidence packages are robust and strategically aligned to support affiliates in pricing and reimbursement negotiations worldwide, incl. the US.
The Executive Director leads the Solid Tumors Therapeutic Area, overseeing a team of 1,5 FTEs focusing on the launch of Elacestrant®, which received approval from EMA and FDA in 2023. Santiago’s leadership was instrumental in securing a recent positive reimbursement recommendation from NICE for the UK launch of Elacestrant®. This involved collaborating closely with the UK affiliate to co-develop a compelling value proposition, organize an advisory board with key opinion leaders, drive the pricing strategy based on robust cost-effectiveness modelling, and provide responses to NICE's requests for additional evidence. This collaborative approach, involving cross-functional teams spanning Market Access, Pricing, Clinical Development, Biostatistics and Medical Affairs, ensured alignment and successful execution of the value strategy.
As HEOR Director for the Global Immunology Franchise at Novartis, Santiago led the design and execution of strategically focused and innovative HEOR evidence to support product registration and patient access for Cosentyx® (the largest compound in Novartis' portfolio, with indications in dermatology & rheumatology). In this capacity, Santiago oversaw HEOR activities (e.g. Global Value Dossiers) for both in-market and pipeline indications, ensuring that evidence generation was robust and aligned with asset strategies to optimize global access and reimbursement outcomes. He represented the HEOR function at FDA meetings, defending the Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) strategy and advocating for the inclusion of PRO endpoints in regulatory submissions. Santiago was also responsible for developing annual evidence generation plans, managing a budget exceeding $2M, and overseeing multiple projects and vendors to ensure the successful execution of these plans. As part of his managerial responsibilities, he attracted, mentored, and led a team, consisting of an HEOR manager, analysts, rotational employees, and a PRO consultant, fostering an environment of innovation and excellence in HEOR strategy.
As Senior HEOR Manager for the Global Oncology franchise at Servier, Santiago led the development and execution of a comprehensive HEOR strategy to support the commercialization of innovative oncology medicines, with a focus on ONIVYDE and LONSURF, indicated for metastatic pancreatic and colorectal cancer, respectively. In this global role, Santiago was responsible for designing and implementing best-in-class evidence generation strategies aligned with the company’s market access objectives. His role involved extensive collaboration with both global and local market access teams, ensuring that evidence was tailored to meet the specific needs of different markets and regulatory environments. Santiago worked closely with cross-functional teams to optimize product positioning, reimbursement, and access strategies, driving the successful integration of HEOR data into the broader commercialization strategy.
As HEOR Manager in the Regional Market Access department of Novartis Oncology, Santiago played a key role in leading HEOR strategy and execution for the entire Novartis oncology portfolio across Europe. This regional role involved regular collaboration with cross-functional teams, including global colleagues in Basel, regional teams in Milan, country affiliates, and external stakeholders such as vendors and EUnetHTA. Leveraging his deep understanding of HTA and payer environments, Santiago led complex projects to inform HTA and payer submissions across Europe, focusing on both solid tumors (e.g., KISKALI) and liquid tumors (e.g., RYDAPT). He was responsible for developing and coordinating regional strategies to strengthen HTA evidence packages, ensuring they were aligned with the requirements of European payers and HTA agencies for successful market access.
As an experienced HTA analyst I led the generation of evidence to demonstrate the relative effectiveness and economic value of Roche drugs (largely in disease areas of Oncology, Schizophrenia and Hemophilia). This information was used to: • Optimize the drug development program By taking a payer-perspective, I recommended the collection of HTA-relevant data from RCT/RWE studies to strengthen the future evidence package. This involved timely strategic recommendations to early clinical development programs by identifying local comparators, target patient populations, and end-points (clinical, economic, patient reported outcomes) aimed at ensuring differentiation for the purpose of future value demonstration. • Define the economic value messages that help support the Market Access strategy I was responsible for conducting the evidence synthesis and health economic analyses that inform the market access strategy and support price and reimbursement negotiations.