Horsham, England, United Kingdom
Have worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry for 24 years across the entire drug development process, with 13 years in pre-clinical research and 11 years in field-medical roles. Whilst being a researcher at GSK I also completed my PhD in Behavioural Neuro-pharmacology, before starting my career as an MSL at Grunenthal. I then moved to Novartis and spent 5 years as a Neuroscience MSL, followed by 6 years leading a high-performing team of MSLs within established and pipeline brand environments, including 3 product launches. A 6 month rotation followed as ad interim Region Europe Head of Field Medical Excellence (FME), before returning back to UK to head up FME to lead and drive the field medical strategy. Through my career, I have experienced the evolution of the MSL role first-hand, from being purely reactive-based to the introduction of more pro-active approaches, and now to today where MSLs are required to drive key partnerships, leverage multichannel approaches, shape healthcare systems and transform the practice of medicine.
Head of Scientific Content within the International Medical Affairs Centre of Excellence (IMACE) at Novartis. IMACE is the engine of International Medical Affairs, strengthening launch readiness and field medical execution by connecting people, processes, and insights to bring medical strategy to life and advance patient impact. I’m excited to contribute to this work and support the Neuroscience Portfolio in delivering high-quality scientific content.
Providing scientific information to healthcare professionals when requested. Training scientific data to promotional colleagues and giving presentations on pain physiology and pharmacology to non-pain experts. Involved in clinical trial development and building relationships with key opinion leaders.
Promptly became knowledgeable in new disease area and became proficient in variety of biological techniques related to gastro-intestinal disorders. Designed studies and generated data for variety of high priority projects. Presented data orally, prepared internal reports and contributed to a publication in a new field.
Received two Exceptional Scientist Awards of company shares for completing innovative studies exploring drug combinations with data presented to the CEO of GSK and successfully leading an early stage target delivering all milestones on time. Received other awards for organising all-day meetings critically assessing biological experiments, for external presentations and for exemplifying ethical principals Contributed to the selection of 7 novel drugs for clinical development. Championed a specific drug as potential treatment for neuropathic pain. This required effective communication skills and ability to influence opinions, and resulted in the drug being tested in man. Selected to conduct critical assessments of competitors datasets influencing business strategy. Courses attended include a drug discovery simulation course, issues and challenges in drug discovery and development and advanced presentation skills.