Thomas Osswald, Dr.

Head of External Technical Oversight at Roche

Lörrach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

About

About me, a senior manager and respected expert in the pharmaceutical industry I am an Organic Chemist with PhD, PostDoc and further MBA education with 23 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry (Roche, 19 years). I possess excellent skills in the Process Development area for Drug Substances-Small Molecules with a good understanding of the Pharmaceutical Industry including the value chain of process research, technical development and commercialization. In my current job I gained broad experience in external manufacturing across the globe and learned to build up alliances with partners for external supply and services. Here, I was able to build up constructive and long lasting relationships with external and internal partners and C-suite members. My colleagues would describe me as an inspiring, passionate, open minded and dynamic team oriented leader with excellent collaboration skills in a global environment over cultural barriers within and outside of Roche. I have a clear goal orientation and have the ability to adapt to different cultures and am always curious to find new ways and to innovate. My “Can do attitude” with a pragmatic and risk based approach helps me to achieve results fast and to drive change. I am a passionate manager with good communication and leadership skills as line manager and in matrix organizations while being resilient and calm in stressful situations.

Experience

  • Roche (21 yrs 9 mos)
    • Head of External Technical Oversight
      Oct 2016 - Present · 9 yrs 9 mos

      Managing of a team to support outsourcing requests from Roche’s technical development organization for bulk material and services in the area of drug substance small molecules. - Building-up of supply chains with an end to end view from Ph1 deliveries to Commercial for RSMs, APIs - Identifying most appropriate technology for manufacturing - Maintain and foster portfolio of CDMOs for all outsourcing needs Support of in-licensing deals and post-deal activities Develop strategic concepts in the area of externalization

    • Head of External Relations
      Sep 2011 - Sep 2016 · 5 yrs 1 mo

      - Building up of the external work bench for the global technical development group for drug substance at Roche. - Maintaining of a portfolio of partners to ensure supply for starting materials, intermediates and API to the teams. Expanding this to services - Responsible for CMC assessments in due dillgences for M&A activities of Roche and project acquisitions.

    • Head of Safety, Health and Environment
      Oct 2004 - Sep 2011 · 7 yrs

      Tasks & accountabilities • Accountable for all safety, health and environmental affairs of the department (220 employees, 3 production buildings and more than 20 laboratories). • Responsible for technical investment projects with accumulated CAPEX of CHF 30 m over the last 5 years • Conducting of risk analyses for chemical processes and technical systems. Environmental and toxicological assessment of substances. • Establishing of an outsourcing strategy to Asia under consideration of sustainability aspects • Member of the management team of PTDA • Leading of cross-functional international teams within Roche and bringing forward international initiatives (e.g. “Roche Green Chemistry program” or “Containment-strategy”). • Strong understanding of technical development of Pharmaceutics under consideration of GMP and regulatory requirements. • Green belt certified and leader of a lean six-sigma improvement program with guiding of a group of green belts.

  • Project Leader at Siegfried Ltd
    Aug 2000 - Sep 2004 · 4 yrs 2 mos

    Tasks & responsibilities Supervision of a laboratory with four employees Development of new synthetic routes for APIs under ecological and economical aspects Project management in development projects for APIs through the phases laboratory/pilot plant and introduction into full-scale manufacturing in a cross functional and international setting Support of marketing activities in international collaborations Main achievements High customer satisfaction in projects Various process improvements, one patent

  • Assistant Teacher at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau
    Jun 1996 - Oct 1999 · 3 yrs 5 mos

  • Internship at AkzoNobel
    Jul 1993 - Sep 1993 · 3 mos

    Internship in the R&D area. Topic of the project: "Oligomerization of butadiene to larger carbon chain/rings"