LIVE VIRTUAL EVENT: Unlock the potential of biosimilars

Murray Aitken is a senior vice president of IQVIA and executive director of the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science. The Institute undertakes independent research for publication, drawing upon the resources of IQVIA, and focuses on improving understanding of critical healthcare issues around the world, including the role of medicines in patient care, the disruptive impact of technology, productivity in research and development, and the value of information in improving decision-making.

In his role, Murray directs the research agenda and co-authors reports while also engaging externally with a broad range of healthcare decision-makers in the public and private sectors. Reports by the Institute are widely cited by policymakers, referenced in peer-reviewed research, and covered by the media.

Prior to joining IQVIA (formerly IMS Health and QuintilesIMS) in 2001, Murray was a partner at McKinsey & Company, based in the Los Angeles, Seoul and New Jersey offices.

Murray holds an MBA, with distinction, from Harvard University and a Master of Commerce degree from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

In his role as Sandoz Global Head, Biopharmaceuticals, Pierre Bourdage leads the organization that is responsible for the strategy, development, commercialization of biosimilars and represents the Biopharmaceuticals Business Unit as member of the Sandoz Executive Committee. Sandoz has eight biosimilars approved in total and continues to invest and expand a leading biosimilar pipeline (currently 15+ molecules).

Pierre brings considerable experience in launch excellence and team leadership as well as brand and franchise management with over 18 years in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. He enjoys leading collaborative and externally oriented teams and is passionate about the Biopharmaceuticals business unit purpose in helping patients and healthcare systems improve access and affordability to biologic medicines.

Antonella Cardone is the Director of the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC), which is the largest cancer patient umbrella organization in Europe with over 450 members from 46 countries. She has 25 years of experience working for non-profits in health, social and employment sectors. Prior to ECPC, Antonella was the Executive Director of the Fit for Work Global Alliance, a multi-stakeholder coalition championing change in health and work policy. She has previously served as the Director of the Global Smoke-free Partnership of the American Cancer Society, leading a movement of over 100 members to coordinate the development of smoke-free laws in 40 countries. She holds a Master’s in Science and one in Business Administration. She currently represents ECPC on the Board of Pancreatic Cancer Europe, in which she is vice-chair, and she is also Board Member of All.Can.

As Head of Region Europe at Sandoz, Rebecca is responsible for the operations across 40 different countries, including Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland, Switzerland, France, England, and the Nordic countries. She is in charge of the development and execution of the European business strategy of the company with an annual sales scope of around $5 billion.

Rebecca has been with Sandoz for 13 years working through several roles of increasing responsibility including different Country and Cluster Head roles. She brings more than 20 years of cumulative experience working in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry including profound experience with generics and biosimilar products. She also has substantial experience serving as a CEO and managing businesses across a number of European markets.

Rebecca has a proven track record in change management, business turnaround, stakeholder management, and talent development. She also serves as the Vice President at Medicines for Europe and has a seat on the Board of Directors at BKW Energie AG. Prior to joining Sandoz, she has worked with Roche and Merck Sharp & Dohme in various marketing and business development roles.

Rebecca firmly believes that patients should have easy access to high quality and affordable medicines and is proud of the role Sandoz has been playing in delivering access and impacting more than 500 million patients each year.

At Cancer Support Community (CSC), Claire is responsible for national patient education and outreach programs. She has 25 years of experience in non-profit management, and a wealth of experience in patient education and advocacy. Prior to CSC, Claire worked with the Urology Care Foundation, where she managed national patient education programs and public awareness campaigns with partners that included coalitions of patient advocacy organizations for National Bladder Health Month as well as the National Football League for prostate cancer awareness. As Executive Director of the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, Claire expanded their educational programming and developed the first National Bladder Cancer Awareness Day.

Claire is passionate about making a positive contribution to healthcare and continues to be inspired by the everyday courage of patients, survivors and their loved ones she has met throughout her career. She holds an MBA from the University of Oregon and an undergraduate degree from Rice University.

Christine Simmon joined the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) in 2012 as the Senior Vice President of Policy & Strategic Alliances. She is Executive Director of AAM’s Biosimilars Council.

In her current role, Christine is responsible for leading policy development and issues management for AAM, directing the Biosimilars Council, and building relationships with strategic partners in the healthcare sector, including patient advocacy groups.

Christine had previously served as Vice President of Policy, Public Affairs & Development at AAM from 2002 to 2006. Prior to this, Christine has also served as the Senior Director of Public Policy for CVS Caremark and Senior Policy Analyst at BlueCross BlueShield Association.

Christine received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. in American Studies from Georgetown University.

Rob Spina serves as Vice President, Marketing, Market Access & Patient Services at Sandoz Inc. where he is also a member of the Sandoz US Executive Committee. In his role, Rob leads the overall commercial strategy for Sandoz ~$2 billion biosimilar and generic pharmaceuticals portfolio, managing the marketing, market access, product launch, and patient hub and support services teams across multiple therapeutic areas and channels to provide access to affordable healthcare options for patients.

At Sandoz, Rob has also held senior positions in Sales and Pricing & Contracts. Prior to joining Sandoz, Rob served as Vice President, Rx Sourcing, at Red Oak Sourcing where he was a founding member of the joint venture that created the largest generic sourcing program in the US. Before that, Rob was Senior Director, Generic Rx Category Management, at CVS Health where he was directly responsible for all aspects of the enterprise’s multi-billion-dollar generic pharmaceutical sourcing program.

Rob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.

Prof. Arnold G. Vulto obtained his pharmacy degree from Groningen University in the Netherlands, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Cambridge. He was trained as a pharmacologist at the Rudolf Magnus Institute for Pharmacology. He specialised in hospital pharmacy at the University Hospital Maastricht, The Netherlands and obtained his PhD from Utrecht University.  Professor Vulto is the (co)author of more than 130 peer reviewed papers in international journals on a wide variety of topics, all around medicines and has been supervising 15 PhD-projects. In 2010, he was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology (FCP).  His current research is in the area of ATMP's (cell- and gene therapy) and off-patent medicines (generics and biosimilars).  He also serves as the Chairman of the board at Biosimilars Netherlands. He is Educator and Consultant on Biopharmaceuticals / Biosimilars at VuPec: www.vupec.com

Sue Saville is a highly-experienced broadcast news journalist & conference host, she was the Medical Correspondent at ITV News for 12 years & now chairs conferences, awards nights, medical symposia & webinars, as well as running Media Training courses for top pharmaceutical & healthcare company executives, plus for other industries.

Sue Saville freelances as a News Reporter for ITV News & makes corporate films for ITN Productions.

Events that Sue has chaired include the Awards Night for Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust charity (3 years in a row); the stage events for the opening of Danone Nutricia’s new factory in Cuijk, Netherlands (25.3.2019); the Philips’ “The Next MR Wave” Livestream from the Netherlands; the launch of the World Cancer Research Fund’s “Third Expert Report” in London; the EU Whole Grain Roundtable in Brussels; the Philips Live! event at the European Congress of Radiology, Vienna; the Institute of Risk Management Conferences (2017 & 2018); Merck’s Fertility Event, Hamburg; Media Advisory Boards for Abbvie; the European Scientific Working group on Influenza’s Conference, Riga; Bayer’s Media Workshop at the European Society of Cardiology Conference, Barcelona; the Private Health Conference at London’s QE2 Centre; the Diversify Medical Careers Conference; Ramsay Health Care UK Annual Conference; Health Service Journal Commissioning Summit symposium and Teva’s Parkinson’s Disease Symposium at the World Neurology Conference in Geneva, among other events, plus consultancy work for Roche, GSK and Novartis.

Sue hosted the Royal Society of Medicine’s “NHS at 70” podcast series, plus podcasts on Cardiology and Radiology for Philips. Before joining ITN, Sue was the Chief Correspondent at GMTV, after her roles at the BBC as a News Trainee, then Reporter and Presenter at Breakfast News. She worked in radio and television in Hong Kong after graduating from Oxford University and from Cardiff University with a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism Studies.