Women’s History Month: Women Driving Forward in Pharma

As Women’s History Month 2022 comes to a close, we reflect on the future of women in the pharmaceutical industry. We explored the history of great scientists – and the obstacles they had to overcome, as well as historical attitudes by leading men in science, in an earlier article. Subsequently, we caught up with the current challenges facing women building their careers in the industry in a discussion with Dr. Sashka Dimitrievska. As March comes to an end, we celebrate the achievements of women in leading roles in each of their fields. Find out more about them at Proventa International’s Strategy Meetings, aimed to facilitate discussions on cutting-edge topics in pharma.

Sashka Dimitrievska, AstraZeneca

Dr. Dimitrievska is the Global Therapeutic Area Head for Clinical Insights Information Practice Oncology for AstraZeneca, a position she earned after a persistent career in biomedical engineering and business development. In her current capacity, she aims to improve information drawn from clinical development. She will be talking about ways to achieve this using novel technology and real world evidence in Proventa International’s Oncology Strategy Meeting in Boston. Conjointly, she recognizes the tremendous effects of the global pandemic on clinical data – a topic she will be discussing in our Clinical Operations Strategy Meeting in Boston. Her stated goals of reaching greater levels of diversity – across genders, invisible disabilities, and other factors show the true spirit of inclusivity – not just in the workplace but also within clinical investigations.

Nuray Yurt, Novartis

Nuray Yurt, Novartis’ Global Head of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions, will be speaking to PharmaFEATURES on the subject of her great work in implementing novel technologies to tackle complex problems. The issue of diversity is at the heart of how we develop AI. As our models increase in complexity and intelligence, so does the risk of engendering them with our own prejudices and bias – making the need to include as many different viewpoints as possible paramount. Nuray has been at the heart of these issues herself – as a Muslim woman from an ethnic minority, she has spoken at length on the importance of allowing women of faith to define their own sense of freedom. Stay tuned for our upcoming interview with her!

Jessicca Rege, Alkermes

Jessicca Rege is the Head of Oncology at Alkermes, a company focusing on innovating new medicines for cancer and neurological disease. Alkermes has pioneered multiple partnerships with pharma giants such as Eli Lilly. Jessicca will be highlighting the importance of progressing immuno-oncology past checkpoint blockades at Proventa International’s Oncology Strategy Meeting in Boston. In our talk with her, we discussed the importance of furthering our understanding of individual patients and composite biomarkers to overcome treatment resistance – one of the main obstacles for the development of targeted therapies such as checkpoint inhibitors, antibody-drug conjugates and other novel immuno-oncology modalities. 

Jane Reed, Linguamatics – IQVIA

Jane Reed is the Director of Linguamatics, an IQVIA company, focusing on advancing Natural Language Processing technologies (NLP). NLP is an AI technology aimed at interpreting human language efficiently – with obvious applications in pharmacovigilance. Much of the reporting landscape in drug safety relies on insular and fragmented infrastructures which use disparate terminology and languages – harmonizing these will be key to advancing the adoption of cost and time-saving AI models. Meet and participate in a discourse facilitated by Jane Reed and her world-class knowledge on the subject in Proventa International’s Pharmacovigilance Strategy Meeting in Boston.

Marie Wikström Lindholm, Silence Therapeutics

Marie Wikstrom Lindholm is a Senior Vice President and the Head of Molecular Design at Silence Therapeutics, an innovator in the RNA interference (RNAi) space. Though RNAi is a technology with nearly unlimited potential to target disease-causing proteins, it is currently limited by virtue of challenges in delivery methods and vehicles. We discussed how technology advancements and improvements in our own understanding of oligonucleotide-based treatments are helping to overcome these obstacles and bring RNAi into mainstream pharma with Marie in an earlier interview. In Proventa’s Medicinal Chemistry Strategy Meeting in London, she will be further highlighting the role of machine learning in assisting oligonucleotide design.

Sarah Hersey, Bristol Myers Squibb

Sarah Hersey’s long career in pharma – from biochemist to industry research, to now leading transformational impacts through her position as Vice President for Precision Medicine in BMS is exemplary of the role models young women need to see more of in the sciences. Precision medicine promises to bring deeper understandings and increase patient-centricity – replacing the old model of drugs being developed in a one-size-fits-all approach aiming for the average, oftentimes male, patient. Hear more of what Dr. Hersey has to say in her keynote speech in our Oncology Strategy Meeting in Boston, where she will discuss the role of targeted and precise treatments in advancing our focus on patients.

Elena Rodriguez, Novartis

Elena Rodriguez is the Global Head for Data Strategy and Platform Governance at Novartis. In this capacity, she spearheads global efforts for improving data management. One of the main lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is the need for greater collaboration between different organizations, stakeholders and regulators. Data strategy will be key to achieving this, with data fragmentation and heterogeneity positioned as major obstacles in the pursuit of the harmonization and standardization of efforts across the industry. Join Proventa’s Bioinformatics Strategy Meeting in London, where Elena will be facilitating a frank discussion on achieving collaboration and the impact of data strategy on doing so.

Randi Isaacs, Werewolf Therapeutics

Randi Isaacs is the Chief Scientific Officer at Werewolf Therapeutics, a company seeking to transform one of the oldest immune-based modalities. Cytokines, a group of molecules intricately involved with immune responses, have long been investigated for their potential as therapeutics in cancer – and have often found success. However, their indiscriminate nature and lack of specificity can often lead to systemic and off-site adverse effects. Werewolf seeks to address this by engineering specificity cytokine therapies which will hone in on tumor targets, in an effort to revolutionize cytokine therapies. We have already discussed the topic and Werewolf’s approach with Randi Isaacs. She will also be facilitating a discussion on targeted therapies and the challenges they need to address to increase their efficacy against solid tumors – a pressing topic across the industry – in Proventa’s Oncology Strategy Meeting in Boston.

Elif Ozkirimli, Roche

After a long academic career, Elif Ozkirimli now leads industry-wide innovations as Head of Data Science and Analytics at Roche. In her current role, she finds herself intricately involved with the latest developments in cutting-edge AI technology – a field where diversity and inclusion remain of high significance. In Proventa’s Bioinformatics Strategy Meeting in London, she will be discussing the interface of advanced data analytics on Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology. Combining these technologies can lead to novel insights drawn from real world data, as NLP will allow data analytics tech to interpret and interact with humans in ways not thought possible previously. Additionally, NLP will inevitably allow the processing of ever-larger volumes of data; the effective management of Big Data has been a question the life sciences has been trying to answer over the last decade. 

Nick Zoukas, Former Editor, PharmaFEATURES

We believe that people should have visible role models regardless of background or demographic segment. Proventa International seeks to facilitate scientific discourse to enable transformative collaboration across the industry based on science alone. These are only some of the women we hope to welcome in our events across 2022 – visit Proventa International’s website to find out more!