Director, Patient Advocacy (Clinical Development, Rare Diseases')

Pfizer
Remote, Pennsylvania
Competitive
March 02 2021
4806664
Full Time
Pharma
JOB SUMMARY

Engagement of patients, and patient advocacy groups, is a critical success factor for clinical development programs in Rare Diseases. Direct patient interaction is required throughout development to gain insights into the individual disease burden in order to inform trial design, to inform recruitment plans for clinical trials, and to develop partnerships necessary to support the commercialization phase.

The Director of Patient Advocacy will contribute to the Rare Disease Global Product Development Patient Engagement efforts to embed patient insights into Rare Disease clinical development programs. This colleague will partner closely with the Rare Disease Research Unit, Commercial Development, Regulatory, and Policy, Corporate Affairs & Communication, to develop and execute patient advocacy strategies, identify opportunities where patient advocacy relationships are mutually beneficial, and provide transparent communications to advocacy groups for relevant research programs. The Director of Patient Advocacy will report to the Rare Disease Chief Development Officer, and will work under the guidance of the RD-GPD Patient Advocacy Lead.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
  • Develop and implement appropriate Patient Engagement plans to ensure patient insights are gathered and applied to design and execution of clinical trial programs in the Rare Disease Category.
  • Partner with Clinical and Operations teams to identify key milestones and metrics for application of patient insights into the development strategy, program design and operational execution.
  • Pfizer primary point of contact for GPD RD for relevant Patient Advocacy Organizations, and Rare Disease Scientific Organizations.
  • Responsible for fostering partnerships around clinical development with such key organizations to further Pfizer's interests within the Rare Disease Category.
  • Represent Pfizer interests, along with other key functions, at key internal and external initiatives to define regional and country specific Rare Disease drug development policy.
  • Serve as a key member of the Pfizer advocacy team, in partnership with colleagues from Medical Affairs, RDRU, and other departments; as part of advocacy team, develop and implement integrated strategy to maximize output from partnership/advocacy activities.
  • Work with cross functional colleagues to develop rare disease patient advocacy communication strategies and messages.
  • Ensure appropriate, transparent, and timely communications with advocacy organizations.
  • Provide patient advocacy perspective to the Rare Disease Leadership Team and Executive Leadership team to help direct strategy.
  • Serves as an internal consultant to relvant clinical teams by providing technical advice on the inclusion of patient insights into clinical trial design and execution.
  • Facilitates sharing of information and best practices of patient and patient advocacy engagement to relevant RD development asset teams.


QUALIFICATIONS / SKILLS

Basic Qualifications

Education
  • Required: RN, PharmD, PhD with late phase development knowledge in rare disease or similar therapeutic area


Experience
  • Direct involvement in programs including both Phase 2b/3 and Phase 3b/4 studies, and regulatory submissions.
  • Strong patient advocacy experience, either in industry or in patient advocacy organization
  • 5+ years of industry experience in late phase clinical setting


Skills
  • Demonstrated understanding of scientific/mechanistic aspects of drug development as well as strategic, regulatory or commercial aspects related specifically to the Rare Disease Category
  • Demonstrated knowledge of Pharma / Patient interface and methods for incorporating patient feedback in development planning
  • Demonstrated ability to partner well across multi-disciplinary teams to develop critical insight and strategies, and facilitate decision making
  • Confidence and organizational skills to independently work on multiple tasks, and effectively prioritize to meet personal and team goals
  • Able to anticipate issues related to the delivery of project goals and manage risks.
  • Skilled at establishing clear directions; sets objectives; distributes the workload appropriately; brings out the best in people
  • Able to work across many interfaces within a complex matrix organization, and to help others to do so
  • Able to work with (understand needs and concerns of) R&D leaders, commercial divisions, senior management, regulatory agencies and other stakeholders to balance conflicting priorities among these diverse parts of the organization, and line them up behind the most appropriate development and/or lifecycle plan for medicines
  • Able to present complex, technical ideas and concepts, both verbally and in writing, in such a way that they are understood by colleagues and stakeholders at all levels and/or from other disciplines.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Collaborative problem solving (handles conflict constructively)
  • Creativity and/or ability to put innovative approaches into practice in clinical development
  • Able to embody Pfizer leader behaviors and the Pfizer culture
  • Candidate demonstrates a breadth of diverse leadership experiences and capabilities including: the ability to influence and collaborate with peers, develop and coach others, oversee and guide the work of other colleagues to achieve meaningful outcomes and create business impact.


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