Patient Centered Science Director with payer focus

AstraZeneca is committed to putting patients first. This strong focus on patients shapes how we manage all aspects of our business. The Patient Centered Science (PCS) group plays an integral role in fulfilling this commitment by developing strategies to capture patient experience and generating impactful evidence to demonstrate the value of our medicines and support decision making by regulators, payers, patients physicians.

We are expanding our team to include Patient Centered Science Directors to develop optimized strategies for generating patient experience data to support the evidence needs of payers and support reimbursement of our medicines. The role is dedicated to our Respiratory therapeutic area and will require an in-depth understanding of the global payer and health technology assessment environment, experience developing strategies to meet payer evidence needs, and experience with patient-centered outcomes research within the context of pharmaceutical development.

As a PCS director you will lead the development of patient experience strategies optimized to meet the needs of payers and develop innovative ways to highlight the value of patient experience data to demonstrate the value of our medicines to payers. This includes understanding how to utilize the PCS evidence collected, and how to present those in the most powerful and impactful way to payers as well as other key stakeholders within AZ that is working within this field. In the role you will 1) represent PCS on payer topics as they relate to our functional remit on patient experience 2) work with PCS colleagues to optimize strategies and build payer evidence generation capability within the team 3) work cross-functionally and with local markets to understand needs and apply patient experience data in a way that is relevant to payers. For the right person there is also an opportunity to influence, develop and shape the position.

You will also set and lead TA and study specific PRO strategies to represent the patient experience to regulators, patients and HCPs.

The incumbent will be responsible for driving high quality evidence claims by working with assigned TA, focusing on projects within the respiratory field (and their underlying projects) across the development cycle to:

* Determine and deliver guidance on which disease/therapy areas and early projects will need a PRO as endpoint and as description of patient experience;
* Investigate to what extent PRO and Clinical Outcome Assessment (COA) endpoints are developed, fit-for-purpose and approved by Regulatory Authorities and also how well they will meet AZ project needs, to provide the most appropriate PRO strategic recommendation to meet all key stake holder needs

As a PCS director you will interact with regulatory authorities, payers and key external experts, as well as with relevant AZ cross-functional teams, to provide PRO related leadership to assigned projects, and will be accountable for TA PCS standards, the input to TPPs/TPC and clinical plans.

Key Accountabilities/Responsibilities

* Develop ways of working and make a strategy for how to best utilize collected PCS evidence to support payer and reimbursement discussion.
* Develop stronger relationships with internal groups that work with payer and reimbursement to support and deliver to the changing business need.
* Develop relationships with appropriate AZ teams as well as with KEEs and collaborative groups (within the relevant disease area) to enhance AZ's reputation of PRO measurement in the payer community.
* Deliver robust TA and project PCS regulatory recommendations globally to meet regulatory, payer and patient needs.
* Deliver expert input on PRO needs to TPPs, TPCs and support PRO dossier and briefing document evidence within clinical plans and regulatory submissions.
* Ensure appropriate PRO and COA input is included at the design stages of clinical programs and drive appropriate data collection plans and analyses to ensure high quality interpretation of the resulting data.

Minimum Requirements -Education and Experience

* Bachelor's degree in clinical, biological, or social sciences
* Master's degree in relevant field (outcomes research, health services research, epidemiology, health policy or related fields)
* Doctoral degree in relevant field preferred
* Minimum of 5 years experience in the biopharmaceutical industry
* Relevant experience of COA/PRO scientific work
* Excellent knowledge in clinical development and research study designs and interpretation.
* Good understanding of qualitative and quantitative analyses to gain insights on patient experience
* Demonstrated track record in delivering a new capability or driving a change effort.
* Effectiveness in a scientific advisory role involving both strategic and tactical elements
* Knowledge of AZ's prioritized disease and therapeutic areas
* Open to periods of travel

Are you ready to make a difference? Send in your application, and we'll make it happen together.

For more information about the position please contact: Sean O'Quinn, Group Director, Patient Centered Science: Respiratory at Sean.OQuinn(at)astrazeneca.com or +1 301-398-5065

Welcome with your application no later than March 29, 2020.