Chris has dedicated his 16-year career to the services side of the Phase 1 clinical drug development industry, including both operational and business development roles. Starting as a Clinical Research Coordinator and Project Manager at Charles River Clinical Services (formerly Northwest Kinetics) where he was directly responsible for the delivery of many Phase 1 clinical studies, was instrumental in his future success in a business development role.
After joining SNBL CPC in 2010, Chris had an active field-based BD role in the US and was responsible for delivering a large majority of the business into the Phase 1 unit during his tenure. Assuming responsibility for the management of the BD function as Vice President in 2015, he was a key member of the team that delivered on corporate growth objectives by building, training and managing a high performing field-based sales team.
This effort helped lead to the acquisition of SNBL CPC by Pharmaron Inc. in 2017. After the acquisition he remained a key resource for the Pharmaron executive management team during the transition period, assisting in the integration of the US Clinical Development team within the global Pharmaron organization. He continued to lead the global business development effort for the US based Phase 1 unit for four years.
Chris’ deep knowledge of the global early phase drug development industry will strengthen the tradition of success for our company, customers and partners.
Ms. Adams joined us as our Vice President of Clinical Operations in August 2006, was promoted to Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations in July 2014, and was promoted to Executive Vice President of Clinical Operations in January 2019. Prior to joining us, Ms. Adams was a Manager of Clinical Operations at Pfizer, Inc., a pharmaceutical corporation, from 2004 to 2006 and at Biogen Idec, Inc., a biotechnology company, from 2002 to 2004. Ms. Adams managed clinical trials at Pfizer that contributed to the 2006 approval of Sutent® in renal cell carcinoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and she managed clinical trials at Biogen Idec that fulfilled post-approval commitments for Zevalin® and Rituxan®. Ms. Adams has managed both early and late-stage oncology studies of small molecules as well as biologics in the areas of lymphoma, lung, colorectal, ovarian, kidney, sarcoma and breast cancers. From 2000 to 2002, she managed non-oncology programs at Quintiles Inc., a service provider for biopharmaceutical and health sciences companies, including studies in the areas of allergy and pulmonary disease. Ms. Adams received a B.A. in Kinesiology and Biology from the University of Colorado and an M.B.A. in Technology Management from The University of Phoenix.
Ken Hamill is the Senior Director, Clinical Operations Portfolio, at Medidata, a Dassault Systèmes company. Ken works across the organization and with customers in their adoption of clinical operations technologies that help automate trial quality workflows. Ken also leads the development and execution of strategic marketing programs for Clinical Operations at Medidata. Prior to Medidata, Ken had over 15 years of experience in life science product management, most recently at PerkinElmer where he led the strategy team for drug discovery assay development. Ken holds an MBA in Health Sector Management from Boston University, and an BS in Chemistry from Tufts University.
Akiko has over 10 years of experience in the life sciences industry, previously at McKinsey & Company advising pharmaceutical clients in strategy, digital and advanced analytics. She holds an MBA from London Business School and a BA in Law from the University of Tokyo.
Lea Lorenzi is a beverage applications technician and trainee flavourist at Synergy Flavours Italy. Lea’s role involves using the company’s longstanding expertise in natural extraction technologies to develop premium beverage products across alcohol and soft drinks.
Lea’s close collaboration with customers and expertise in the beverage market means that demands for innovative beverage product development can be met with a premium range of tailor-made natural extracts and essences.
Alexis Garelli has over 15 years of diverse healthcare information and pharmaceutical software technology experience. She has worked with Calyx for over 7 years as a key strategic leader and director in IRT solutions and services.
Jonathan Roomer is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and co-founder of YuLife, where he built and scaled the customer organisation across three continents and now focuses on applying AI to real-world business problems. Before YuLife, he earned an MBA at Imperial College and led KPMG’s Tech Growth team, advising hundreds of startups on how to grow. He speaks on AI, insurance, and the shifts that matter before they become obvious.
Having had a normal weight in childhood, obesity entered my life when I had my child in 1993. I gained a total of 40 kg over the next 14 years despite diet monitoring, physical exercise and obesity medication available back in time. No matter what I did I couldn’t stop putting on weight… I was almost 100 kg in 2007 and the consequences of so much weight were so clear: pain in lower back, ankles and knees, fat in my liver but even more scary – high blood sugar levels.
I was a single mother and my only concern was that my health would deteriorate so badly that I’d leave my kid an orphan. As nothing less invasive seemed to help me in losing my body weight, I decided to have bariatric surgery. Although I’m having a normal weight for the last 11 years, I still struggle every day to keep it in control.
Today I use my story to advocate for the cause of defeating Obesity together with my scientific background. I am a pharmacist contributing that better and effective drug treatment for losing weight is available to an affordable cost to all people in need of it.
The collaborative relationship between patients living with a chronic disease and pharma is a win-win situation. Patient experiences, perception and opinions are heard by the companies behind new therapeutic options that hopefully will bring more quality to patients’ life. This close dialogue helps to educate and raise the awareness of the burden caused by these diseases both on an individual and society perspective. The potential products can show exciting results in the laboratory and animals but only patients have the actual experience in their disease control. By giving the patients the opportunity of sharing their feedback from beginning of a product development the companies are able to make available better treatment options that meet patients’ expectations on a faster fashion.
