Praveen Advani, Janssen Pharmaceuticals
Praveen Advani, Commercial Insights & Strategy Lead Solid Tumor Oncology, Janssen Pharmaceuticals
Praveen Advani has more than 24 years of demonstrated leadership in US & Global pharmaceutical commercial excellence leading multiple cross functional teams to shape & influence strategic decisions. Praveen is currently the Commercial Insights & Strategy Lead Solid Tumor Oncology at Janssen Pharmaceuticals. In this role, Praveen is responsible to lead the commercial excellence efforts (market research, forecasting, analytics) for the Solid Tumor Oncology Portfolio in the US providing actionable insights to drive strategy and impact decisions to achieve business goals
Praveen has been instrumental in successfully leading US & Global market research teams for several major global launches, most recently as the Executive Director for WW Immuno-Oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb where he was responsible for leading all the US and International market research efforts to help successfully launch one of the fastest growing brands in the industry – Opdivo. Prior to that, he has successfully led the market research efforts for Januvia/Janumet (Diabetes, Merck) and Lantus (Diabetes, Aventis/Sanofi)
Praveen holds a MBA from Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management and a Bachelors degree in Engineering from the University of Pune, India.
Arvind Balasundaram, Regeneron
Arvind Balasundaram, Executive Director, Commercial Insights & Analytics, Regeneron
Arvind leads the Commercial Insights & Analytics (I&A) group at Regeneron, a leading biotechnology company that invents life-transforming medicines for people with serious diseases. In this capacity, he oversees the implementation of deep insight frameworks and analytical capabilities to help bring the power of science and new medicines to patients who need them. A primary focus of the I&A group is to help realize Regeneron’s mission to do well by doing good.
Prior to Regeneron, Arvind also spent time at Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Pfizer, mostly on the early pipeline and launch side of the business. During his tenure at these companies, he participated in a number of industry-leading pharma brand launches, spanning several therapeutic areas.
Arvind earned his MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. He also recently attained the Award of Achievement in Digital Analytics degree from the University of British Columbia (in association with the Digital Analytics Association) as well as a Certification in Data Science at UC, Irvine (in association with Predictive Analytics World). He is a former Associate in the Applied Analytics Capstone program at Columbia University, and a member of the Design Thinking Advisory Board at Rutgers University.
Arvind is a past President of the Pharmaceutical Management Science Association (PMSA). His interests include exploring new capabilities to enrich understanding of customer experience and engagement in multichannel business ecosystems, staying engaged in the evolution of machine intelligence and the Analytics of Things, as well as identifying choice contexts and biases in noisy decision-making environments.
Lisa Courtade, Organon
Lisa Courtade, Executive Director, Commercial Assessment, Insights & Analytics, Organon
A strategic, solutions oriented business leader with over 20 years of success in delivering customer insights that drive business results, Lisa has a passion for the healthcare industry and for the patients we serve. Lisa was an early adopter of engaging patients in marketing research and leveraging CPG methodologies in the pharma space which contributed to receipt of the ARF’s David Ogilvy Award for creative use of insights in celebrate breakthrough moments when creative inspiration and research insights come together to produce a spectacular advertising campaign.
Lisa lives her passion for shaping the future of the industry by serving on the Marketing Research Institute International Board (MRII) as Chair of the Pharma Curriculum Committee and as an Advisory Board & Steering Committee member for the University of Georgia’s Masters in Marketing Research program, where she also serves as an alumni mentor. Lisa is an active member of the Healthcare Businesswoman’s Association (HBA) where she chaired Career Development and served as the first Global Research Director.
Sandipa Dublish, SpringWorks Therapeutics
Sandipa Dublish, VP, Commercial Data, Advanced Analytics, Insights, SpringWorks Therapeutics
Sandipa Dublish is a Commercial Strategy leader in biopharmaceuticals. She has extensive experience in new product development, launch strategy, portfolio/M&A assessments. Her career history includes large and small biopharmaceuticals with a focus in oncology and rare diseases. Sandipa holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from Florida International University, Miami.
Ken Kirsch, Aveo Oncology an LG Chem Company
Ken Kirsch, Director, Market Insights, Aveo Oncology an LG Chem Company
Ken Kirsch is a tenured and broadly skilled pharmaceutical market insights professional with experience in oncology, rare disease and retail markets. Ken started his career as a syndicated market research, competitive intelligence and consulting lead at Scott-Levin. Ken then moved to the manufacturer side of the industry, where he has led US and Global market insights for oncology, rare disease, and retail therapies at Wyeth, GSK and AstraZeneca. At Wyeth and GSK, Ken led US and Global insights on several oncology launches across tumor types and specialties.
Ken is currently the Director of Market Insights for Aveo Oncology, where he is the functional lead for both market insights and competitive intelligence.
Ken holds an MBA in Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He also sits on the Advisory Board of the Pharmaceutical Market Research Conference. Ken lives in Collegeville, PA with his wife Patty. Their daughters Hannah and Elizabeth attend the University of Pittsburgh and University of Delaware, respectively. In his spare time, Ken enjoys playing with his two English Springer Spaniels, Ollie and Finley, and volunteering (but not performing) with Methacton Community Theater.
Richard McCloud, Pfizer
Richard McCloud, Director, Business Analytics and Insights, Pfizer
Rich McCloud is a Director, Business Analytics and Insights, supporting the Pediatric Vaccines Business.
Rich has over 20 years of consulting experience, providing decision support across multiple therapeutic areas, and high priority brands such as Celebrex, Lyrica, Cymbalta, Xolair, biosimilars, and tanezumab. His experience includes a strong history in launching prime mover products and preparing for new competitors.
Rich started his career in pharmaceutical consulting at ZS Associates and moved to Pfizer in 2001. His first position was on Celebrex, where he was responsible for supporting the HCP launch. He launched the Lyrica fibromyalgia indication before moving to Genentech, where he gained biologics and medical benefit reimbursement experience working on Xolair. He also has DTC experience from working on the very successful Cymbalta DTC campaigns in both chronic pain and depression indications.
Rich returned to New York and Pfizer in 2009 to work on Lyrica. He moved to the Biosimilars team in 2013, and supported global launch of Inflectra, and three Oncology Biosimilar assets for Herceptin, Rituxan, and Avastin. Most recently, Rich worked on Tanezumab where he led groundbreaking initiatives on performance measurement, scenario planning for new competitors, and finding new opportunities within patient journey.
Rich earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Florida A&M University, and a Master’s degree from the University of Georgia. In his (spare?) time, Rich and Tanya continually chase, encourage, and celebrate their four children (Gabrielle (15), Hendrix (11), Lillian (10), and Maxwell (5).
Jit Mitra, Merck
Jit Mitra, Associate Director, Market Research & Analytics, Rare Diseases, Chronic Care and Neuroscience, Merck
Jit has over 20 years’ experience in supporting insights for pharmaceutical products. A strategist at heart who fully understands the role of critical thinking and intellectual curiosity in developing commercial strategy in support of both in-line and launch brands, globally. Jit has been involved in leading the insights to support three major global drug launches in the past 5 years – Sotatercept (PAH), Lyfnua (Chronic Cough) and Ajovy (Migraine). In his current role, Jit collaborates closely with the global brand team leads and other key stakeholders (market access, patient experience, medical) in the support of the accelerated global launch of Sotatercept – studied in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Jit has been a presenter/panellist at numerous industry meetings including: PMSA, PMRC, PMRG/PBRG. Jit has earned his Bachelor of Commerce from St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta, India and his MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Zhen Tang, Astrazeneca
Zhen Tang, Brand Insights Director, Cardiovascular Disease I&A, Astrazeneca
Zhen is brand insights director at Astrazeneca. He is passionate about driving value creation through actionable customer-centric insights. Zhen has over twenty years of experience in pharmaceutical consulting and commercial anlytics across multiple therapeutic areas in diabetes, oestoeporosis, immunology, and oncology at ZS, Amgen, BMS, Asight, and Astrazeneca.
Zhen holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University, and a B.S. and a M.S. in physics from Tsinghua University. He enjoys gardening, hiking, and swimming.
Jeet Uppal, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Jeet Uppal, Worldwide Lead – Global Market Research Capabilities, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Jeet is currently the Worldwide Lead, Market Research Capabilities & Enablement at Bristol-Myers Squibb. He leads a team of Researchers and his group responsibilities include managing tracking studies across all therapeutic areas and regions, social listening, MR agency management, knowledge management, training and best practice. Earlier he also established and led the oncology patient chart audit at BMS.
Prior to BMS, Jeet was the Global Group Director for Global Market Research at Zoetis. Jeet led a global team of market researchers and was responsible for Market Research across all species, regions and new products. Jeet joined Pfizer in 2003 as Director, Global Market Research. Pfizer spun off to Zoetis in 2012.
Jeet worked in Pfizer Human Pharmaceutical Opthalmology and Oncology disease areas. He led Pfizer Opthalmology’s market research US and worldwide teams for Glaucoma (Xalatan & Xalacom), Macular degeneration (Macugen) and New Products (Dry eye, DME, strategic evaluation of new disease areas and licensing/development opportunities). Prior to moving to Animal Health, Jeet worked in Pfizer’s Oncology TA and led market research for Oncology New Products and Business Development.
Prior to joining Pfizer, Jeet worked for 10 years in marketing and market research at premier companies including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo International and Reliant Energy. Jeet started his market research career at Procter & Gamble, where he led core projects across P&G’s Paper, Home-Care and New Ventures business units. Jeet has led market research efforts on multiple billion dollar plus brands like Bounty, Luvs, Pampers, Cascade and Dawn, leading both established business and new ventures. Jeet led PepsiCo’s international market research for the core Pepsi brands. At Reliant Energy, Jeet led direct marketing and market research for the deregulating utility market.
Jeet received his MBA from University of Chicago with specialization in strategy and finance. He holds a Masters in Environmental Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.