VP, Global Head of External Engagement & Public Affairs

### About Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio)

Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio) is a leading, clinical-stage gene therapy company founded in 2001 based on the work of adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy visionary and pioneer, Jude Samulski, PhD. Since that time, our commitment to developing life-saving medicines that can potentially cure genetic diseases has never wavered.

At AskBio, we’ve built a foundation of therapeutic programs, AAV manufacturing, and a rich portfolio of patented technology. Our therapeutic focus includes neuromuscular, central nervous system, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases with clinical trials underway for Pompe disease, Parkinson’s disease, and congestive heart failure. Our gene therapy platform includes Pro10™, an industry-leading proprietary cell line manufacturing process, and an extensive AAV capsid and promoter library.

We became a wholly-owned, independently operated subsidiary of Bayer AG in late 2020 as a cornerstone of its newly formed Cell & Gene Therapy (CGT) platform. Our global headquarters is in Research Triangle Park, NC. Additionally, we have significant operations in Philadelphia, PA, Columbus, OH, Scotland, France, and Spain.

### Our Vision and Mission

**Vision:** Pioneering science to create transformative molecular medicines.

**Mission:** Lead innovative science and drive clinical outcomes to transform people’s lives.

### Our Principles

– Advance innovative science by pushing boundaries.
– Bring transformative therapeutics to patients in need.
– Provide an environment for employees to reach their fullest potential.

### Our Values

**Be a Pioneer:** We are not afraid of the impossible and innovate to make gene therapies accessible to those in need.

**Cultivate Collaboration:** Strive to be the best teammate, actively listen, openly communicate, and embrace diverse points of view.

**Embrace Responsibility:** We are humbled by the enormity of our mission. We hold a relentless commitment to advance science and clinical outcomes for our patients, families, and caregivers.

**Raise the Bar:** Continuously drive improvements and efficiencies. Seek and provide constructive feedback. Have a bias for learning and action.

**Act with Uncompromising Integrity:** Be honest, transparent, and committed to doing what’s right in every situation. Make clear commitments and follow through.

### Position Summary

The Vice President, Global Head of External Engagement and Public Affairs is a strategic function within the company that serves as a connection point between patient groups, professional societies, access communities, and the company. This key individual will raise awareness of our therapeutic areas of focus and possible therapies, facilitating a free flow of information, identifying early barriers to care, and helping to discover and address patients’ unmet needs.

As the leader for the Patient & External Engagement team, this position is responsible for developing patient strategies to address unmet patient needs. They will serve as Global Head of the team across disease areas, integrating patient-focused key workflows and decisions throughout the organization. Internally, they are responsible for building and maintaining strong relationships with company leadership to ensure strong alignment in business, functional, and development objectives. This position should be considered as a Globalist, helping the organization visualize the bigger strategic picture across various key areas (patient, access, commercial, medical).

### Job Responsibilities

– Lead the function to drive a patient-centric development model. Act as a strategic partner to all functions and employees, rethinking the way biopharma traditionally conducts business. Balance all team needs while keeping patients and patient voice at the center of all actions.
– Build and maintain strong and collaborative working relationships with all prioritized patient advocacy, professional society, and government affairs organizations aligned to corporate mission to provide cardiovascular disease. Represent the organization at key events and conferences.
– Facilitate engagement and collaboration between external stakeholders and internal teams to advance matching strategic priorities and initiatives.
– Proactively identify and work with leading external stakeholders who understand the short and long-term drivers impacting access to care globally.
– Advise internal leaders by providing patient voice and stakeholder feedback (access, patient, society) to inform products in development, manufacturing, and global access plan.
– Identify innovative ideas to support clinical development and increase patient voice through insight gathering and engaging in meaningful dialogue around data/study designs.
– Work closely with program team leaders to embed patient insights to assist in the development of program strategies and tactics addressing patient and community issues/needs.
– Develop and execute a comprehensive external engagement strategy and tactical plan in support of the development of product and pipeline assets. Ensure funding is tied to strategic corporate goals and aligned with other internal functions.
– Progress our research and development pipeline and programs with a high sense of urgency.

### Minimum Requirements

– At least 15 years’ experience working in the biopharmaceutical industry in Global Medical External Affairs and/or Commercial with increasing responsibilities, complexity, and accountabilities.
– Master’s degree in a life sciences field is required.
– Prior experience driving transformation within your organization in a cross-functional capacity.
– Successful product launch experience.
– Technical skills covering end-to-end lifecycle management, launch planning and execution, and disease area shaping.
– Experience creating high-quality integrated evidence and scientific external engagement packages.
– Track record working within large, complex organizations influencing R&D and partnering with and understanding the global landscape.
– Cross-functional senior leadership experience acting as an evangelist for transformation and innovation.
– Proficient in presenting new ideas, initiatives, and business rationale to Board and C-level leaders to gain alignment and update on progress.
– Track record for attracting and developing talent and optimizing team performance in direct and matrixed leadership roles.

### Preferred Skills & Abilities

– PhD or PharmD preferred.
– US and major global experience preferred.
– Prior experience working in gene therapy, rare disease, immunology, neuroscience, and/or cardiovascular therapeutic areas preferred.

### Preferred Competencies

**Clinical Trial Support**

– Generate and consolidate key stakeholder feedback to inform clinical development (protocol feedback, adherence tactics), government affairs (access & policy barriers), medical affairs, and early commercial assessments.
– Bring the patient perspective and insights to key program decisions, such as study feasibility, setting the eligibility criteria for trials, and determining clinical endpoints.
– Partner with clinical operations to understand and recommend patient recruitment solutions and help inform the creation of materials to support trial enrollment.
– Raise awareness of new trials and support enrollment by partnering with patient advocacy groups (PAGs).
– Identify and establish relationships with new organizations in countries where trial sites are anticipated.
– Partner with PAGs to find innovative ways to reach qualifying patients for future studies.

**Patient Centricity**

– Identify barriers to care early in development; patients, access, physicians, and plans to alleviate barriers.
– Understand and manage how, where, and why our product is a fit for a patient and what their needs might be. Inform the patient journey.
– Establish a feedback loop with patients about their experience with the trials and/or therapy.
– Work within different global regulations and standards for working with nonprofit groups. This is particularly challenging in Europe, where the standards for engagement are much more stringent.
– Work with scientific communications to develop/review plain language summaries to accompany key publications.

**Access/Government Affairs**

– Partner with IGT (Institute for Gene Therapies) to support policies that encourage transformation in gene therapies.
– Identify access barriers to care early so that plans can be initiated to overcome barriers at launch (especially access barriers).
– Monitor agency (CMS) activities of interest that shape the formation of relevant public policy issues directly related to gene therapies (OBA Outcomes-based agreements risk/benefit).

**Organizational**

– Build initial internal advocacy function; help develop effective systems, processes, and metrics including requests for information, submission of grant and sponsorship requests, patient advocacy development and approvals, and internal budgeting/reporting.
– Collaborate with corporate communications to bring patient stories and voices into internal company meetings to engage, inform, and energize every employee about “why we do what we do.”
– Establish strong and collaborative working relationships with cross-functional internal colleagues (medical affairs, communications, clinical development, clinical operations, compliance, regulatory, and legal).
– Coordinate corporate senior leader engagement strategy with external stakeholders.
– Support long-range planning.
– Evolve our understanding of the addressable patient population in collaboration with HEOR/outcomes research.

### Equal Opportunity Employment

Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio) is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other protected status prohibited under Federal, State, or local laws. All employment decisions are based on valid job‐related requirements. If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our website, you may request a reasonable accommodation to express interest in a specific opening by calling us at (919) 561-6210 or sending us an email at [email protected].

**Agencies:** Please do not contact any employee at AskBio about this requisition. Any resume submitted by a recruitment agency to any employee at AskBio, through any medium, will be deemed the sole property of AskBio unless the agency was engaged by AskBio Talent Acquisition team to recruit for that position. All agencies must have a prior executed service agreement with AskBio before any search engagement. If a candidate who was submitted outside of the AskBio agency process is hired by AskBio, no fee or payment of any kind will be paid to the agency.

Learn more here