THERAPEUTIC AREA DIRECTOR, NEUROSCIENCE AND SPECIALTY CARE

Therapeutic Area Director, Neuroscience and Specialty Care

Montreal, QC

• Function: Research & Development

• Job Type: Full-time

Job ID: R00132763

Company Description

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio.

Job Description

Joining AbbVie means you will be part of a team of outstanding professionals dedicated to making a remarkable impact on patients' lives. At AbbVie, we conduct ground-breaking science on a global scale every day. AbbVie Canada is one of the Best Workplaces in Canada.

When choosing your career path, choose to be remarkable.

AbbVie’s mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people’s lives across several key therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, neuroscience, vision care, virology, women’s health, and gastroenterology, in addition to products and services across its Allergan Aesthetics portfolio.

We have an opportunity for a Therapeutic Area Head, Neuroscience and Specialty Care to join our Medical Affairs team. In this role, you will drive medical/ scientific strategic and operational input into medical affairs plans and activities representing the Affiliate in coordination with the Global team. Lead the development and execution of the designated therapeutic area Medical Affairs strategies and tactics while establishing the direction of a team of ‘peer expert’ in Medical Advisor in people manager roles. This position is national in scope and preferably based in Montreal.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and articulate a clear vision, strategy, and objectives for the team, ensuring alignment with clinical needs, medical priorities, and brand strategies.
• Provide leadership to a team comprising Medical Managers, Medical Advisors, and Medical Science Liaisons.
• Maximize resource utilization to lead, support, and mentor the team, focusing on performance management, professional development, and succession planning.
• Ensure adherence to regulatory and compliance best practices, allocating resources to achieve clinical and brand team objectives while safeguarding AbbVie's reputation.
• Oversee the budget for the relevant therapeutic area, including local clinical studies, in accordance with the approved medical plan.
• Lead the design process for local clinical studies and supervise the review, approval, and execution of contract agreements for Investigator Initiated Studies.
• Foster ongoing relationships with key clinical investigators and external experts within the relevant therapeutic area.
• Direct the execution of Medical Affairs initiatives, such as satellite symposia, advisory boards, consultation plans, and publication strategies, ensuring appropriate medical support for the Commercial Divisions in accordance with local procedures.
• Provide medical-scientific updates on products and competitors, offering medical training as needed.
• Offer medical support to the Pharmacovigilance Unit regarding Adverse Events reported in clinical trials for relevant products.
• Ensure all interactions and materials are audit-ready and conduct regular management reviews of team activities.
• Collaborate proactively with medical and brand teams to develop and implement plans for field-based scientific support for therapeutic areas covering marketed products and the portfolio pipeline, ensuring ongoing analysis of clinical trends and strategic alignment.
• Gather and disseminate competitive intelligence that could influence development programs and marketed products.
• Interface with other Therapeutic Area Heads across Affiliates to promote standardization and consistency.
• Seek opportunities to align clinical resources nationally, optimizing costs and enhancing efficiency, with responsibility for managing the operating budget.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to execute the in-field team stakeholder engagement plan.
• Maintain current scientific knowledge of assigned therapeutic areas, product uses, and key external data.

Qualifications

Education / Experience required

• Doctorate or Medical degree is required (PharmD, PhD or MD).
• Relevant experience with solid knowledge of the biotech/pharmaceutical industry:
• General knowledge on drug development and clinical research in a relevant therapeutic area (minimum of five years)
• Relevant therapeutic area background and experience in neuroscience and specialty care (minimum of three years).
• Proven track record in medical leadership, management, coaching individuals & teams, working on multiple brands across various teams (minimum of three years).
• Ability to build strong relationships with external experts and other relevant stakeholders.
• Ability to think and plan strategically (work plans, activities, timetables, targeting) and translate strategies into actionable and realistic medical actions with execution excellence.
• Strong commitment to compliance, scientific quality and integrity.
• Solid working knowledge of health care environment and evolving landscape.
• Demonstrated organizational and analytical skills to set priorities, develop a field work schedule, monitor progress towards goals, and track data, information and activities. Effectively manage budgets to deliver on fiscal commitments.

Essential skills and abilities

• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, etc.).
• Must be at ease with technology (the use of various tools/systems to perform day-to-day tasks).
• Travel required about 20-30 % of the time.
• Valid driver’s license and passport.

Key leadership competencies

• In-depth understanding and execution of meaningful strategies and data-based business decisions to exceed business goals.
• Display sound business judgment (having an executive leadership mindset to assess local market and set direction). Ability to predict contingent outcomes from both a customer and competitive perspective.
• Possess knowledge of AbbVie’s therapeutic areas and products to coach team members, who engage in scientific interactions with key stakeholders, external experts, and medical associations.
• Effectively communicate and collaborate with other members/managers to ensure alignment on plans. Clearly understands ways of working and ensure optimal and compliant interactions. Manages conflict in coordination with other members/managers.

AbbVie strives to provide a French working environment for its employees in Quebec. Although as part of its francization program has taken all reasonable steps to avoid imposing the following requirement, advanced amount of knowledge of English / Fluency in English is an essential requirement for the position of TA Lead including, but not limited to, for the following reasons:

• English speaking employees outside the province of Quebec.
• English speaking clients outside the province of Quebec.
• Anglophone region outside the province of Quebec.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and encourages women, Aboriginal people, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities to apply.

Additional Information

Note : The title of this posting has been modified to reflect the role level and responsibilities, while the internal title remains as Therapeutic Area Head, Neuroscience and Specialty care

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community. Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.

US & Puerto Rico only - to learn more, visit https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/equal-employment-opportunity-employer.html

US & Puerto Rico applicants seeking a reasonable accommodation, click here to learn more:

https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/reasonable-accommodations.html