Speakers
Provisional Speaker Line-Up – More coming soon!
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CEO
Roche
Ronnie Miller is the President and CEO of Hoffmann-La Roche Limited (Roche Canada). In this role, Ronnie is responsible for the strategic direction, profitability and operations of the pharmaceuticals division in Canada.
Ronnie has more than 30 years of extensive and varied experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He began his career in the United Kingdom as a sales representative, and accepted a series of progressive positions including Sales Management, Product Management, Business Unit Director and National Sales Manager.
Since joining Roche in 1988, Ronnie has held a held a number of positions of increasing importance, including National Sales Manager in the United Kingdom, International Product Manager in Switzerland, Marketing Director and Deputy Divisional Director of the Pharmaceutical Division in Japan, Xenical global task force leader, and Divisional Director of Pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom. He was appointed President and CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals in Canada in April 2000.
Ronnie Miller is Chair of the British Columbia Committee and member of the Board of Directors of Rx&D, the national association representing Canada's research-based pharmaceutical companies. He was Chair of the Board of Directors of Rx&D from November 2007 to November 2008 and served two subsequent terms as Past Chair. Prior to becoming Rx&D Board Chair, he served on several industry committees including Public Affairs, and Stakeholder Relations and was Chair of the Rx&D Federal Affairs/FPT Relations Standing Committee.
Outside Rx&D, Ronnie is a member of the Swiss Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the University Health Network Research Committee, and sits on the Strategic Governance Board of GS1 Canada.
Ronnie holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Geography from Glasgow University.
CEO
Reformulary
Helen Stevenson is Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Reformulary Group Inc., a company dedicated to helping manage prescription drug costs for employer drug plans. She is the former Assistant Deputy Minister of Health and Executive Officer of Ontario Public Drug Programs, from June 2007 to July 2010, responsible for the Province's $4 billion publicly funded drug programs.
Helen led the most significant reforms to the prescription drug system in two decades – the reforms became known as Bill 102. Under her leadership, Ontario Public Drug Programs achieved an unprecedented $1.2 billion in savings over three years, dramatically improved access to new drugs, and built an entirely new organization. She also led many of Ontario's drug system initiatives, including Canada's first-ever Citizens' Council, Drugs for Rare Diseases Framework, MedsCheck, Compassionate Access Program, Drug Innovation Fund, and more recently, the Ontario Narcotics Strategy.
More recently, Helen led a second set of transformational reforms to generic pricing and pharmacy reimbursement in Ontario; these reforms swept across the country, leading many other provinces in Canada to make changes to their generic pricing rules.
She is a Trustee of the Auto Sector Retiree Health Care Trust, and a Governor of the Board of North York General Hospital.
Helen holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University, Montreal, Canada and a Master of Science in Management from Boston University Brussels. She is also a candidate for ICD.D certification.
ADM
BC Pharmaceutical Services
Bob Nakagawa is the Assistant Deputy Minister of Pharmaceutical Services in the Ministry of Health in British Columbia.
Bob received his pharmacy degree from UBC and completed a residency at St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. He has held leadership positions in regional health authorities, hospitals, government, and the pharmacy profession. This included serving as the President of the College of Pharmacists of BC as well as the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists. He has been instrumental in the development of numerous innovative programs and has received provincial, national and international awards in recognition of his contributions.
SVP/ Head of Corporate Affairs
Bayer
Doug Grant is the Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Affairs at Bayer Inc. In his role, Mr. Grant is responsible for providing management, leadership and strategic direction for Communications, Trade Relations, Contracts, Pricing, Reimbursement, Federal and Provincial Government Affairs, as well as overseeing the Hematology business unit.
Mr. Grant began his career at Bayer in 2001 and has held numerous positions within the organization. Prior to joining Bayer, Mr. Grant held various senior management roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, Pfizer Canada and Marion Merrell Dow.
Mr. Grant is currently the Vice-Chair of Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies' (Rx&D) Provincial Affairs Committee. Rx&D is the national association representing more than 22,000 employees working for over 50 pharmaceuticals companies across Canada. In addition, Mr. Grant is returning for another term as a MEDEC (Medical Device Industry in Canada) Board Member. MEDEC is the national association representing more than 35,000 employees working for over 1500 corporate facilities.
Mr. Grant is a graduate of York University and is an active member of several industry associations. He is also a past member of several industry Boards including the Institute Of Health Economics and the Council for Continuing Pharmaceutical Education.
Chair of Government Affairs Council
Johnson & Johnson
Most recently, Dr. Babiak has been promoted to the dual position of Executive Director, Government Affairs, LifeScan Canada and Director, J&J Corporate Government Affairs, Canada.
Most recently, Lesia was the Director of Federal Affairs & Health Policy with Janssen Ortho Inc. and chaired the J&J Federal Affairs Council. She has been active in a number of committees and boards including:
- Chair, BIOTECanada Health Advisory Board
- Chair, Rx&D FPT Working Group
- Member of Rx&D Federal Committee and the FPT subcommittee
- Board member of the Ukrainian Care Center and the Alliance Hospice
She joined Janssen in 2000, initially in a reimbursement-focused position as the National Director, Government & Health Economics.
Previously, she served with Ministry of Health in Ontario as the Associate Director with the Drug Programs Branch. For a period of five years her responsibilities included undertaking a number of clinical initiatives and process redesign work, as well as managing the:
- Drug submission & evaluation process; Special Drugs program; Individual clinical review (Section 8 process)
In 1995, Lesia served as a Health Advisor with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Her work focused on assisting Eastern European universities to revise their pharmacy curriculum, towards a more clinically oriented curriculum
Prior to that, she worked for seven years with Glaxo Canada Inc in a variety of Clinical Research positions. These included Head, Clinical Therapeutic Areas and Head, Pharmacoeconomic Research.
She began her professional career working clinically at the Ottawa General Hospital as Team Leader for clinical services for Neurology and Family Medicine.
Lesia is married to Dr. Peter Jacyk, a General Practitioner with an active practice in the west end of Toronto. He is also the lead physician of the St Joseph's Toronto Hospital Family Health Group. Lesia and Peter have a young daughter. Peter has two older daughters, both are University graduates, and currently pursuing careers in the legal arena.
Amongst her community involvements, Lesia chairs the Ukrainian Art Song Project.
Education:
- BscPharm - University of Toronto
- PharmD - Wayne State University
- MBA - University of Western Ontario
Director of Office of Legislative and Regulatory Modernisation
Health Canada
David K. Lee is the Director of the Office of Legislative and Regulatory Modernization, Health Canada.
The mandate of the Office of Legislative and Regulatory Modernization is to modernize the Canadian Food and Drugs Act and corresponding regulatory frameworks. The modernization of these regulatory tools will focus on food safety frameworks and the implementation of a life-cycle approach to the regulation of health products, including pharmaceuticals, biologics, and medical devices.
Formerly, Mr. Lee was the Director of the Office of Patented Medicines and Liaison which administers the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations and provides liaison for Therapeutic Products Directorate litigation under the Food and Drugs Act and Regulations along with the Department of Justice. The scope of proceedings managed under the Food and Drug Regulations has included judicial reviews in the Federal Court of Canada, actions and class actions relating to drug injury and alleged regulatory negligence and coroner's inquiries.
Mr. Lee received his law degree at Queen's University at Kingston Ontario, and articled at the Federal Court of Canada. He worked in private practice until joining Health Canada in 1999. He has lectured extensively on intellectual property law and pharmaceuticals law both nationally and internationally.
Director
Manitoba Health
Olaf Koester's background includes extensive leadership experience in strategic and operations management, administrative management, public policy and program development, supply chain and drug use management and management consulting in both the public and private health care sectors.
Accountable to the Assistant Deputy Minister of Health and Healthy Living, Olaf provides leadership to the Drug Management Policy Unit. As Director of the Drug Management Policy Unit, Olaf provides expertise, advice, and briefings to the most senior levels of government, including the Minister of Health, on all aspects of drug and ancillary benefit program design and management, provincial policies, directives and legislation including utilization management strategies, licensing provisions and practice standards for professionals, product selection, pricing, and reimbursement strategies.
Olaf contributes to the advancement on a number of national and provincial pharmaceutical issues, most recently as Co-Chair of the pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review (pCODR) and Chair of the National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System (NPDUIS) Steering Committee.
Olaf maintains an active pharmacy practice in the community, acute and long-term care sectors. Olaf also serves as Advisor to the Queen's and Queen's/Cornell MBA students enrolled in the Management Consulting, New Ventures Project, and Global Business Meeting Courses.
Olaf Koester holds bachelors degrees in Microbiology and Pharmacy from the University of Manitoba, an MBA from the Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and post-graduate health research education certificates from the Harvard Public School of Health.
CEO
Canadian Organisation of Rare Disorders
Durhane Wong-Reiger, PHD is President and CEO of the Institute for Op-timizing Health Outcomes. She is also president of the Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders and head of Consumer Advocare Network, a national net-work to promote patient engagement in healthcare policy and advocacy. Internationally, she serves as Chair of the Board of the International Alliance of Patient Organizations and is Co-Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee of Health Technology Assessment International Interest Group on Patient /Citizen Involvement. She is a licensed T-Trainer with the Stanford-based Living A Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions.
Dr. Wong-Rieger has conducted training, workshops, and evaluation for patient groups in Canada and internationally on all aspects of patient engagement and advocacy. She has served on numerous health policy advisory committees and panels, including Project Coordinator for the Policy Dialogues for the Commission on the Future of Healthcare in Canada and consultant to the Ontario Premier's Advisory Board on Organ Donation. She is a member of Health Canada's Expert Advisory Committee on Vigilance of Health Products and Expert Advisory Panel on Special Access Programme.
From 1984 to 1999, Durhane was professor of psychology at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. Durhane has a BA in psychology from Barnard College in New York City and an MA and PhD in social psychology from McGill University in Montreal. She is author of two books and many articles and a frequent lecturer and workshop leader.
President
Cubic Health
Mike Sullivan co-founded Cubic Health Inc. in 2003, and currently serves as the company's President. Cubic Health is an analytics and prescription drug plan management company based in Toronto that assists medium and large-size Canadian employers manage their spending on extended health benefits. Cubic Health has built proprietary analytical systems, reporting applications, and clinical tools to enable it to analyze claims data for both private and public sector employer plans to isolate opportunities for savings and optimization of their current benefit plans.
Previously, Mike worked as an independent consultant within the benefits consulting and generic pharmaceutical industries, and as a practicing pharmacist. He continues to maintain an active license with the Ontario College of Pharmacists.
Mike has extensive experience writing for benefits industry publications, and speaking across Canada and internationally. He is a member of Benefits Canada's Online Expert Panel, and writes a regular finance column for Drugstore Canada magazine. Mike is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Waterloo, and has served as a Guest Lecturer at numerous Universities across Canada.
Mike graduated from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Saskatchewan, and completed his Master of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business at York University where he specialized in Finance.
President
Rx&D
Russell Williams is a passionate advocate for innovation in health care and in economic development. Since joining Rx&D in March 2004, Mr. Williams has promoted policies that improve patient outcomes by expanding patient choice and access to new medicines and vaccines. He works tirelessly to ensure that Canada is a world leader in attracting biopharmaceutical investments, which are key components of the knowledge-based economy.
Under Mr. Williams’ leadership, the association’s Code of Ethical Practices has been significantly enhanced to ensure that all member companies adhere to the highest standards of ethics. He has participated actively in numerous provincial working groups and task forces aimed at improving the partnership between industry, governments and stakeholders.
Prior to joining Rx&D, Mr. Williams had a successful career in provincial politics and community service. For fifteen years, he represented the Montreal riding of Nelligan in the National Assembly of Quebec. During his career as Liberal MNA, he led numerous public policy debates on important and complex issues, such as the role of government in research and development (R&D), compensation for victims of contaminated blood, linguistic policy, access to services for the disabled, and pre-hospital emergency services. He is well known for his dedication and perseverance as an advocate for individual rights and government services focused on the needs of its citizens. He continues active volunteer involvement in palliative care.
President
Canadian Association of Healthcare and Reimbursement
In nearly 40 years in the health care industry, Bob has held senior positions in marketing, market access, intellectual property, business development, sales, and quality assurance. He has worked for a number of large pharmaceutical firms, most recently with Janssen-Ortho Inc. where he was engaged in pricing, intellectual property and reimbursement. Prior to that he was with Janssen Pharmaceutica both in Canada and at Janssen's world headquarters in Beerse, Belgium; prior to that he was employed by CIBA-Geigy Canada Inc., E. Merck AG and Glaxo Laboratories Ltd. At present, Bob works with pharmaceutical companies in Canada and abroad providing advice and counsel based on Brogan Inc.'s extensive data holdings and research capabilities.
Managing Director
Wyatt Health Management
George Wyatt is the Managing Director of Wyatt Health Management which he founded in 2002 after a very successful 20-year career in the pharmaceutical industry where he held a number of senior positions, including Director, Market Access and Policy Development for Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada. Prior to being involved in the pharmaceutical sector, Mr. Wyatt was employed with a provincial government and worked both in the bureaucracy and on the political side.
Mr. Wyatt holds a B.Sc. from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and an M.B.A. in Marketing and Strategic Management from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto where he won the Graduate Business Council Gold Medal for Academic Achievement. He has also studied health policy at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
He leads a team of seasoned professionals that are dedicated to delivering valuable consultation for its clients in the areas of Pharmaceutical Policy Research, Reimbursement and Value for Money Effectiveness (V4ME) measurement. He has developed, managed and implemented programs at the national and international level. Visit our website at www.wyatthealth.com to learn more and download some of our free publications.
Wyatt Health Management publishes the very well-respected CDR Tracker®. CDR Tracker® is the most comprehensive database dealing with all the drugs involved in the Canadian reimbursement process since the inception of Canada's Common Drug Review (CDR) in 2003. Visit www.cdrtracker.com for all the information you really need to know.
Director
Global Public Affairs
As Director of Global Public Affairs' Health & Life Sciences Practice, Bill Dempster manages cross-Canada and federal government relations mandates, helping clients develop and implement effective government relations, health policy and reimbursement strategies.
His clients include leading biopharmaceutical and medical device corporations, associations, and health IT companies. Bill is regularly called upon to lecture and write on government relations and the innovative life sciences industry.
Before coming to Global, Bill was a member of the federal relations and health policy team at Pfizer Canada. His diverse experience also includes working for a Member of Parliament, a Montreal-based international human rights organization, the United Nations, and a major Canadian law firm.
Bill is fluently bilingual, and has degrees in history (King's College, University of Western Ontario), law (Queen's University), and a Masters of Arts in international affairs (Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University). He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2002.
President
Independent Pharmacists of Ontario
Ben was born in Egypt and received his Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science from Tanta University and his MBA from the American University of Cairo. He immigrated to Ontario in 1999.
Once settled in his new homeland, he proudly fulfilled his dream and started his own pharmacy in Brampton.
Ben came to Canada in search of new opportunities for his family and to start his own business. He knows how tough it is to build a new life in a new country but also how rewarding it is.
And he knows that under Dalton McGuinty it's harder today for a family to do this than it was when his family did it.
He also knows what the government can do to make life easier for Ontario families and he wants to use that experience to bring about those changes under the leadership of Tim Hudak and the Ontario PC Party.
ADM
Government of Alberta
Prior to joining Alberta Health and Wellness, Glenn was Vice President of a strategic communications company based in Victoria. As well, Glenn held several senior positions with GlaxoSmithKline and its predecessor companies, GlaxoWellcome and SmithKline Beecham. From 1990-96, Glenn was a Senior Consultant and later a principal with a consulting firm based in Eastern Canada that specialized in health care and pharmaceuticals initiatives in both the public and private sector. Glenn also served as Senior Economist at Saskatchewan Health. Over the course of his career, Glenn has worked on projects for every provincial government as well as for the federal government. As well, he has extensive health and pharmaceuticals consulting experience with a wide range of private sector, NGO and health advocacy groups.
Since 1999, Glenn has resided in St. Albert with his Wife, Slavica and son, Alex.
Deputy Chief Executive Officer, External Affairs
Partnerships and Networks
Dr. Reiner Banken obtained his medical degree from Université de Montréal, where he also earned a master's degree in Community Health. Consultant Researcher for AETMIS since 1998, he has held the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Development and Partnerships from July 2005 to April 2009. He worked as an emergency physician for five years and as a specialist in public health for 12 years, including serving as Public Health Director for Québec's Laurentian region.
Author of several publications and a sought-after speaker in the field of public health, Dr. Banken also often serves as a consultant to international organizations such as the European Centre for Health Policy and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), a division of the World Health Organization (WHO).
From 2007 to 2009, Dr. Banken was President of HTAi (Health Technology Assessment International), an organization whose mission is to support the development, communication, understanding and use of HTA around the world. He was also president of the Organizing Committee of the 5th Annual Meeting which was held by AETMIS in July 2008.
Since April 2009, Dr. Banken holds the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer, External Affairs, Partnerships and Networks and is also a member of the WHO's Technical Advisory Committee on Health Technology .
Executive Director of Pharmaceutical Funding and Guidance
Alberta Health and Wellness
Coming Soon...
Director of Common Drug Review
CADTH
Dr. Chander Sehgal is a physician with eight years of patient-care and clinical research experience. Before joining CADTH (Canadian Agency for Evaluation of Drugs and technologies in Health) as the Director, CDR in March 2011, he worked in the pharmaceutical industry for past about six years across various functions including Medical Affairs, Reimbursement Planning and Health Economics and Outcomes Research. Chander completed a full-time MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario in 2009. During MBA, he specialized in healthcare stream (including Pharmaco-economics, Healthcare strategy, Healthcare finance etc.). Chander is currently pursuing a postgraduate program in Health Economics for Healthcare professionals from the Center of Health Economics, University of York, York, UK.
Vice President, Market Access and Government Affairs
PDCI Market Access
Coming Soon...
With more surprises to come!
What others are saying:
Excellent speakers overall - great organization
Director of Strategic Consulting,
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