Elaine Takahashi

Outline

Established and led a four-person (senior level) team responsible for global market access, pricing and value evidence strategy of new modality pipeline products.

Key responsibilities

• Proactively identified potential business risks and implemented mitigation strategies to minimize negative impacts on projects or business operations.
• Navigated company through periods of significant change, maintaining focus on long-term strategic goals.
• Facilitated cross-functional collaboration for improved decision-making processes within the organization.

Key achievement

• Transformed siloed market access functions through effective leadership and strategic restructuring/ new ways of working.

Overview

Responsible for organizational development, covering all strategic, operational and financial aspects of Cell Therapy commercialization (CVD, Parkinson's Disease, T1D). Led an agile commercial team together with a 12-person cross-functional launch team.

Key responsibilities

• Provided extensive leadership by effectively communicating strategic goals and plans to senior management and cross-functional teams.
• Spearheaded business development, commercial and market access/ HEOR capability building for regenerative medicine (unprecedented platform for Novo Nordisk).
• Orchestrated collaborative teams to ensure timely planning/ execution of pre-launch activities, sustaining strong external partnerships.
• Developed annual budgets based on data intelligence and projected growth objectives.

Key achievements

• Delivered the first Integrated Evidence Plan for Cell Therapy - CVD (HS-001) project.
• Delivered a high-value term sheet for co-commercialization partnership, resulting in clearly defined R&R between Novo Nordisk and Heartseed.
• Streamlined internal and external stakeholder communications, promoting a culture of collaboration and shared goals.

Overview

Leadership development program: global cross-functional leadership with overarching responsibility to shape and define global Market Access & Pricing strategies in close collaboration with Access Leads of key international markets (Canada, China, Germany, Japan and the United States).

Key responsibilities

• Shaped the overall Value & Access strategy of prioritized assets in the Hematology portfolio.
• Supported key country affiliates in their regulatory/ reimbursement consultations by integrating country-specific needs into the pricing and HEOR strategy.
• Evaluated relevant payer and HTA decisions, collected feedback in FDA/ GBA/ NRDL/ PMDA advisory meetings and apply key findings to influence development and access decision-making.

Overview

Enterprise change leadership with a mission to drive RWE and Patient Outcomes through enhanced processes, infrastructure, governance, capabilities and a collaborative culture. Led a 8-person RWE/ HEOR team and supervised highly visible cross-functional project teams of 20+ associates across the enterprise. Served as member on the Japan and Worldwide Leadership Teams.

Key responsibilities

• Held full responsibility for enterprise RWE excellence, including data(base) acquisition, partnerships, strategic/ study plan review and approval.
• Re-engineered processes to enable RWE generation, while fostering methodological excellence and instilling a transparent culture of co-creation.
• Launched innovative pilots via cross-sectoral data and digital partnerships to demonstrate effective use of RWD/ RWE in regulatory, payer, HCP decision making.

Key achievements

• Global President Award: innovative RWE leadership (successful implementation of an interactive data visualization platform to enhance accessibility and utilization of RWD for internal strategic planning and external scientific communication).
• Enabled the applications of quantitative and qualitative data for: (1) timely submission of CAR-T HTA assessment; (2) successful implementation of CAR-T out of specification monitoring; (3) patient profiling to inform Lung Cancer indication launch sequence strategy.
• Developed and rolled out Integrated Evidence Planning (IEP) in tandem with ‘end-to-end’ operating model and playbook across Novartis Japan for “quantity to quality” paradigm shift, achieving KPI of 100% fit-for-purpose RWE activities with clear strategic focus on value and impact delivery.
• Implemented job adventure programs for employee development, resulting in 400% increase in fit-for-purpose RWE initiatives in 2 years.
• Talent development: 5 coachees were promoted in 2021-2022 (3 into senior manager, and 2 into director roles).

Overview

Responsible for all short and long-term patient access, launch strategies and tactics associated with the Oncology and Specialty Care portfolios (10+ assets/ programs). Led a diverse 3-person team (pricing, HEOR, market access liaison).

Key responsibilities

• Directed pricing and market access strategy and execution, including but not limited to launch sequencing, dossier development, payer negotiation and HTA.
• Partnered with the global/ regional market access, HEOR, clinical, and public affairs leaders to inform asset prioritization and go-to-market strategy with insights from payer/ KOL/ patient research, competitive intelligence, RWD/ RWE.
• Managed budgets and resources, ensuring optimal allocation towards achieving organizational objectives.

Key achievements

• Successfully implemented a Market Access operating model to execute on the priorities of Oncology and Specialty Care business.
• President Award: successful price negotiation and timely launch of company's first multi-indication Oncology product in Japan (optimal price obtained via creative scientific and health economics evidence to justify 'value' for money).
• Achieved timely reimbursement of a new generation device for Parkinson’s disease, developed from collective patient voice to improve patient quality of life.

Overview

Regional change management leadership with a mission to implement a patient-centric approach to inform business decision-making. Responsible for the deployment and adoption of RWD/ analytics and digital health solutions for HCP/ patient engagement in chronic disease management. Led a cross-geographical team of 10 senior managers across Japan, South Korea, Australia & New Zealand.

Key achievements

• Aligned regional objectives with overarching organizational goals to ensure comprehensive success across all areas of operation.
• As Centre of Excellence, drove RWD/ insights generation and analysis of primary and secondary data (epidemiology data, claims databases and PRO panels) to ascertain insights in payer psychology, HCP/ patient behavior and attitudes for scenario planning and business case development to inform go/ no-go decisions.
• Successfully implemented integrated digital HCP and patient engagement strategy, directly improving bottom line growth and reaching up to 80% customer satisfaction on new digital solutions.
• As Corporate Champion for Patient Centricity, successfully launched patient engagement programs in collaboration with public affairs and patient advocacy associations, resulting in increased employee adoption of patient insights from 50% to 70% in one year.

Overview

Responsible for new product planning, asset prioritization, business case development and strategic alliance management. Led a 3-person team towards the preparation of large-scale integration of two business units.

Key achievements

• Played an instrumental role in driving company-wide culture shift towards embracing innovation and adaptability, ultimately resulting in a more agile organization better equipped to respond effectively to ever-changing market dynamics.
• Streamlined operations to address redundant manual marketing and sales processes.
• In collaboration with BD, Legal and Finance, identified and weighed value parameters to develop comparable business cases, which enabled informed decision-making on portfolio strategy and investment priorities ahead of business integration.

Responsible for strategy and marketing consultation complemented by data intelligence to support domestic and multinational pharma clients develop new products, determine effective pricing strategy and identify optimal product positioning/ messaging and new growth opportunities.