Role at ICON:
My role as president of ICON Development Solutions is a relatively new one. ICON formed this division in 2005 to integrate three acquisitions into one. The acquisitions were: ICON Consulting (formerly YRCR, Marlow, UK) a regulatory consulting business; Medeval, Manchester, UK, a full service Phase I unit and GloboMax, Ellicott City, MD, USA, a full-service CRO specializing in product development consulting and early phase development.
The ICON Development Solutions mission:
ICON Development Solutions assists clients in the drug development, regulatory strategy and operational execution of regulatory meetings and submissions, non-clinical drug development, Phase I and proof of concept clinical trials, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, data management, biostatistics, medical writing and publishing.
Background:
I hold a medical degree from Heidelberg University, Germany. After seven years of medical training I joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1987. Since then I have held positions of increasing responsibility in clinical research. I’ve worked in clinical project management at Hoechst Pharmaceuticals and was medical director at Han-Doc Remedia/Hoechst, in Seoul, South Korea from 1993 – 1995. From 1996 to 1999 I was the senior director of clinical development for Hoechst Marion Roussel/Aventis. In 2000, I joined ICON as vice president, clinical operations and in 2005 was named president of ICON Development Solutions.
Career challenges:
Even under difficult circumstances – such as re-organizations, mergers and acquisitions and living in foreign countries, I’ve been able to meet my target goals. At Hoechst, I experienced three disruptive mergers and integrations and worked for four different bosses in a five-year period. Even so, the team I led was still able to get our studies and development programs executed, and ultimately we brought a good number of new products to the market. At ICON I significantly contributed to the tripling in size of our European organization and business, and recently led the integration of three acquired companies into a new division.