Diverse techies make inroads in pharma & biotech

It’s an exciting time to be working in the pharmaceutical industry

“Both patients and physicians are turning to the Web more and more for information.” – Gaurav Khanna, Daiichi Sankyo

By Laurel A. McKee Ranger
Contributing Editor

It takes an enormous effort and highly advanced technology to bring a new drug to market and then produce it safely and reliably. As knowledge of the molecular and genetic components of disease expands, new therapeutic targets are discovered and therapies developed in hopes of curing or managing cancer, heart disease and diabetes. As we enter the era of targeted biologics, monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and made important inroads in some cancers.

But drug discovery is a risky business. Not all promising therapies pan out. It can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take many years to bring a new drug to market. Nevertheless, a large and dedicated force of sophisticated technical professionals is at work to keep new drugs coming down the pipeline and out onto the market, and to properly manufacture approved drugs.

Enter the Internet
The Internet has begun to play an important role in pharmaceuticals. Pharma and biotech companies maintain websites to educate consumers about their products and provide information on managing disease. And the consumer is not their only audience: medical professionals, including physicians and nurses, also consult these websites.

Most recently, development of social media has piqued the interest of the pharma and biotech industries. Both pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are beginning to use social networking sites: patients’ communities and even Facebook and LinkedIn, to gather information on how people deal with their diseases.

Some of this “crowd-source” or “open-source” research may be used to recruit patients for clinical trials. Sometimes it may help build links between researchers, patients and doctors and even provide valuable information on how drugs affect patients and their diseases. But while the Web offers great potential to get in touch with large numbers of patients rapidly, there are many possible problems. Privacy issues have yet to be dealt with and, of course, self-reported data can be misleading, of dubious value.

Diverse workforce preferred
It’s is an exciting time to be working in the drug industry. As gene research identifies new potential targets and websites grow and connect patients and researchers, the need for more and better solutions grows as well.

It takes a diverse workforce to come up with these solutions. John Martin, chair and CEO of Gilead Sciences (Foster City, CA), notes that “Gilead is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We believe creative thinking and ideas are driven by a diversity of views.”

Chip Marvin manages environmental health and safety at Amgen
Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA) was one of the pioneering biotech companies that developed therapies based on recombinant DNA and molecular biology, and launched some of the first major medicines using this technology. Today, Amgen’s products are based on monoclonal antibodies, small molecules and protein/peptibodies. It has products in the pipeline to address inflammatory disease, cancers, type 2 diabetes and autoimmune disorders. One of Amgen’s more familiar products is Enbrel, used to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis as well as ankylosing spondilitis.

Chip Marvin joined Amgen in 2003, and today he’s senior manager of environmental health and safety (EH&S) there, leading EH&S program and performance management for the Thousand Oaks site. “I have responsibility for HQ industrial safety,” he explains. “We have R&D, manufacturing and general admin at this site; more than 6,000 people work here, and there’s a lot of activity and a lot of equipment. I make sure we’re doing the right things so the company can deliver products to patients.”

Marvin notes that some areas, such as manufacturing and labs, have higher hazards and require different safety protocols. “For example, if we’re working on equip ment we always have to make sure to de-energize it. It’s a program we call ‘lock-out/tag-out.’”

Marvin is following requirements from a regulatory standpoint, he says, because Amgen is delivering products in a highly regulated field. He also works on personal safety programs. He’s not specifically a safety pro, but his two direct reports are both safety professionals. And, of course, his years of experience in engineering and manufacturing give him a broad background in the area.

Marvin earned a 1976 BSME at North Carolina State University and went to work for Monsanto (St. Louis, MO) as a project engineer in the company’s Pensacola, FL facility. He worked for Monsanto more than twenty years, doing project engineering, maintenance and manufacturing management at company sites that included Houston, TX; St. Louis, MO and Augusta, GA.

In Augusta, Marvin became plant manager at a phosphate site. “It was a huge responsibility and one of the best jobs I’ve ever had,” he recalls fondly.

In 1997 Monsanto spun off its chemicals division, which became Solutia. Marvin went with the new company, but it was heavily tied into petrochemicals and eventually went into bankruptcy protection and downsized significantly. That was when Marvin joined Amgen as a plant engineer for a clinical manufacturing facility.

“Things are very dynamic at Amgen. Within a couple of months I took over the plant engineering role,” he says. “Having a broad range of skills and background really helped. I was still learning about the equipment, but they were looking for someone to bring change and improve processes.”

He likes the youth and abundant opportunity in pharmaceuticals and biotech. “In late 2003 Amgen was hiring like crazy. I was very impressed with the company. We are producing medicines for people who really need them, so it’s very motivating.”

Like a lot of engineers, Marvin was interested in technology from an early age. He soon became the go-to person when something needed fixing around the house. He was born in Germany to an Army family that moved to California, then to Fort Bragg and Durham, NC, which he considers home.

“I’ve lived in a lot of places and traveled in Europe a lot with Solutia. I think getting to know other cultures and geographies is great. It helps your world view,” he says. Marvin is chair of the Amgen Black Employee Network (ABEN), and at Monsanto he went through rigorous diversity training and was part of an internal diversity consulting team that worked on issues proactively. “Diversity improves productivity and creativity; it makes managers better,” he says.

Despite his busy schedule, Marvin finds time to be a Big Brother. In Missouri he was on the advisory board for the Center for Women in Transition and in Augusta, GA he was on the board of directors of the United Way. He enjoys biking, golf, skiing and travel with his wife, Terry.

Stacey Gelman is VP of shared business services at Merck
Merck & Co, Inc (Whitehouse Station, NJ) is a global pharmaceutical company with a presence in more than fifty countries and a broad range of vaccines and medicines. As VP of shared business services at Merck, Stacey Gelman “has team members in the Americas, Asia and Europe,” she explains. “We’re a global team with local presence, and that gives us a great opportunity to look at the world in a very different way. There are local regulations we must take into account, and it’s interesting to see how people operate from different cultural perspectives.”

Gelman has been in her current job since May 2008. Her responsibilities include an enterprise portal through which Merck employees, customers and vendors access a wide service range. “We touch everybody,” Gelman says. “Our organization offers a family of services to workers, partners and customers of Merck. We process transfers and promotions for employees; we respond to inquiries from suppliers; we help distributors manage their supply more effectively; and we ensure controls for our financial leaders.”

A lot of travel comes with her global role, but she’s used to it. “I’ve done a lot of traveling throughout my career,” she says. “I’ve enjoyed learning about local cultures firsthand.”

Gelman has ten direct reports and more than 500 people in her group. “One of the key aspects of my shared business services role is standing up an enterprise portal that enables employees to access the information they need to do their jobs and to collaborate with each other,” she says. “The portal offers assistance in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean and simplified Chinese.”

Gelman started her career with a 1979 BSCS in computer science from Queens College, now part of the City University of New York. She went to work for AT&T (New York, NY) as a programmer in the IT organization, working on a product used to automate testing of IC boards. “At first the job was challenging. But I was able to leverage my skills and launch my career in IT,” she says.

Gelman got an MSCS at the University of Pennsylvania, and when she completed it in 1984 she moved into a supervisory role at Bell Labs. “I was leading the initiative to set up a software factory in North Carolina,” she explains. “The goal was to cut development cycles from fifty-nine to twenty-two weeks. I had the creative license to define what processes and technology the developers would use.

“We accomplished our goal,” Gelman recalls with pride.

In 1994 she joined AT&T’s newly formed CIO organization as director, with responsibility for sales and marketing systems and processes. In 1996 she moved to the newly formed Lucent Technologies as CIO and VP for the manufacturing division. In 1998 she became CIO for the broader network systems group. “That was a global organization with 2,000 employees. It was really big, and I loved it,” she says.

A career shift in 2000 found Gelman heading up Lucent’s mobile Internet division. “We cultivated innovation and developed applications we now take for granted, like instant messaging and location-based services on mobile devices. It was a great opportunity.”

At the end of 2001 Gelman joined Dow Jones as chief product officer at Factiva, a joint venture with Reuters. “It was a change for me, a small company with only 800 employees putting a product onto an Internet platform,” she says. “I wanted the rapid decision-making.”

In 2003 she got a call to run global infrastructure for the CIO at Merck. “They were looking for someone with a broad background to build out a global technology platform. The minute I walked into the lobby at Whitehouse Station and saw the sculpture depicting river blindness, I knew I wanted to work here,” she says.

The sculpture shows a child leading a blind man holding a stick; Merck is involved in a program to help wipe out river blindness, which affects 18 million people in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Gelman started in CS because it was an emerging area, new and exciting and moving very rapidly. “New and exciting” has characterized her career. “It’s been very dynamic. I like that,” she says.

Dina DiMaria: information services at Sanofi-Aventis
Dina DiMaria is associate VP of innovation and new customer channels in IS at Sanofi-Aventis (Bridgewater, NJ). She and her team identify and create new technologies to help engage customers and drive business growth.

The company is currently focused on cardiovascular and metabolic pharmaceuticals, but is also known for products such as Allegra for allergic rhinitis and Ambien for insomnia. Sanofi-Aventis is part of a global healthcare company that also provides vaccines and animal health products.

“Technology is changing the way we interact with our customers,” DiMaria says. “Our ability to respond to customers’ needs for education and information in the way they prefer is essential. For example, physicians will soon be able to reach Sanofi-Aventis product experts through live Web access whenever it’s convenient for them.” The goal is to make sure the company is maximizing new technologies like the Web, smart phones and social media as efficiently as possible.

“We’ve made significant progress, but customer use of technology is always changing,” DiMaria notes. “Not long ago we were focused on websites to provide product information for patients. Now we see patients using social networking sites and iPhone apps to manage their health. We need to use these technologies too.”

DiMaria has a BSCS from St. Johns University (Jamaica, Queens, NY) and an MBA from Adelphi University (Garden City, NY). She began her professional career in pharmaceutical IT almost twenty years ago.

In 1995 she joined Sanofi Pharmaceuticals (Paris, France) as manager of global sales and marketing information system strategies. “I spent three years in Paris as a manager in the global IS department,” she explains. “I worked mostly with affiliates in Western and Eastern Europe, helping them understand the business rationale for investing in pharmaceutical sales and marketing systems.” It was a challenging position at times; she was the only female and only non-French-speaking member of the Paris-based team. “It was a great experience, though,” she says.

When she returned to the States she became director of eBusiness and eMarketing. “I led a team that drove greater use of the Internet, which was still fairly new at the time. We also identified opportunities to use technology for enterprise-wide business processes and significantly reduce costs,” she reports.

In 2006 DiMaria left the IT department and became senior director for patient-centered marketing operations in the consumer marketing group, where she led a technology-based CRM initiative. She took her present job in early 2009.

DiMaria is very happy to be part of a company and an industry that helps people feel better and extends lives. “I hope to see more women entering the field of technology,” she says.
“It’s such a great opportunity to drive business change.”

DiMaria has received two president’s circle awards at Sanofi-Aventis, in 1999 and 2001.

Cynthia Buckingham: senior engineering manager at King Pharma
King Pharmaceuticals (Bristol, TN) makes therapies and technologies for pharmaceutical, animal health and auto-injector markets. Cynthia Buckingham is a senior manager of engineering, working on capital improvement projects at King’s Bristol facilities. The company has other manufacturing facilities in Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan and Missouri, “But the facilities here are older,” Buckingham explains.

“We’re upgrading and also bringing in new product lines, so we have to renovate to accommodate the new machinery. As older products go off-patent we’re looking at new products and upgrading our manufacturing technology. I’m more of a project manager at
the moment and I report to the facilities engineering director.”

She also supports the manufacturing and packaging departments. “I troubleshoot, do installations and start up new equipment. I help them develop their SOPs. I also work on a lot of cost-reduction projects.”

Buckingham has a 1991 BSChE from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and has become a certified Six Sigma black belt at King. She belongs to the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering.

After graduation she joined Eastman Chemical Co (Kingsport, TN), which makes chemicals that go into plastics and resins and inactive ingredients that go into pharmaceuticals. She moved to King in 2000.

She grew up in Endicott, NY. Her father was an auto mechanic and her mother a financial analyst who worked for IBM: an excellent mix of math and technical skills for her to model as she grew up. She started at Broome Community College (Binghamton, NY) with a 1988 associate’s degree in applied science in engineering technology, and transferred to Virginia Tech to finish her degree.

Buckingham says that despite being in a distinct minority as a woman in engineering, she’s always been treated as a peer. “King is a good place to work,” she notes. “They support the female workforce here.”

There are plenty of interesting technical challenges in her job. “When some of our products go off-patent and others are about to be approved, you have to adjust the mix of products and get construction finished and ready for the new products and time that properly for when you’re expecting FDA approval.

“It can be a bit tricky,” she says. “But I love feeling that I can contribute to people’s quality of life and health and help them live longer and get more out of their lives.”

She has a toddler and a six-year old girl at home, and “My biggest non-technical challenge is balancing work and family life,” she says. Fortunately, “King is very good about accommodating employees’ needs to do that.”

Gaurav Khanna: service delivery architecture at Daiichi Sankyo
Daiichi Sankyo Inc (Parsippany, NJ) is the U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo-based Daiichi Sankyo Ltd, a global pharmaceutical company. The firm has seven approved drugs on the U.S. market: treatments for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, ear infections and Sjögren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disorder. The company has more therapies in the pipeline, targeting cancer, diabetes and thrombic disorders.

“We prize the diverse cultures, beliefs, backgrounds and experiences of our employees,” says Joseph P. Pieroni, president and CEO of Daiichi Sankyo Inc. “They are a true reflection of the diverse worldwide marketplace we serve, and one of the strongest assets we have in developing new and innovative pharmaceuticals.”

Gaurav Khanna is senior manager of service delivery architecture at Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. He was born in Jaipur, India, grew up in Delhi, and got his BS in manufacturing science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology there.

At Daiichi Sankyo’s U.S. HQ, Khanna’s work on the company’s Web presence helps patients and physicians find information on products and diseases. “I support our mission by helping to create websites ranging from preventive treatment of various diseases to promotional sites for patients and healthcare providers,” Khanna explains. “Both patients and physicians are turning to the Web more and more for information.

“Our platform is based on html and Java-based Web services. We use tools and technologies like search engine optimization and email campaigns to reach targeted audiences,” Khanna says.

Khanna puts together teams ranging from three to twenty pros, based on the complexity of the job. “If a brand manager wants to create a website I find the resources to accomplish it,” he says. “I use different functional resources, including employees and vendors. We use pre-defined processes,” he notes.

Khanna belongs to several professional organizations, including the Web Analytic Association, IT Service Management Association, and the IS Security Professionals group.

After graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1996, Khanna found a job with Information Systems Technology Ltd (Bangalore, India) as a senior systems analyst leading Web development initiatives. Bangalore is the hub of IT in India, so IT professionals are exposed to global cutting-edge technology. “We are on top of all the trends in the U.S. as well as here,” Khanna says. “That awareness was part of what motivated me to come to the U.S.”

He came to New Jersey in 1998 as a consultant. “At first I worked with financial companies,
but New Jersey is the medicine chest of the U.S. and I found an opportunity with Daiichi as a consultant on Web development in 2001,” Khanna explains. He was working for the Savant Consulting Group (Edison, NJ), but Daiichi Sankyo offered him a fulltime job in 2005.

“I was excited to be part of a company with such a unique culture,” he says. “It’s respectful, collaborative and innovative, and this is a close-knit organization. We have 3,000 employees and we’re on a growth track right now. We’re in a good place.”

Responsible for both external and internal websites, Khanna says he’s always challenged to
do more, better. It’s a challenge to be creative within FDA guidelines in the highly regulated environment of pharmaceuticals, he notes. But like most in his industry he finds a deep sense of personal satisfaction helping to create products to improve people’s health.

Through programs set up by the company, Khanna volunteers for book drives and a program that helps low-income kids get ready for school. He likes to travel, reads history and enjoys watching American football. “But right now most of my free time is taken up by my two-year-old,” he reports with a laugh.

Sulemana Abubakar manages ERP and more at GE Healthcare
Sulemana “Abu” Abubakar is global ERP program manager for GE Healthcare’s medical diagnostic (MDx) division. He’s based in Princeton, NJ. He leads ERP global programs, ensuring that MDx has strategic IT systems at all locations in its mature markets. He also makes sure that strategic IT systems are in place to support the business in growth markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Abubakar has five direct reports: four in Princeton and one in the UK.

He grew up in Accra, the capital of Ghana, and studied at the University of Science and Technology (Kumasi, Ghana) for his 1992 BSc; his 1998 MBA is from Imperial College (London, England).

He studied civil engineering, but when he joined the National Westminster Bank in London he was trained in IT. That set him on a new career path.

Ghana’s school systems are much like those in England. English is the official language and, like the U.K., Ghana is a parliamentary democracy, so Abubakar’s transition to British life was smooth. When he left the English bank in 1997 and moved to the U.S. it was a bigger culture shock: “The healthcare system, the economy, even the road networks are all very different,” he says.

He came to the U.S. through Computer People (Edison, NJ), a consulting firm. He worked in the Princeton, NJ office of Amersham Health, first as a consultant, then a direct employee. “The work ethic is stronger here, and I like it. Work hard and you are rewarded. My salary almost doubled in my first year here, and your earnings stretch farther!”

Amersham was acquired by GE in 2004. It became GE Healthcare, headquartered in Amersham, England. In 2004 Abubakar began working in the project management office of
GE Healthcare, and he moved into his current job of global ERP manager in 2007.

Abubakar saw his move to the pharmaceutical industry as an opportunity to expand his IT experience, and he loves living in New Jersey. “I am able to go to New York City or Philadelphia easily, and I can get direct flights to anywhere in the world, including Ghana, where I go at least once a year. It’s the best possible location for me.”

Every two years Abubakar and his family visit Ghana together. His wife is also from Ghana and they have three children: a girl and two boys. “The two-year-old owns the house; the rest of us just rent space there,” he says with a smile.

There are many exciting challenges in Abubakar’s job: great ideas, many tasks to do and too little time to do them. “We have a challenge in Brazil right now: we need a new enterprise system and our document management system needs to be enhanced. In Italy we have to reinforce the IT system. You have to learn to work smarter and delegate. I rely heavily on my colleagues to get things done efficiently,” he says.

In 2004 Abubakar received a “best in class” program manager award at Amersham, and in 2007 he got the GE Healthcare CIO award. Earlier he was named 1998 consultant of the year by Computer People, and he has earned the Project Management Institute’s PgMP (program management professional) designation.

Today he’s in Junior Achievement and works with kids in Trenton, NJ. “I enjoy teaching the kids; it’s very rewarding,” he says.

A few months ago he took his two-year-old for a brief visit to St. Peter’s University Hospital (New Brunswick, NJ). “Everywhere I looked I saw GE equipment,” he says. “I knew we were making a difference in people’s lives.”

Hannah Celino: senior IT manager at Baxter International
Baxter International Inc (Deerfield, IL) develops, manufactures and markets products that save and sustain people with hemophilia, immune disorders, infectious diseases, kidney disease, trauma and other medical conditions. Hannah Celino is a senior manager of IT for the Latin American region, based in Ft Lauderdale, FL. She will soon move to Baxter’s bioscience division.

“I have responsibility for the global helpdesk, data center and networks; basically the IT infrastructure of this division,” she says. Her division includes R&D, clinical trials and blood/autoimmune diseases; plasma-based therapies and vaccines are the biggest areas.

“I ensure that the IT services and systems that drive business decisions are always operational,” she says. In the past she has managed teams of up to thirty people with five direct reports, but in her new position she will be building a new team. “I’m moving from Florida to California. It’s a very dynamic and fun time at Baxter,” she says.

Celino has a 1994 BSCS from the University of Wisconsin. She grew up in the Philippines and was working on an economics degree at the University of the Philippines in Manila when she moved to the U.S. with her family.

Celino started with Baxter as a computer programmer right after graduation. “I have had wonderful opportunities here,” she says. “It’s such a diverse and inclusive atmosphere. What resonates with me is Baxter’s mission to help people with critical illnesses and to develop treatments that save and sustain lives.”

“I wanted to work in a diverse, inclusive environment, and I do. I’ve worked in a lot of different areas here and I’ve had a lot of leadership opportunities.”

Celino is a member of the Junior League and Women in Technology International. In addition to her passion for technology, she loves winemaking. “I’ve shadowed a winemaker in a vineyard, and now that I’m moving to California I’d like to keep on with that, but finding the time to do it may be difficult,” she says.

D/C

Laurel A. McKee Ranger is a freelance business writer headquartered in Randolph, NJ.

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