Join Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Associate Medical Director, HAE

Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and with offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and Dublin, Ireland, Ionis has been at work for more than three decades discovering medical breakthroughs that have redefined life for people with serious diseases. We are pioneers in RNA-targeted medicines, and our platform continues to revolutionize drug discovery and transform lives for patients with unmet needs. With five currently marketed medicines for serious diseases and an expansive late-stage pipeline, we continue to build upon our groundbreaking innovations in science and technology to provide greater value to patients; and we are well positioned financially to deliver on our strategic goals.

At Ionis, we pride ourselves on cultivating a challenging, motivating and rewarding environment that fosters innovation and scientific excellence. We know our success is a direct result of the exceptional talent and dedication of our employees.

With an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of human health, we look to add diverse individuals, skill sets and perspectives to our exceptional team. We continue to invest time, money, and energy into making our onsite and remote work environments a place where solid and lasting relationships are built and where our culture and employees can thrive.

We are building on our rich history, and believe our greatest achievements are ahead of us. We invite you to apply and join us if you’re passionate about the opportunity to have meaningful impact on patients in need, our employees, and our organization. Experience and contribute to our unique culture while you develop and expand your career!

Position Overview

Associate Medical Director, HAE

Ionis has played a pivotal role in developing products such as SPINRAZA, TEGSEDI, WAYLIVRA, QALSODY, and WAINUA, which are already approved in major markets around the world and successfully marketed by its partners. The company is currently building up its medical and commercial organizations to allow for commercialization of its wholly owned assets.

Ionis has a premier late-stage pipeline highlighted by its industry-leading neurological and cardiometabolic franchises. Based on the breadth and remarkable progress of the pipeline, Ionis is projecting to have a vast number of new transformational products on the market in the coming years. Ionis is also well positioned financially to commercialize its own clinical product pipeline of potential first-in-class and/or best-in-class medicines.

One of our late-stage assets is donidalorsen, formerly known as IONIS-PKK-LRx. It is an investigational ligand-conjugated antisense (LICA) medicine designed to target the prekallikrein (PKK) pathway for the treatment of people with hereditary angioedema (HAE). HAE is a rare genetic disease that is characterized by severe and potentially fatal swelling of the arms, legs, face and throat. PKK plays an important role in the activation of inflammatory mediators associated with acute attacks of HAE. By inhibiting the production of PKK, donidalorsen could be an effective prophylactic approach to preventing HAE attacks.

Summary

The Associate Medical Director is a member of the Specialty Rare Medical Affairs Team, reporting to the Medical Affairs Therapy Area (TA) Lead for Specialty Rare. The Associate Director will support the achievement of our scientific and medical strategies for donidalorsen in hereditary angioedema (HAE), serving as part of the Core Medical Team as we build towards the launch of these assets. Key responsibilities include:

• Supporting the TA Medical Lead with development and execution of medical launch plans.
• Supporting the medical director prepare for advisory boards/insight generation.
• Supporting the field medical lead in planning engagement of KOLs at congresses.
• Recommending and helping create required resources for the Field Medical Team.
• Working cross-functionally and helping execute medical plans across clinical and medical functions with a particular emphasis on helping ensure the development and review of Medical Information materials.

The candidate will have a solid clinical, scientific, and pharmaceutical industry background as well as a deep understanding of Medical Affairs and Marketing/Commercial principles, guidelines, and industry standards.

Responsibilities

• Create training materials for the Field Medical Team aligned with medical strategy by working with the FMT lead, Training coordinator, and Medical Director/TA Lead.
• Partner with the TA Medical Lead to support execution of medical launch plan tactics.
• Engage with key opinion leaders and participate in relevant congresses and help support congress planning with Field Medical.
• Serve as a medical HAE and donidalorsen expert and be a member of the donidalorsen extended brand team and other cross-functional teams as appropriate.
• Review and share input on scientific narratives as additional product data becomes available.
• Review and share input on evidence generation plans and provide input to ongoing studies, as appropriate.
• Participate and share input to enable the development and execution of the medical plan.
• Help with the strategy and creation of congress symposia.
• Work with the medical director/TA lead, clinical and commercial to support advisory board planning and execution.
• Maintain strong scientific knowledge of the hereditary angioedema market from both a scientific perspective as well as from the perspective of the current and future competitive landscape.
• Help with vendor management as appropriate for the various projects to support the brand.
• Provide medical insights and guidance for product strategies, help support medical review (PRC, MMRC, Med Info), competitive intelligence, and health outcomes.
• Work closely with Medical Affairs colleagues to ensure appropriate budget setting, resource allocation, and expense monitoring.
• Ensure compliance of all Medical Affairs activities with all local regulatory and legal requirements.

Requirements

The successful candidate must be an energetic individual with strong interpersonal skills. The person who will be successful in this role will have the ability to work with a diverse set of individuals across different functions and organizations. The person will be expected to add value to the different teams by bringing forward experience in medical affairs complemented by an understanding of the complexity of hereditary angioedema and other specialty/rare markets, drug development, commercialization, launch, and lifecycle management. The person in this role must be a self-motivated, approachable, articulate team player who has a high level of emotional intelligence, integrity, and a core value system consistent with the Ionis culture and core principles.

• Medical degree, or doctorate degree required.
• Experience in rare disease highly desirable.
• Experience developing and executing medical affairs strategies and plans.
• Established track record in the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of Medical Affairs roles with 5 years or more of experience in the industry.
• Experience working in the US market, and global experience a plus.
• Experience supporting product launches.
• Strong organizational skills, delivering on commitments in a timely manner, while maintaining a strong customer focus.
• Entrepreneurial thinking, self-starter with positive can-do attitude.
• Demonstrated ability to successfully communicate scientific results and effectively respond to data queries from customers and/or consultants.
• Ability to handle ambiguity and uncertainty, make appropriate prioritization decisions aligned with strategy, and drive projects to completion.
• Excellent judgment and willingness to take prudent risks.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills.

This person may work at our headquarters in Carlsbad, CA or satellite office in Boston, MA. Fully remote work may be an option. If remote, up to 30% travel to HQ and Congresses is required.

Benefits To This Opportunity

Ionis has a collaborative, motivating, and rewarding work environment designed to foster innovation and scientific excellence. The company’s success is a direct result of its outstanding employees. Ionis is interested in bringing together individuals with different skill sets into this creative environment to be part of a productive team. Join the team and experience this unique culture while you develop and expand your career.

• Opportunity to work within antisense technology in the company that created new biotechnology industry sector focused on RNA-targeted therapeutics.
• Ionis is at an incredible time of growth – highly visible and demanding role as the company builds its commercial capabilities accelerating the next phase of growth; opportunity to join a very smart team that is key to the future of the business.
• Ionis is a small and innovation-focused organization with a prolonged cycle of productivity and success, well positioned for accelerated growth and to build commercial capabilities.
• Very entrepreneurial in nature, with a good balance of being small and nimble; well-capitalized to invest in core capabilities and beyond.
• Close partner exposure to senior executives offering a lot of experience with launches and partnering with medical affairs.

Please visit our website, http://www.ionis.com for more information about Ionis and to apply for this position; reference requisition #IONIS003551.

Ionis offers an excellent benefits package! Follow this link for more details: Ionis Benefits

The pay scale for this position is $170,020 to $223,000.

NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. PRINCIPALS ONLY.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and all its subsidiaries are proud to be EEO employers.