Senior Director, Market Access, Account Management

Role Summary

Axsome Therapeutics is seeking a Senior Director of Account Management who will report to the Executive Director of Account Management. This role will work cross-functionally with Commercial leadership (Sales, Marketing, Operations), Medical and HEOR leadership, as well as Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance to align resources and strategic initiatives, ensuring patient and provider access to Axsome. The position will regularly interact with Axsome’s Executive Leadership Team.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of Account Directors responsible for:
  • Developing and maintaining strong relationships at national and regional payer accounts within the Commercial, Medicare, Medicaid channels
  • Understanding and influencing multiple payer stakeholders
  • Developing and executing account-specific strategies for national and regional payers
  • Communicating Axsome’s portfolio, corporate, and product value propositions to the payer community
  • Educating payers as they make formulary access decisions, including education on the value Axsome’s products provide payers and patients and our competitive position
  • Negotiating and securing payer coverage that balances patient access with company Net Sales goals
• Recruit, develop, and assess field talent
• Engage internal parties to optimize idea generation and action plans to implement strategic initiatives
• Collaborate with other Market Access functions, Field Access Teams, Commercial, Medical, Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance to operationalize overall market access strategy
• Function as a member of the Market Access Leadership Team and provide management insights to optimize the function’s long-term mission
• Collaborate with Pricing & Contracting to design, develop, and implement optimal contracting strategies and payer coverage, with ongoing assessment of strategy suitability
• Implement tools and tactics to support Market Access strategies for use with third party payers
• Maintain effective, collaborative relationships with external partners (consultants, data analytics vendors) and internal departments (Marketing, Sales, Analytics, Training, Medical, Regulatory, Legal, and Compliance)
• Collaborate with Sales Leadership to gather feedback on market dynamics, field needs, and the effectiveness of push and pull-through tactics
• Ensure the function operates in a fiscally sound manner in accordance with Axsome objectives

Qualifications

• Required: 15+ years of related experience in the pharmaceutical, medical device, or biotech industry
• Required: At least 3 years of direct experience managing and developing teams
• Required: Ability to travel up to 70%
• Required: Demonstrated effective Payer Account (field) team leadership with comparable types of payers
• Experience and Knowledge:
  • Negotiation experience, preferably in competitive primary care therapeutic areas
  • Prior experience in longer-term execution (including complex multi-year contract and program management)
  • Experience managing projects and vendors
  • In-depth knowledge of the payer marketplace, payer practices, and the legal and regulatory landscape pertinent to the industry
  • Demonstrated effective leadership in pre-launch, early, mid, and long-range/full life cycle market access strategy formulation and execution
  • Strong understanding of the payer landscape and how payer decision making impacts providers and their patients
  • A problem-solving mindset with a lean-forward approach and ability to think critically
  • Ability to influence internal and external stakeholders
  • Excellent oral, written and presentation skills with ability to use numbers and data to tell a story, influence decision makers, and explain complex concepts clearly to a variety of audiences
  • Prior experience with budget development and control
  • Ability to translate the organization’s strategy into action by the team and build resilience into their team and so they are adaptive to changing and/or challenging market conditions
  • Previous product launch experience, preferably in the CNS space
  • Familiarity with current legal and regulatory landscape pertinent to the payer market
  • Strong communication and collaboration skills with the ability to effectively present ideas and influence others to achieve desired results and to drive consensus
  • Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with high expectations and accountability for the quality and timing of deliverables to meet company goals

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or MHA preferred