Director, Above Brand Strategy

As the Director of Above Brand Strategy, you will be responsible forleading in the identification and analysis of policy changes affecting drug reimbursement and access in order to developbrand and business unit strategies. This role will have primary responsibility for helping to lead AstraZeneca’s oncology policy and business strategy involving the latest policy changes impacting oncology care, including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). This will include specific emphasis on assessing policies from the federal government and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), various state policy elements affecting the oncology business, and other policy proposals affecting the pharmaceutical industry. This role will focus on oncology but will also provide opportunity to engage across the AstraZeneca enterprise, including with the Biopharmaceutical Business Unit, Rare Diseases Business Unit, Market Access team, Global teams, and others.

In this role, you’ll play a pivotal role in channeling our scientific advances and helping drive policystrategies to make a positive impact on improving patients’ lives. You will be able to deliver AstraZeneca’s cutting-edge science and commercial capabilities through critical institutional intermediaries to enable healthcare practitioners to make informed patient care decisions.

The Director of AboveBrand Strategy will be part of AstraZeneca’s US Oncology Market Access Strategy team, providing brand and above-brand strategy and oncology policy analysis. This includes identifying and understanding policies specific to drugs but also broader policy changes that relate to oncology care, such as precision medicine and provider services. This Access Strategy role is responsible for overseeing and implementing strategies that work across many functions to ensureappropriate patient access to AZ oncology products.

Typical Accountabilities

• Lead the development of policy strategies, brand tactics,and positions based on AZ above-brand and brand initiatives in conjunction with cross-functional team and leadership input

• Lead the identificationof oncology-relevant policy issues, analysis of proposals, and provide strategic recommendations to US Oncology business teams and leadership on federal and state policy issues, including analysis of the implications and impact of legislative and regulatory policies. Includes topics involving reimbursement of drugs and services across various settings of care, precision medicine issues involving biomarker testing, cancer screening, and other issues affecting the healthcare system

• Lead and direct primary research on policy-related issues and the implications of policy proposals for all oncology stakeholders and AZ brands

• Independently develop policy strategies aligned with Brand-specific and above-Brand objectives and lead strategic cross-functional workstreams 

• Independently create and communicate policy issues to internal and external  teams

• Incorporate evidence and data-driven materials in policy deliverables to support AZ strategies and engagements

• Independently lead policy projects and manage multiple workstreams across an array of oncology policy priorities, including leading internal cross-functional teams

• Independently create, prioritize and oversee US Policy deliverables, including timeline milestone management across multiple simultaneous projects, while also guiding team members  throughout process

• Independently prepare and lead engagements with external policy stakeholders 

• Oversee overall Policy budget and guide team through review, comments and recommendations across all workstreams

• Provide strategic direction to AZ team members, policy team members, cross-functional colleagues, and external stakeholders on policy issues as representative of the AZ oncology business

• Works closely with US Policy and Access Strategy to develop internal analysis, education, and generate materials on relevant health policy topics

• Manage budgets associated with oncology policy workstreams

• Engages Marketing, Access Strategy, Market Access, Oncology Field Teams, Medical Affairs, and Corporate Affairs to determineAZ strategy withoncology societies

Essential Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degreerequired; MPH, MPP, MBA, JD, or other related graduate education preferred

• 6+ years pharma and/or other healthcare related experience specifically in on Health Policy, Government Affairs, Market Access,healthcare consulting, government service, provider/payer/patient organizations, or Access Strategy for healthcare services

• Demonstrated experience (2+ years) in analyzingpolicies, including experience with federal regulations such as rules, guidance documents, and other regulations from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and/or legislation or other statutory language from Congress

• Demonstrated ability to set strategies at both individual brand and organizational levels

• Demonstrated ability to analyze policies and translate information to the business, including determining brand, business, and stakeholder (i.e., payer, provider, channel customer, and patient)implications in both qualitative and quantitative terms

• Demonstrated understanding of drug pricing and reimbursement issues, including varying sources of insurance (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, commercial), drug supply chain and intermediaries (e.g., GPOs, PBMs), healthcare providers (e.g., varying settings of care and practice types; 340B entities), and drug pricing concepts (e.g., WAC, ASP, best price)

• Demonstrated ability to engage and coordinate cross-functional team partners across multiple disciplines and skill sets, teams, and business units to deliver and execute business strategies 

• Experience in translating policy and business implications to inform business financial forecast models 

• Understanding of federal policy and legislative processes

• Demonstrated leadership, project management ability and ability to operate independently without direction

• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with and influence peers and management

• Demonstrated communication and platform skills (i.e., Excel, PowerPoint, and Word), including ability to create deliverables independently 

• Ability to effectively communicate complex topics to a variety of audiences

• Demonstrated strategic planning capabilities

• Budget management experience

Desirable Qualifications

• Prior Oncology experience a plus

• Prior experience in a life sciences companycommercial function a plus

• Prior health policy experience working for a life sciences company, provider organization, or health plan a plus

Key Organizational Partnerships

• Access Strategy

• Marketing

• Sales

• National Oncology Account Team

• Oncology Field Teams

• Medical Affairs

• Corporate Affairs

• Diagnostics

• Field Reimbursement

• Nurse Educators

• Global Teams
  
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