Head Medical Affairs

Overview

The Head of Medical Affairs, Canada has direct responsibility for the Canadian Medical Affairs organization, comprising 14 Affiliate Medical Affairs team members. The role provides leadership for the Medical Affairs function regionally and globally through membership of the regional MA leadership team, contributing to the creation and execution of the MA Canada organizational goals.

• Oversee MA headcount, budgets, and all MA activities.
• All MA activities, including but not limited to:
  • Input into the creation of Medical Strategies
  • Design and execution of MA-sponsored studies
  • Oversight and management of Investigator Sponsored Research
  • Trainings
  • Development of scientific content for local activities
  • Review of promotional materials
  • Interaction with local HTA, HA, and External Experts
  • Medical Information
• Strategic Planning & Prioritization:
  • As core member of Evidence Dissemination Value team, contributes and leads on applicable portion of the integrated Evidence Dissemination Plan for applicable product following Agile principles.
  • Collaborates and aligns on integrated Evidence Dissemination Plan with relevant internal stakeholders.
  • Engages with internal stakeholders to understand content and format needs and feedback on existing content.
  • Actively keeps up with industry innovation and evolution of HCPs/customer content and channel needs and preferences.
  • Oversees project progression and timelines in collaboration with internal Scientific Content Creators or external vendors (budget and vendor management).
• Scientific Content Ownership:
  • Leads on scientific narrative, messaging, and storytelling; delivers on frameworks like Scientific Communication Platform, Omnichannel Engagement Framework.
  • Leads on creation and delivery of global omnichannel customer journey templates, to be adapted and deployed locally.
  • Drives and owns creation and delivery of MA Veeva Approved Emails and short form educational content (infographics, animations) used by Local Brand Teams.
  • Delivery of internal product and therapeutic area training content reused by Local Brand Teams for HCP-to-HCP medical education.
  • Drives tailoring and re-use of scientific content to meet customer needs and channels.
• Scientific Content Governance:
  • Accountable for review/approval process in compliance with Astellas SOPs for content owned by this role.
  • Reviews content for scientific accuracy, high quality, fair & balanced, non‑promotional intent and perception.
  • Oversees addressing of comments/feedback by reviewers and resolves escalated complex or conflicting feedback.
• Outcome/Impact Measurements:
  • Ensure collection and assessment of evidence dissemination outcome/impact metrics and contribute to evidence dissemination value narrative for the applicable brand.
  • Assess content performance metrics and optimize content accordingly.
• Leadership:
  • Mentor Medical Engagement Content Leads (I) through preceptorship model and enable capability development.

• Doctoral degree (MD, PhD, or PharmD).

• Medically qualified.
• Fluent in English, spoken and written.
• At least 10 years’ experience in the Pharma industry in different MA roles, preferably including Affiliate Medical Affairs Head.
• Strong understanding and ability to comply with industry laws and regulations.
• Strong expertise in the medical sciences, clinical development, medical program design including experience in designing, executing and reporting of clinical trials.
• Experience in managing large Medical Affairs budgets with demonstrated ability to apply proactive risk management on budget and timelines.
• Proven leadership capability in aligning medical strategies with corporate goals and providing critical business‑shaping insights.
• Strong understanding of Market Access issues and HTA environment in Canada.
• Experience in managing large multicultural teams. Championing matrix management.
• Highly developed understanding of the external marketplace to identify long‑term benefit for unmet customer, payer and patient needs.
• Outstanding interpersonal and networking skills.

This position is based in Toronto. Astellas offers a hybrid working solution allowing time in the office and flexibility to work from home to optimize productivity.

$188,748 – $269,640 CAD annually (Canada only). The final compensation will be determined based on proficiency levels and other factors.

• Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance
• Generous Paid Time Off including Vacation, Sick time and national holidays
• Registered Retirement Savings Plan Program (RRSP)
• Company‑paid life insurance
• Annual Corporate Bonus and Quarterly Sales Incentive for eligible positions
• Long‑Term Incentive Plan for eligible positions
• Wellness programs

Astellas is committed to equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment. EOE including Disability/Protected Veterans.