Medical Director

Clinical --> Drug Safety

Nearly 37 million Americans are currently affected by Chronic Kidney Disease. 37 million.

At Akebia we take that number very seriously and every day we come to work, with the purpose of bettering the lives of each person impacted by kidney disease and the renal community that serves them.
Our tenacious, passionate employees' challenge the status quo and work to develop unique therapeutics that have the potential to set new standards of care for people living with kidney disease.

This is life-changing work, and we are all in, are you?

The Medical Director is responsible for safety strategy and major safety deliverables to support developmental and/or marketed programs, including both early and late-stage development, as assigned. He/she is accountable for safety and risk management activities and will manage cross-functional assessment of benefit-risk profile and communication of safety information. The individual will be an integral part of a group of safety staff and other professionals within Akebia and will closely collaborate with safety teams in Contract Research Organizations (CROs) and partners. He/she will need to maintain medical knowledge as required by the role, strong and current knowledge of drug safety and pharmacovigilance regulations, pharmacovigilance practices, safety surveillance and risk-management practices.

Essential Functions and Duties

• Analyzes, reviews, and interprets clinical and post-marketing safety data
• Lead, oversee and perform medical review of ICSRs, and other drug safety information from various sources
• In collaboration with other functions, conducts signaling and safety surveillance process, including the identification, prompt assessment of safety observations, emergent safety concerns and new safety signals, and communication of confirmed safety signals
• Contributes and delivers key messages to the aggregate safety reports including development safety update reports, periodic benefit risk evaluation reports, and provide medical input and be able to author new or existing safety documents to ensure compliance with relevant regulatory requirements
• Provides medical safety expertise and strategy to author and review appropriate sections for critical documents (e.g., protocols and amendments, ICFs, IBs, CCSI and other labeling documents, IMPDs, clinical research reports, Health Hazard Evaluations, Signal Evaluation Reports, RSI, PASS, RMPs, REMS, RTDs, PASS, INDs, NDAs, BLAs, and CTAs)
• Provides medical safety and Pharmacovigilance expertise in-house and by consultation with outside vendors for all development programs
• Contributes to the development of Standard Operating Procedures, Working Instructions, and other guidance documents
• Contributes to safety and pharmacovigilance training programs
• May provide safety training to internal staff and at investigator meetings
• Collaborates with Regulatory Affairs to ensure appropriate reporting of pharmacovigilance and drug safety information to regulatory agencies and prescriber community
• Serves as a subject matter expert for vendors providing drug safety and pharmacovigilance services
• Training and mentoring of Pharmacovigilance Physicians and Safety Scientists
• Demonstrates knowledge and ensure compliance with current and applicable global PV regulations and guidelines (e.g., CIOMS, FDA, PMDA, EMA, ICH, etc.)

Basic Qualifications:

• 6+ years' experience in Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance in pharmaceutical or biotech company, CRO or regulatory agency within Drug Safety/Pharmacovigilance, with both investigational and marketed products.
• Medical Doctor (MD) or internationally recognized equivalent MD

Preferred Qualifications:

• Good working knowledge of US and EU drug safety regulations, CIOMS and ICH guidelines
• Proficiency with medical review of ICSRs, including coding and use of SMQs, expectedness assessments, causality assessments, narrative review and generation of Analysis of Similar Event and company comment statements
• At least 3 years of experience with authoring and reviewing aggregate reporting, safety surveillance, signal management and/or risk management.
• Experience with safety data collection and interpretation originating from clinical trials and other sources (such as literature, solicited and post marketing environment)
• Ability to build relationships, collaborate and influence across disciplines within Akebia and with outside stakeholders
• Managerial experience with excellent verbal, written and presentation skills
• Innovative, collaborative, initiative-taker

Compensation:

Targeted Base: 249,849 - 308,637*

*Base Compensation for this role will depend on a number of factors including a candidate's qualifications, skills, competencies, and experience, and may fall outside of the range shown. Base pay is only one component of the company's total rewards package, all regular employees are also eligible for the corporate bonus program or the incentive compensation program (if applicable), as well as equity. Additional benefits include health care, vision, dental, retirement, PTO, etc.

Are you an Akebian?

An Akebian is curious, empathetic, and values making connections to people and ideas. Akebian's aren't afraid of diving in and owning a process or a problem, because we all want to deliver a great solution. Akebian's believe that we are better together because we are all working toward a common purpose - to better the life of each person impacted by kidney disease. Want to learn more about what it means to be an Akebian? Visit our website: www.akebia.com

Akebia is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all job applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law.