Global Safety Officer, Oncology

Job Description

At Astellas, we strive to become a cutting-edge, value-driven life science innovator. This means working at the forefront of healthcare change to turn innovative science into VALUE for patients.

What sets us apart is our focus on patients, our pioneering innovation, our collaborative culture, and the passion of our talented people.

Making a positive impact on patients’ lives is the purpose behind everything we do. At Astellas, we are relentless in our pursuit of scientific progress and in tackling unmet medical needs, demonstrated by our legacy in oncology, overactive bladder and transplant and our impressive pipeline in women's health, blindness and regeneration, genetic regulation, immuno-oncology, mitochondria and targeted protein degradation.

About Us:

We are a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan, with a team of more than 14,000 managing operations in approximately 70 countries around the world. We are in the Top 30 global biopharma company based on global revenues and are predicted to be one of the Top 10 Cancer Drug Makers of 2024 by Fierce Pharma.

In Canada, we are growing to meet the exciting opportunities realized by our legacy brands and rich pipeline of innovative treatments.

We are looking for candidates who will thrive in our entrepreneurial and empowering environment where talent and leadership flourish. Do your values align with our Astellas Way - patient focus, ownership, results, openness and integrity? Then we would love to hear from you.

From the first day in role, everyone at Astellas has a responsibility for creating a brighter future for patients around the world. We nurture exceptional relationships with our employees to allow them to thrive, foster innovation, and deliver exceptional business results. We work to create a culture where our people feel empowered to pursue brave ideas and ambitious outcomes, to have the confidence to be accountable for a higher standard of performance and embody a competitive and solutions-oriented mindset.

Our expertise, science and technology make us a pharma company. Our open and diverse culture is what makes us uniquely Astellas.

Purpose and Scope
Global Safety Officer is accountable for proactive safety surveillance of Astellas drug products, both those in development and marketed products, including leading PV Product Responsible Teams as a pharmacovigilance specialist, ensuring the medical safety for the assigned compounds or products, contributing to an optimal benefit/risk profile and responsible for the design and successful implementation of signal management and risk management strategies for assigned products.

Essential Job Duties

• Leads PV Product Responsible Teams for assigned products, co-chairs Global Development Safety Management Teams, and participates in Global Development Core Teams and Global Medical Affairs Core Medical Teams as the pharmacovigilance specialist, ensuring the medical safety of products for the assigned Global TA and contributing to an optimal benefit-risk profile.
• Responsible and accountable for the timely identification and communication of emerging safety issues and safety updates of the Company Core Data Sheet, Investigator’s Brochure and local product labeling. This also includes responsibility for effective and regular communication with the Global TA Group Lead and with the applicable QPPV.
• Responsible and accountable for the design of safety surveillance strategies, management of safety signals for Astellas drug products, both those in development and marketed products, for the collection and identification of safety signals using safety data for signal surveillance activities, categorization and prioritization of safety signals and for authoring, medical review and, as appropriate, approval of safety evaluation reports (SERs), working closely with Safety Science.
• Responsible and accountable for the risk management of assigned Astellas drug products, both those in development and marketed products, the development and submission of the Risk Management Plan (RMP) and for the execution of risk management strategies in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, working closely with Safety Science.
• Responsible and accountable for timely and high-quality contribution to periodic and ad hoc (e.g. Health authority requests) safety reports for assigned products in terms of authoring and review of medical sections, the overall medical-scientific analyses and conclusions.
• Responsible and accountable for the ongoing monitoring and assessment of the safety profile of assigned Astellas developmental and marketed products as a member of study teams and for representing PV in the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of Phase 1 – Phase 3 clinical trials and Post-Authorization Studies.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced professional degree in scientific, health-related field (e.g. PharmD or PhD) strongly preferred (pharmaceutical industry experience in a relevant therapeutic area preferred);
• Minimum of at least 6 years of experience with M.D., D.O., PhD, or PharmD degree, and at least 8 years of experience with bachelor’s or master’s degree, in the pharmaceutical industry and/or a relevant health science setting (such as academia). Direct exposure to pharmacovigilance functions, additional regulatory and/or clinical development experience is a plus.
• In-depth understanding of safety regulations for both marketed and investigational products, and excellent knowledge of regional and global authority requirements, including ICH, and other applicable requirements, able to influence decisions relating to patient safety and assessment of benefit-risk.

Preferred Qualifications

• M.D. strongly preferred (board certification in medical specialty or pharmaceutical industry experience in a therapeutic area preferred).

Additional Information

Astellas Pharma Canada welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the hiring process.

Astellas Pharma Canada requires full Vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition of employment. Reasonable accommodation to this policy may be granted for a valid accommodation request under human rights legislation.

No telephone inquiries, in-person applications, or agencies please. While we appreciate all applications, only candidates under consideration will be contacted.