Meet our leaders at MSD BeLux: Dr. Laurent Viérin, Country Medical Director
March, 10, 2023
We are starting a series of articles in which we would like to introduce you to our leaders at MSD BeLux, to get to know what drives them in their roles, what it’s like to lead at MSD BeLux, and what it’s like being part of a company with such a significant impact on the world.
Medical Affairs colleagues are the face of the company.
Since they interact with the medical community, the Medical Affairs (MA) colleagues are the face of the company, and their scientific expertise helps them in these interactions. Our MA Department only includes professionals with a strong scientific background, often complemented by a Ph.D.
Our MA colleagues are the pre-eminent scientific experts in their therapeutic areas. With the knowledge and expertise they have on our products, the disease, and the broader environment, they stay true to our mission “to communicate and generate medical evidence to help those responsible for healthcare decisions make informed choices that improve access and health outcomes for patients”.
We bring value to the different development phases of our medicines.
The MA department’s main activities span from the clinical development of our molecules to post-approval activities. The team interacts with many internal stakeholders, such as the clinical trial organization colleagues, the regulatory departments, and the pharmacovigilance teams, as well as the market access and commercial groups. The MA team is one of the departments that work most intensively with all other departments in the MSD organization.
Because our focus is on scientifically/medically driven conversations and activities, we interact with all external stakeholders, such as healthcare professionals and other decision-makers for whom science matters, and the in-depth knowledge of our products is important to their decision-making.
“We develop medicines and vaccines that can potentially save and improve the lives of so many people. When thinking about our rich pipeline that addresses all of these unmet needs, I feel a sense of responsibility to bring those innovations to the people that need them. Our goal as a department is to drive and support the progress of our pipeline products towards ultimate access for patients.
Working day after day in collaboration with other motivated colleagues that strive toward that objective is, I must say, very rewarding and gives me a strong sense of pride.”
We will continue the series with more interesting stories from our top leaders. So, stay tuned!