Life Science Breakfast:

"Removing Reimbursement Barriers and Improving Access to Create a Competitive Advantage"

Tuesday, May 13th
 7:30 am - 9:30 am at Swissnex

730 Montgomery Street, San Francisco - Directions
Click here to register
 

Today’s healthcare environment is moving rapidly toward greater costs control, making it more and more challenging to bring new therapies to market. Even the most promising pharmaceutical products or medical devices are costly to launch and market, due to the high pricing models used to maximize return on investment and fund future discoveries.
 At the same time, payers’ reimbursement policies have grown more stringent, creating hurdles for manufacturers, distributors, and specialty pharmacies, as well as providers and patients.
 Our speakers will share their experience on the reimbursement environment, issues and latest trends as well as help us better understand how to build value through innovative access & reimbursement strategies and services.
 

Breakfast will be served

Swissnex connects the dots in science, education, art and innovation,
between Switzerland and Western North America

Speakers:

Susanne Machacz, Senior Director, XCenda
Vikrant Karnik, VP LS Capgemini
Bruce Quinn, MD, PhD, Senior Health Policy Specialist, Foley Hoag LLP

Susanne F. Machacz
Susanne, M.P.H., Senior Director, Xcenda, leads the Reimbursement Strategy and Commercialization service line, a specialized group dedicated to conducting payer policy research, strategic reimbursement planning, and payer advocacy efforts to address commercialization challenges and opportunities for pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device products.
She has developed pre-launch and post-launch reimbursement plans for various therapeutic areas including transplant, HIV/AIDS, oncology, diabetes, and obesity.  Ms. Machacz has extensive experience addressing coverage and payment issues for public and private payers, and she advises clients on comprehensive reimbursement strategies and tactical implementation, from product planning and market assessment to product launch and ongoing policy development.
Before joining Xcenda, she held positions at a large pharmaceutical company and a health care consulting firm, managing reimbursement and health policy strategy projects.  Before her work in pharmaceutical reimbursement, Ms. Machacz was a policy analyst at the Massachusetts Division of Healthcare Finance and Policy.  Her responsibilities included developing health care pricing policies, methodologies, and rates related to long-term care services for Medicaid recipients.  She is a member of the American Public Health Association.  Ms. Machacz received an M.P.H. from Boston University and a B.A. from The University of Pennsylvania.

Vikrant Karnik
Vikrant Karnik (VK) is Vice President, Capgemini’s Global Life Sciences sector. He leads Capgemini activities for the West Coast in the Life Sciences arena, overseeing and developing the portfolio of Life Sciences accounts in this region.
Over his 15+ years consulting career, VK successfully engaged with key executives and delivered numerous programs in the fields of marketing and commercial operations, supply chain, research and development, global regulatory compliance and business and IT process outsourcing for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical devices companies.
In particular, VK has been assisting large biotech companies and growing subsidiaries of the Bay area in developing and enhancing their reimbursement and patient access strategies and programs, as well as guiding them through the implementation of innovative technology solutions to support their activities.
Vikrant has completed his Masters of Science from University of Texas at Austin and has a Bachelors degree in Engineering from University of Bombay, India.

Bruce Quinn
Dr. Quinn is a national leader in the areas of Medicare coverage and payment, claims, billing, and Medicare contractor reform processes. He is currently Senior Health Policy Specialist at Foley Hoag, Government Strategies Practice, where he is advising companies, providers and venture capital investors to develop and implement successful strategies on Medicare coverage and payment matters for new technologies, with a particular focus on emerging field of molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine, as well as Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) reform and its effect on payment policy.
For about five years, Dr. Quinn was the Medicare Part B Program Medical Director for California. Prior to this, he practiced in the Health & Life Sciences division of Accenture and was a physician-scientist at Northwestern University School of Medicine, leading pathology research for Northwestern’s NIH-funded Alzheimer Research Center. He also held academic positions at New York University School of Medicine and UCLA Center for Health Sciences.
Dr. Quinn is licensed to practice medicine in California, New York and Illinois. He is a board Certified medical specialist in Anatomic Pathology/Neuropathology. He holds the degrees of M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford University, undertook postdoctoral training at M.I.T., and completed his MBA at the Kellogg Graduate School of Northwestern University.

Registrations are now closed
 

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