Lead, Market Access & Government Affairs, Oncology, Temporary Contract

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Tik Tok.

Joining AbbVie means you will be part of a team of outstanding professionals dedicated to making a remarkable impact on patients' lives. At AbbVie, we conduct ground-breaking science on a global scale every day. AbbVie Canada is one of the Best Workplaces in Canada.

When choosing your career path, choose to be remarkable.

AbbVie’s mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people’s lives across several key therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, neuroscience, vision care, virology, women’s health , and gastroenterology, in addition to products and services across its Allergan Aesthetics portfolio.

We have an opportunity for Lead, Market Access & Government Affairs in Oncology to join our Market Access and Government Affairs team. In this role, you will be responsible for overseeing public payer reimbursement of AbbVie products in Oncology as well as supporting the government affairs / regional policy initiatives for all the provinces in Canada.               

The incumbent will report to the Oncology Head, Market Access and HEOR.   

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage all public payer and policy related issues through direct staff of Field Managers, Market Access and Government Affairs (West, Central and East Canada)
• Oversee all AbbVie provincial payer reimbursement files. Support the development and implementation of annual plan for all public payer customer plans in Canada.
• Oversee all provinces healthcare payer policy & reimbursement files.
• Support the negotiation team to develop strong negotiation skills and ability to effectively navigate the pCPA environment and manage complex Product Listing Agreements with public payers for assets.
• Oversee all AbbVie Government Affairs/policymaker interactions: to develop and execute AbbVie’s regional health policy strategies and tactical plans. Support the  Gov’t Affairs and Policy Manager in Oncology in the development and implementation of annual Gov’t Affairs plan in Oncology.
• Identify health policy barriers and ensure optimal policy conditions and reimbursement for current and future AbbVie products.
• Assess ongoing health policy challenges and opportunities as environmental dynamics change, and ensure any potential impacts are communicated to the Oncology Head, Market Access and HEOR.
• Play an active role with trade association committees when relevant (such as Innovative Medicines Canada, BIOTECanada, regional biotech associations, etc).
• Identify and shape regional MA/GA multi-stakeholder projects that are of interest to policy makers / public payers and that position AbbVie as a trusted and expert stakeholder in Oncology.

• Build strong and long-lasting relationships with high level Government officials (including Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Premier’s office) and other healthcare policy makers and influencers.
• With the guidance of the Oncology Head, Market Access and HEOR, translate brand strategies into actionable and realistic engagement plans to ensure a supportive regional policy environment for AbbVie assets.
• Influence the development of provincial legislation and policy, leveraging customized value propositions with policy makers, where appropriate.
• Monitor performance of team and adapt plans to external and internal changes.
• Manage Field Market Access and Gov’t Affairs budgets.

Education / Experience Required:

• University degree in Sciences, Pharmacy or Business; graduate degree required.
• M.B.A. preferred.
• The ideal candidate should have a minimum of 10 years of experience in a similar position, with market access and government affairs expertise in the Canadian pharmaceutical industry, including previous experience directly dealing with private payers, provincial payers, and government stakeholders. Previous success in payer negotiations required.  Previous success influencing legislation and policy ideal.
• Previous experience leading high performing teams including recruiting strong candidates, performance management and driving career development.
• Additional commercial/ business background including knowledge of health economic principles strongly preferred.
• Government Affairs experience (either provincial or federal), with previous involvement and success in influencing the development of legislation and policy.
• Policy analysis experience and ability to support position papers and expeditiously respond in writing to proposed legislation and new health policies.
• In-depth knowledge of Canadian health care system: including role of CDA-INESSS and Provincial Governments drug approval processes and pCPA.
• Relationship building experience with regional healthcare policymakers, government officials, stakeholders and influencers in Oncology.
• Ideally, high level public payer and policy makers relationship experience in oncology. ( Ex: Cancer Care Agency).

Essential skills & abilities:

• Oversee, coach and mentor team to develop strong relationships with high level government (including Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Premiers’ offices), public healthcare policy makers/influences, private payer stakeholders (insurers, benefits consultants, large plan sponsors).
• Oversee, coach and mentor team to develop strong negotiations skill while ensuring financial sustainability and navigate complex and evolving healthcare environment.
• Ability to distil complex information into clear story-telling in executive-level presentations.
• Proven ability to work within a cross-functional team and within a large organization.
• Ability to adapt to evolving customer needs/demands within a changing environment.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and capacity to manage conflict constructively.
• Knowledge of financial concepts including price-volume trade-offs, NPV analyses and internal financial planning processes.
• Proficiency with MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) as well as Outlook.
• Solid understanding of public and private drug reimbursement in Canada.
• Knowledge of the healthcare landscape, including local /provincial payer and private healthcare environment and healthcare funding budget flows.
• Knowledge of the needs and agendas of policy makers, MPs, government officials, public and private payers and influencers.
• Knowledge of Pharmaco-economic principles.

Key Leadership Competencies:

• Knowledge of Brand Team / cross function dynamics:  Proactive attitude applied with solid interpersonal skills.
• Drive the execution of the strategic plan around the strategy.
• Work in a high-performing matrix organization.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills and team player.
• Proven agile and ability to work in a fast-paced environment with multiple priorities that require strong decision-making capabilities.
• Strategic thinking, analytical skills.
• Effective presentation, written and oral communication skills.

AbbVie strives to provide a French working environment for its employees in Quebec. Although as part of its francization program has taken all reasonable steps to avoid imposing the following requirement, advanced amount of knowledge of English / Fluency in English is an essential requirement for the position of Lead MA & Government Affairs including, but not limited to, for the following reasons:

1. English speaking employees outside the province of Quebec.
2. English speaking clients outside the province of Quebec.
3. Anglophone region outside the province of Quebec.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and encourages women, Aboriginal people, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities to apply.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives, serving our community and embracing diversity and inclusion.  It is AbbVie’s policy to employ qualified persons of the greatest ability without discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected group status.

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