In this latest instalment of our ‘Meet the maker’ series, we talk with Wendy Dwyer who was recently appointed as chief business officer of Portal Instruments — a Series B funded, clinical stage medical device company focused on advanced drug delivery.
Meet the maker
1. Could you briefly describe yourself?
I am from the Boston area and have been working in Pharma Business Development for ~20 years. I enjoy spending time with my family (2 children, husband and a dog), love the outdoors and sports. I have played soccer competitively since age 7 and still play today. I love travelling with my family and watching my children learn and grow.
2. Please describe your average day in five words.
Busy, challenging, productive, fun, dynamic.
3. At what point did you decide to be involved in the pharma market?
In 1998, I landed a role in a small pharmaceutical company with limited long-term thoughts of what I would like to do and how I might contribute. I did like the notion of working on therapies to help patients and understanding how companies could come together to advance medicine. I stayed at this company for 10+ years in increasing roles within the Business Development (BD) group. During this time, I decided to pursue my MBA and have been working in BD in the pharmaceutical industry ever since!
4. What has been your biggest achievement?
Being a mother and raising my daughters is what I am most proud of. Having a family and balancing a demanding career is not always easy, but I am able to demonstrate for my girls that you can really do anything if you work hard.
5. What would you say is your worst trait?
I am impatient and sometimes a perfectionist. It’s a work in process…
6. What do you love about your job?
The fact that no two days are exactly alike. In my role, I am constantly in discussions with different people, in different roles and in different companies. I enjoy the interactions with various people and the challenge of finding common ground to bring successful partnerships together.
7. If anything, what would you change about your job?
Timelines would be the one thing I would like to see improved really. Safe and effective ways to bring important therapies to patients more quickly would be welcome.
8. If you weren’t in the pharma industry what job would you like to do?
Working for the Department of Children and Families. There are so many children suffering and families in need — it’s meaningful work I think.
9. What challenges do you foresee being important over the next 10 years?
Cost of medicine and reimbursement continues to be an issue that is challenging to tackle in a way that all parties are satisfied. Discovering and developing new medicines takes significant time and effort, delivery to patients is critical and access for patients continues to require attention.
10. In your opinion, what will offer the biggest opportunities in the future?
Our industry is always evolving as it must, I think innovation in digital health will be important in the future and I link this to novel methods of drug delivery to improve the patient experience. The pharma industry tends to focus on the development of the drug which is clearly important, however there are other elements that can be transformative as well. Providing patients with the most simple, convenient therapy is very meaningful in overall care.
