Meet the Awardees

Dr Freeman is the Clinical Director at the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN). He is a former GP and former chair of Merton Clinical Commissioning Group, the London Clinical Commissioning Council as well as having sat on the London Health Board. As Clinical Director he oversees the IHPN regulatory team work plan and also sits on IHPN’s Strategic Council and contributes to the overall direction for IHPN’s work programme, ensuring its strategic agenda links with its members and their priorities.

Howard has an extensive background as an NHS Medical Director as well as working for health and non-health regulators over many years.

He served on the Appeal Board of the PMCPA as an independent member for 10 years and is a long standing appraiser for the Faculty. Howard supervises the majority of Faculty APS doctors.

Dr Freeman commented:

Receiving an honorary Fellowship from the Faculty came as an amazing bolt out of the blue. When I opened the email I had no idea that it would contain such an Honour. I sat reading and rereading the email repeatedly trying to take the news on board.

I am both an appraiser and supervisor of APS doctors for the Faculty and have undertaken both roles for a considerable period of time. To receive the honorary Fellowship in respect of these roles has been such an unexpected joy.

The awards ceremony was an opportunity to meet other Faculty members and, most importantly, to thank Dr Susan Bews for nominating me.
I feel very honoured to have become an Honorary Fellow and thank the Faculty very much for it.

Mene was appointed as Executive Vice-President, R&D BioPharmaceuticals in January 2019 and is responsible for BioPharmaceutical R&D from discovery through to late-stage development covering Cardiovascular, Renal, Metabolism, Respiratory, Immunology, Microbial Science and Neuroscience areas. Prior to this, he served as Executive Vice- President of AstraZeneca’s Innovative Medicines & Early Development Biotech Unit and Global Business Development.

Mene holds Honorary Doctorates from Glasgow University and Imperial College, London, is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society of Biology and Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and is a Visiting Professor at The Wolfson Centre at Kings College. He co-chairs the UK Life Sciences Council Expert Group on Innovation, Clinical Research and Data and is a member of the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board. He is also on the Boards of The Francis Crick Institute and The Judge Business School, Cambridge University, and is a member of the Life Sciences Vision Advisory Group. Mene was awarded the 2019 Prix Galien Medal, Greece for his scientific research and named Executive of the Year at the 2019 Scrip Awards. In 2019, Mene was awarded the honour of a Knighthood by Her Majesty The Queen for his services to UK science. In 2021 Mene was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the British Pharmacological Society. In 2022 Mene was elected as a Fellow of The Royal Society.

Mene also oversees the creation of AstraZeneca’s new Global R&D Centre in Cambridge – a state of the art facility designed to stimulate collaborative scientific innovation and which will play an important role in the future success of the UK life science industry which has started occupation this year.

Prof Sir Pangalos commented:

I am immensely grateful to the awards committee and board of trustees for this honour and for recognising the critical role of scientists working within the pharmaceutical industry. Every day we try to harness the power of what science can do to change the world for the better. I feel privileged to have played a small part in helping bring some truly transformative medicines to the patients who need them most.

Dr Ahmed is a Pharmaceutical Physician with extensive Clinical Research experience predominantly in early phase development including first in man clinical trials. She has worked across a wide range of therapy areas such as oncology, immunotherapy, vaccines, respiratory diseases, neurology, dermatology and sleep disorders (insomnia) and also gained experience of working as a principal investigator and lead study physician in several early phase studies. Dr Ahmed acquired her medical degree from Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan and moved to the UK in 2010.

Prior to moving into Clinical Research, Dr Ahmed had been working in the NHS and evolved her interest in oncological research during her placement as a clinical fellow in Oncology at Royal Marsden NHS Foundation trust. In 2014, she put her initial footsteps in clinical research and development through a global commercial CRO and then moved on to the University of Surrey Clinical Research Centre in 2015 where she started her formal training as a Pharmaceutical Physician under the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians UK.

Dr Ahmed states, ‘Alongside my family commitments, it had been a challenging task for me to juggle between my job and my PMST training with periods of distraught and uncertainty and I’m immensely grateful for the encouragement, physical and moral support provided by my husband, my young boys and my parents that had made me achieve my career goal.’

She’d also like to take the opportunity to thank her Educational Supervisor Dr Daryl Bendel for his continued support throughout her training period and expresses her gratitude towards her colleagues and line manager at Theradex Oncology for their help and support in passing the DPM exam and achieving the Membership of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.

Dr Ahmed currently works as a Medical Monitor and Head of Pharmacovigilance (EU) at Theradex Oncology.

Omar qualified as a medical doctor and received a master’s degree in ‎Pharmaceutical Medicine from Hibernia College – Ireland. He has over 20 years of ‎experience in the pharmaceutical industry and joined Pfizer in 2003, pursuing various positions in the medical affairs, pharmacovigilance, medical information, and sales departments. His last and ‎current position is global Safety Risk Lead.‎

From 2008 to 2012, as senior medical affairs lead, he supported different therapeutic areas, ‎including anti-infectives, biologics, and biosimilars across Africa Middle East region. Throughout this period, he led various long-term ‎partnership programs and initiatives with key opinion leaders, provided ‎scientific support for local and regional projects, and efficiently represented the company ‎locally, regionally, and globally.‎

Omar was appointed, in 2010, Cluster Safety Lead for North West Africa, the Middle East, and India region. As a part of this role, he led the country safety leads and managed the regional drug safety units. Also, in 2015, he was appointed Arab League Qualified Person for Pharmacovigilance.

Additionally, in 2018, he was appointed to the current role as global Safety Risk Lead. In this role, he performs frequent proactive, holistic safety reviews for products across the relevant available safety data information from all sources. He ensures consistency of safety risk messaging for a particular product or class of products and provides medical content/Benefit-Risk statements and overall risk messaging of the safety profile.

These roles, activities, and responsibilities added value to Omar and paved the way to ‎support patient safety, improve populations’ health, and enhance life quality. ‎Patient safety and improving health were among the highest priorities throughout his career. We ‎may play a critical role in ensuring patient safety on any day, in any interaction. We maintain our commitment to patient safety while focusing on quality and compliance in all activities.‎

William obtained his medical degree from University College London. After completing Foundation Training, he took up positions in early phase clinical research and medical oncology. He initially joined the UK pharmaceutical industry in 2020 as a Medical Advisor at Norgine, enrolling onto PMST in 2021. After obtaining his DPM in 2022, he was promoted to a launch brand Medical Manager at Norgine, before moving to Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals in 2023 to take on a role in clinical development.

Dr Daak obtained his medical degree (2004) and MSc in Medical Biochemistry (2006) from the University of Khartoum, a PhD (2012) in Biomedical Science from London Metropolitan University and FPM’s Diploma of Pharmaceutical Medicine (2022).

Dr Daak has been working at Sanofi as a Senior Clinical Research Director of Immunohematology, and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. Before joining Sanofi in 2018, he served as the Vice President of Medical Research and Clinical Development of Sancilio Pharmaceuticals Company (SCI), Florida; post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Lipidomics and Nutrition Research Center, London metropolitan University; Assistant Professor of Medical Biochemistry and Senior Register of Chemical Pathology at Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum and Clinical Attaché, Pediatric hematology, St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial college, London. Dr Daak was an affiliated Research Professor at the Center of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (CMBB), Florida Atlantic University (FAU), USA, and Tekemi Research Fellow at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).

Dr Daak is a member of the American Society of Haematology (ASH), American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine Careers Working Group and ASH’s Roadmap to Improve Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Hematology Clinical Trials Initiative.

Dr Daak is passionate about developing transformative therapies for patients with rare diseases. Outside work, he enjoys reading, writing, playing tennis and outdoor activities with his family.

Patrick is Senior Medical Director at Incyte Biosciences, a biopharmaceutical company focused on Oncology and has held several roles in industry across Medical Affairs, Clinical Research, Clinical Operations and Development. He holds a Medical Degree from the University of Nottingham and an MBA from Imperial College. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Patrick worked as an Anaesthetic and Intensive Care physician in the NHS. Patrick is a current member of NICE Technology Appraisal Committee A as a Pharmaceutical Physician.

Adam is a clinician-scientist and surgeon by training who has worked in pharmaceutical medicine (medical affairs) since November 2020. He started out as a medical advisor at Eisai and joined Amgen as a Senior Medical Manager in Haematology & Oncology in December 2022. Adam is now in his second year of the PMST programme and is an active member of FPM’s Trainees Committee.

Dr William Mwiti is currently a Global Medical Risk Director at GlaxoSmithKline. In his role he is responsible for providing medical affairs and pharmacovigilance support to Safety, Clinical and Medical Teams to Research and Development teams within Medical Affairs functions, supporting product lifecycle management within the country operating models. At a Global level, he links the local units with the global teams driving medical affairs strategy organizational alignment.

He began his career at GSK in 2011 as a Medical Advisor and Pharmacovigilance Manager supporting East Africa and working across a wide range of therapeutic areas. In 2014 he became the Kenya Country Medical Director before transitioning to his current role at GSK.

William is an Oxford University Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow. He has a certification in Enterprise Risk Management from the UK Institute of Risk Management and holds a First-Class Master’s Degree in Pharmaceutical Medicine from Hibernia University. He received his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree from the University of Nairobi. He is a two time Top 40 under 40 Business Daily Kenya Awardee.

He was a founding member for the Medical Affairs Professional Society EMEA, currently is the Co-lead for its Africa Chapter and sits within its Compliance Focus Area Working Group. He has served in the Kenya Association of Pharmaceutical Medicine (KAPI) and was instrumental in co-authoring its Code of Practice. He also sits within the Institute of Risk Management East Africa Secretariat as well as a member of the Kenya Medical Association Research and Ethics Committee.

He has been a panellist in Medical Affairs Professional Society annual congresses, a contributor to various MAPS topical white papers, co-authored articles on antibiotic resistance, rotavirus gastroenteritis and influenza. He was involved in the clinical development and introduction of new vaccines across East Africa countries including the malaria vaccine.

Josiah Tatenda Masuka graduated in medicine from the University of Zimbabwe in 2009. He subsequently obtained an MSc in Clinical Pharmacology (with Merit) in 2013 from the same university and a Postgraduate Diploma in Medicines Development from Stellenbosch University in 2016. In 2022, he completed his specialty training in Dermatology, obtaining the FC Derm (SA) specialist certification of the College of Medicines of South Africa.

Josiah has workedin various clinical jobs including psychiatry. Within the pharmaceutical industry, he previously worked as a medicines regulatory assesssor with the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe within the Clinical Trials and Pharmacivigilance division from 2013 to 2016. After this, he worked as a Safety Physician trainee in 2017 at GSK Vaccines in Wavre, Belgium under the WHO TDR/GSK Career development fellowship. He has published a number of articles on pharmacovigilance, highlighting the aspects of the science within a developing country. He continues to publish and present in both pharmacology/pharmaceutical medicine and dermatology.

Currently he is working as a dermatologist in South Africa awaiting opportunities to work in clinical trials within dermatology. Josiah enjoys watching soccer and cricket and he loves writing and spending time with his family and friends.

Kiran holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (M.B.B.S.) and M.D. from the University of Bombay, India, MSc in Pharmaceutical Medicine from Hibernia College, Ireland and Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine (DPM) from the Royal Colleges of Physicians. He completed Postdoctoral Fellowship for Physicians in Clinical Pharmacology from Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston and is board certified by the American Board of Clinical Pharmacology. Kiran has over 20 years of clinical/medical research and development leadership experience within the biopharmaceutical industries, including development strategy, design and execution of global clinical trials in severe and life-threatening disease indications.

Phil is a Principal Investigator at Nucleus Network in Melbourne, Australia, which runs Phase I first-in-human trials. He joined Nucleus Network in 2021 and has been a principal investigator on over 30 Phase I clinical trials, in a range of therapeutic areas, including neurological, respiratory, infectious disease, immunological, psychiatric, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular. He completed his Diploma of Pharmaceutical Medicine in 2021.

Phil is a medical doctor and researcher with over 18 years’ experience in health care and neuroscience research. His major interest is the interface between research and clinical medicine. He has had extensive experience as in internal medicine before transitioning into neuroscience lab research, completing a PhD at the University of Melbourne and postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. Recently, he has also been working at the Florey Institute, using cutting-edge genetic techniques to investigate the role of distinct brain regions in fluid and food intake, anxiety and addiction.

Felix is Founder and Medical Director of medDigital, healthcare organisations use digital solutions and insightful science to overcome the healthcare challenges they face.
His work has spanned many diverse projects, including working with the NHS, leading digital transformation in life science companies and developing innovative digital technologies, such as for digital advisory boards.

He has supported the work of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine for years and is currently a member of the FPM Global Forum. He also supported the development of the PMCPA’s Social Media Guidance. And he has been a member of the ABPI Code Working Group and ABPI Compliance Network since medDigital joined the ABPI as a general affiliate member in 2019. He is also a Medical Signatory of the ABPI Code.

He has a Visiting Appointment at Kings College London as a lecturer on the Medical Affaires MSc and he teaches on the Post Graduate Course in Pharmaceutical Medicine for the British Association of Pharmaceutical Physicians (BrAPP). His work had been nominated for several awards winning the prestigious BrandAmplifier MedTech Fit Society Silver Award. He also supported GSTT Charity’s Further Faster initiative to help SMEs and the NHS work together better.

Alongside his work within Pharmaceutical Medicine, he led the development of medCrowd, the instant messenger for health and care which is used by clinical teams in the NHS, including helping people with diabetes during the Covid-19 pandemic by providing care remotely.
He is also a keen triathlete, hiker and camper.

Gustavo Kesselring earned his medical degree in 1984 at University of São Paulo, Brazil and pursued further postgraduate training in Gynecology, Obstetrics and Mastology. He also received postgraduate qualifications in Clinical Pharmacology, Drug Development and Regulation at the Tufts Institute for Professional Development, USA.

After working in private clinical practice, he started his first pharmaceutical industry position in 1988 with subsequent C level roles leading clinical research and Medical Affairs teams in Rhone Poulenc and Hoechst Marion Roussel (currently part of Sanofi).

In 2009 he was appointed as Director of the National Clinical Research Training Program for the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Brazil while serving at the same time as Director of Clinical Research at the Science Institute, German Hospital Oswaldo Cruz, São Paulo, Brazil.

He had honorary roles in nonprofit organizations including Past President and member of Board of Directors of Brazilian Society of Pharmaceutical Medicine, Past President of International Federation of Associations of Pharmaceutical Physicians and Pharmaceutical Medicine (IFAPP) and Executive Member of Council of International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS).
From 2016 until 2023 he served as Vice President at IFAPP Academy developing the IFAPP Academy-King´s College London Professional Certification Program Medical Affairs in Medicines Development.

In recognition from his contributions to global clinical research and pharmaceutical medicine he received professional awards by the American Academy of Clinical Research Professionals in 2011, by the Drug Information Association in 2013 and by the Brazilian Academy of Pharmacy in 2016.
As a passionated leader in Medicines Development professional education he currently holds an academic position at King´s College London serving as Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Life Science and Medicine and as a Senior Advisor for Professional Development at the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS).

Outside work, Gustavo enjoys traveling and exploring new cultures, visiting museums, hiking and spending time with his wife and daughters at their beach house.

I qualified in medicine from the Universities of St. Andrews and Manchester in 1993, and after completing a Doctorate degree in vascular biology from Imperial College London, was fortunate to become a specialist registrar in cardiothoracic surgery at Guys and St. Thomas’s Hospitals. I joined the pharmaceutical industry in 2008, beginning in Medical Affairs and progressing to lead Medical Affairs teams through numerous immunology drug launches, initially in the UK and then moving to the USA in 2011. Over my professional journey I have found myself becoming increasingly focused on translational science and clinical trial design. These growing interests over the years have led me into my current position as Senior Vice President of Clinical Development and External Innovation for a US biotech company based in San Diego. I now develop drugs across a wide range of diseases including osteoarthritis, oncology, and Alzheimer’s Disease. I regularly present data at academic congresses and have published several research papers. I have also become keenly interested in the future of drug development and, how we as Pharmaceutical Physicians might employ innovative technologies, such as genomics and artificial intelligence, to make new medicines to treat diseases and improve patients’ lives. Over the past few years, I have enjoyed working closely with The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, becoming the North American representative for the Global Forum, and sitting on its Membership Committee. I believe strongly in its mission to advance the science and practice of pharmaceutical medicine. As well as being a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh, and now MFPM, I am a Fellow of the US-based Academy of Physicians in Clinical Research. Outside work I enjoy spending time with my family and walking my dog!