Description

The Senior Director, Pricing Strategy is responsible for the development and implementation of pricing and contracting strategy for the full Ascendis portfolio. This role has the responsibility to manage and direct the investment of discounts and contracting spending by the organization. The role will interact with key customers, external consultants, Sales & Marketing Leadership Teams, Health Care Compliance, Legal and Finance in the development, implementation and communication of pricing and contracting strategies and policies. This individual will help drive recognition and understanding of the changing healthcare landscape. This role will also be responsible for the management of rebates and other payments to customers and support the calculation and reporting of pricing for external reporting requirements. The role will report directly to the Vice President, Market Access.

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead pricing strategy by synthesizing customer, industry and competitive insights and intelligence to guide in developing pricing strategies. Effectively work with all key stakeholders to drive alignment on the pricing strategies and how they impact business.
  • Ensure alignment of pricing strategies with financial goals and brand strategies and organization goals and objectives (engage and enroll all key stakeholders).
  • Lead discussions regarding pricing strategies with Marketing, Sales, Legal, Finance, HCC and other key stakeholders. Develop and implement contract strategy dashboards tracking pricing strategies and business impact.
  • Proactively conduct competitive analysis and evaluate the changing marketplace and proactively make recommendations on pricing strategies and present to Senior Management.
  • Lead list price recommendations for the businesses to maximize profitability.
  • Lead Pricing Committee governing body to review and approve pricing and contract proposals, including cross-functional participation and documentation processes.
  • Translate high-level strategic goals into pricing strategies. Primary pricing subject matter expert to work with Portfolio and Sourcing on new product and supplier launches.
  • Create new and innovative ways to write pricing structures for customer contracts leveraging Price Guidance.
  • Develop tools and analytics to support market pricing benchmarks that can be used across the Americas business.
  • Gather market insights and drivers to inform Field and Franchise views on pricing elasticity, competition, and broader market factors to help support the pricing strategy.
  • Make recommendations to senior leadership about pricing strategies based on customer profiles and historical usage analysis.
  • Support and participate in negotiations and Influence internally to encourage adoption and testing of new pricing structures and strategies, including terms of engagement and interaction with counterparts in Finance, Account Management, Brand, Legal and other relevant functions.
  • Effectively implement and manage committed customer pricing, including the year end pricing process.
  • Develop and proliferate pricing best practices, tools, templates, training, and reference materials.
  • Recruit, train, lead, and develop strategic pricing & analytics team. Organize team to best serve the business; sets priorities; monitors results.
  • Develop and maintain internal controls over the pricing activities to ensure compliance with internal control requirements.
  • Understand and manage contractual commitments.
  • Conduct on-going reporting of key metrics on the impact of our contracting and pricing strategies on contract access, volume, market share, price erosion, price impact and profitability.
  • Inform overall portfolio and individual year over year brand forecasts including account and channel-level gross to net projections, cash flow forecasts, Medicaid Unit forecasts, and government impact of proposed strategy changes (CPI penalties, Medicaid Mandated Rebate, BP).
  • Inform senior management and internal matrix partners on relevant payer and managed care changes including customer consolidation, legislative proposals, and government policy updates.
  • Develop and implement Distribution strategy with 3PL and Specialty pharmacy distributors.
  • Develop and execute Specialty Pharmacy discount strategy and data services agreements.
  • Build strong working relationships with Ascendis Home Office personnel and franchise product groups to support collaboration on NAD initiatives.

Pricing Experience

  • Strong knowledge of payors, PBMs, health systems, specialty pharmacies, GPOs, government accounts and the contracting process associated with these customers.
  • Strong analytical skills able to deal with complexity.
  • Possess a thorough understanding of healthcare economics, and the drivers of pharmaceutical demand.

Requirements

  • Bachelor's degree required; Master’s/advanced degree preferred.
  • Minimum 10 years pharmaceutical/biotech Sales and/or Marketing experience with at least 5 years of direct managed care experience.
  • Role model of the company vision, mission and values (patients, science, passion).
  • Hires and develops best in class talent aligned with company vision, mission and values.
  • Successful working in both big pharma as well as small biotech start-up company environments and potentially payor environment.
  • Develops and sustains highly collaborative and effective cross-functional working relationships with US and European colleagues.
  • Develop key external relationships with payers, KOLs and business partners.
  • Demonstrates high level of professional expertise within the functional discipline.
  • Turns strategy into action; proactively develops own functional area to be prepared for the future to ensure long-term success, including brand life-cycle management.
  • Therapeutic experience in the Endocrine marketplace preferred.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of payer decision-making for formulary processes, coverage, coding, billing, and patient access to drugs, biologicals, medical devices.
  • Exceptional communication skills that include verbal, written and presentation abilities.
  • Demonstrated problem-solving capabilities.
  • Experience negotiating contracts and agreements.
  • Outstanding consultative and networking capabilities.
  • Excellent project management skills, with the ability to handle multiple tasks at one time.
  • Ability to skillfully negotiate in tough situations with both internal and external groups.
  • Possesses broad base and in-depth understanding of reimbursement issues, payer segments, use of specialty pharmacies, the J-Code application process, managed market customers including private and public payers, national and regional health plans, state Medicaid, Medicare Part B and D, VA/DOD, PBM’s, Employers, IDNs, Medical Groups and ACOs.
  • Ability to travel up to 30% domestically.
    • New hires based in the US will be required to demonstrate that they have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or qualify for a medical or religious exemption or accommodation to this vaccination requirement, subject to applicable law.
    • Salary range: $240-265K/year

Benefits

  • Medical insurance
  • Vision insurance
  • Dental insurance
  • 401(k)
  • Paid maternity leave
  • Paid paternity leave
  • Commuter benefits
  • Disability insurance