Commercial Lead - Rare Disease

Title:

Commercial Lead (Rare Disease)

Company:

Ipsen Pharma (SAS)

About Ipsen:

Ipsen is a mid-sized global biopharmaceutical company with a focus on transformative medicines in three therapeutic areas: Oncology, Rare Disease and Neuroscience. Supported by nearly 100 years of development experience, with global hubs in the U.S., France and the U.K, we tackle areas of high unmet medical need through research and innovation.

 Our passionate teams in more than 40 countries are focused on what matters and endeavor every day to bring medicines to patients in 88 countries. We build a workplace that champions human-centric leadership and fosters a culture of collaboration, excellence and impact. At Ipsen, every individual is empowered to be their true selves, grow and thrive alongside the company’s success. Join us on our journey towards sustainable growth, creating real impact on patients and society!

For more information, visit us at https://www.ipsen.com/ and follow our latest news on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Job Description:

As the Commercial Lead for Rare Disease, you will be responsible for the successful launch and growth of our Rare Disease portfolio, with a clear focus on addressing unmet medical needs and improving outcomes for patients living with rare diseases. 

This role integrates strong commercial leadership with a deep commitment to patient impact, ensuring that business success is achieved through meaningful value creation for patients, caregivers, and the healthcare system.

Working in close partnership with local and global cross functional teams, you will lead sales and marketing activities, define a clear and patient driven commercial strategy, and ensure its flawless execution. You will balance revenue, profitability, market share, and growth objectives with responsible, ethical, and compliant decision making, ensuring that achievements are recognized not only for their financial outcomes but for their contribution to patient benefit. 

You will coordinate across functions to ensure that Ipsen’s Rare Disease products reach their full potential by improving timely access, appropriate use, and long term value for patients and healthcare systems in Taiwan. This includes developing and implementing integrated commercial strategies and omnichannel engagement plans that are grounded in a deep understanding of patient journeys, healthcare professional needs, and system constraints.

This role offers a unique opportunity for a leader who is motivated by purpose as much as performance, and who is passionate about making a tangible difference in the lives of people with rare diseases. The Commercial Lead will ensure Ipsen delivers meaningful, measurable, and sustainable outcomes for patients, customers, associates, and the business, while consistently embodying Ipsen’s purpose, values, and priorities.

Drive for Results: Shape and influence Global/Regional brand strategies by providing deep local market insights and unmet medical needs. Develop a long-term (5 – 10 years) strategic roadmap for the Rare Disease franchise, including life-cycle management and future pipeline prioritization. Develop and implement portfolio strategies to achieve financial objectives, ensuring resource alignment as necessary. Lead the execution of innovative strategies and cross-functional projects to ensure success. Establish and maintain robust customer relationships to anticipate and address challenges, collaborating with teams to develop effective action plans and provide clear implementation leadership. Deliver accurate forecasts, budgets, and market share data to management, operating feedback controls and recommending timely actions to meet targets. Advocate for the prioritization of Taiwan launches and commercial opportunities. Track and achieve ambitious sales targets while fostering a proactive sales force mindset. Identify significant deviations early, update management, and adjust plans promptly as needed. Build and maintain high-level partnerships with government authorities, payers, and key policy makers to shape the healthcare ecosystem and improve the rare disease policy environment and overcome reimbursement hurdle in Taiwan.

Launch Planning and Brand Leadership: Lead the strategic development of organizational brand plans with a patient-centric focus, ensuring high-quality performance across all objectives. Establish brand leadership in every competitive segment, serving as the internal product expert and point of reference for all product-related queries. Stay informed on all aspects of the product pipeline in Taiwan, providing insights and intelligence to inform access strategies across the product lifecycle. Lead the development of the 3-5-year local strategic plan and execute the 1-year operational plan for the responsible product, ensuring a return on investment through regular monitoring. Utilize launch strategies and robust forecasting to recommend appropriate portfolio prioritization and resource allocation. Lead the local strategic planning process and strategic review, working cross-functionally and with global colleagues to ensure delivery of agreed actions. Conduct horizon scanning with a long-term view of maximizing the product lifecycle. Ensure appropriate budget allocation and accuracy of phasing to drive business within the financial year, adhering to standard operating procedures and leading with the highest business ethics standards. Plan and conduct market research projects to facilitate optimal marketing plans based on current market trends and intelligence, making accurate decisions on investment or disinvestment.

Ensure High-Value Customer Impact: Engage with customers directly and indirectly to benchmark Ipsen’s value against key competitors. Collaborate with the Strategic Business Excellence team to analyze key account management (KAM) use of customer relationship management (CRM) and other tracking tools, ensuring value-adding customer interactions. Utilize customer insights to shape Ipsen’s ability to support them in maximizing value for their patients.

Proactive Horizontal Leadership and Alignment: Lead the Rare Disease Team to ensure total organizational alignment. Act as a strategic partner to the General Manager in defining the overall Taiwan affiliate’s commercial footprint. Foster strong cross-functional collaboration with the local leadership team, ensuring horizontal alignment among all field-based customer-facing roles. Actively seek input from others, creating platforms and processes that enable open discussion and interaction. Lead the launch readiness and brand teams, ensuring alignment across all roles and the delivery of key performance indicators. Guide the cross-functional team to take ownership and accountability for tactical projects, promoting a "one team" mindset to shape and influence a successful Country Brand Operational Plan. Build organizational capability by attracting, developing, and mentoring high-potential talent within the Rare Disease team, fostering a culture of excellence and a robust leadership pipeline. Assess customers’ needs, market conditions, and competitors’ activities.

Forecasting and Effective Management of Budget and Resources: Full P&L accountability for the Rare Disease Franchise. Authorized to make critical resource reallocation and investment decisions to maximize ROI and long-term franchise value. Prepare the annual budget, including forecasting sales and expenses. Estimate the profitability of commercial expenditures and manage overall commercial expenditures effectively. Oversee working relationships with advertising agencies and other service providers, managing commercial project spending to drive brand performance. Monitor sales performance and propose corrective actions as needed. Contribute to the development of annual and long-term sales, supply, and expense forecasts.

Key Technical Competencies Required

• Strong interpersonal, communication and influencing skills along with an ability to be highly adaptive and deal with uncertainty.
• A strategic thinker who is self-driven, results-oriented who maintains a positive outlook, and a clear focus on high quality and business profit. Proven track record for consistently meeting or exceeding quantitative and qualitative targets.
• Excellent market analytical & problem-solving skills and an ability to make sound commercial decisions, execute plans and achieve outcomes in accordance with deadlines.
• Demonstrated capacity to be a team orientated and to build strong relationships across functions.
• Strong ability to interact with external stakeholders, including medical thought leaders, organized patient organizations, and others
• High logicality with quick learning capabilities and a good work ethic
• Capability to work under pressure & perform duties with high quality timely.

Knowledge & Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in pharma business environment
• At least 5 years in a commercial marketing role in a pharmaceutical company
• Strategic business insight based on marketing knowledge
• Experience within rare diseases is a must; in hepatology is a plus
• Previous experience in supporting development and execution of brand strategic and tactical plans
• Excellent project management skills, with the ability to juggle deadlines and multi-task
• Excellent communication and influencing skills
• Experience within a pre-launch and launch environment
• Proven track record of leading high-performing cross-functional teams and developing future leaders is a MUST

Education / Certifications:

•  Bachelor (or above) of health-related fields or Business / Marketing / Digital

Language(s):

•  Good command in English and Chinese.

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We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels heard, valued, and supported; where we embrace “The Real Us”. The value we place on different perspectives and experiences drives our commitment to inclusion and equal opportunities. When we include diverse ways of thinking, we make more thoughtful decisions and discover more innovative solutions. Together we strive to better understand the communities we serve. This means we also want to help you perform at your best when applying for a role with us. If you require any adjustments or support during the application process, please let the recruitment team know. This information will be handled with care and will not affect the outcome of your application.