Speaker

Heather McDonald, vice-president, AstraZeneca Canada

With more than 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, Heather McDonald’s experience spans various markets, therapeutic areas and payer archetypes. She’s presently the vice-president of market access and pricing for AstraZeneca Canada. Working in a health technology assessment-driven market such as Canada, her team must be at the forefront of health economics, access strategy, pricing, payer negotiations and payer relations to optimize patient access to AstraZeneca's products countrywide. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, McDonald was the global vice-president of market access for Bayer Pharmaceuticals’ cell and gene therapies and digital health portfolios, where her team was responsible for working with health-care systems worldwide to develop innovative market access solutions for the company’s transformative therapies of the future.

McDonald’s academic training includes pharmacology, epidemiology, statistics and research methodology, culminating in a PhD in health economics and policy from McMaster University. McDonald has published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals and currently resides in Toronto.