Senior Director, Global Medical Safety, Global Pharmacovigilance (psychedelics)

Senior Director, Global Medical Safety physician (psychedelics), leads and supports safety team(s) in all aspects of pharmacovigilance and risk management activities for assigned products, both marketed and in development.

This role will provide proactive strategic and operational safety leadership for Otsuka’s late-stage psychedelic development portfolio (~4 assets). S/he will serve as the medical safety lead for investigational psychedelic compounds, ensuring proactive identification, assessment, communication and mitigation of safety risks in a highly specialized and evolving therapeutic landscape. The role requires deep expertise in clinical safety, neuropsychiatric risk assessment and benefit-risk evaluation, strong strategic mindset combined with the ability to navigate the unique clinical, operational, ethical and regulatory considerations associated with psychedelic compounds. S/he will establish a robust safety strategy that supports accelerated development, while maintaining the highest standards of patient safety and scientific integrity. The Safety physician will partner closely with the Medical Safety Therapeutic Area Lead, Head of Medical Safety, Head of Global PV (GPV), Global Clinical Development (GCD), Clinical Management (CM) and Global Regulatory Affairs (GRA) Biometrics, and Translation Medicine to identify, evaluate and communicate safety issues relevant to psychedelic portfolio.

Key Job Responsibilities

• Serves as the medical safety expert for assigned products for late stage development through commercialization.
• Maintains accurate and complete knowledge of assigned investigational and marketed products, being monitored by Otsuka, co-marketers, cosponsors, and/ or affiliates.
• Develops and leads global safety strategy for late-stage psychedelic development portfolio.
• Develops safety monitoring approach for psychedelic class, (eg acute altered states of consciousness, perceptual disturbances, emotional dysregulation, prolonged psychological effects, etc)
• Partners with GCD, CM and GRA to define appropriate therapist/guide escalation procedures and emergency intervention frameworks.
• Develops integrated benefit-risk frameworks tailored to psychedelic-assisted therapies and novel neuropsychiatric mechanisms.
• Serves as the safety representative on asset strategy and governance teams (Product Development Committee (PDC) and Research & Development Teams (RDT).
• Contributes to TrPP and overall development strategy.
• Establishes standards for psychological safety monitoring before, during and after dosing sessions.
• Chairs product level safety governance cross-functional meetings
• Provides strategic regulatory safety leadership and authors safety content for Phase 2/3 protocols as well as global regulatory submissions, including INDs, NDAs, MAAs and other health authority filings. Ensures safety sections are scientifically robust, regulatory-compliant and aligned with overall development and registration strategy.
• Represent Global Safety in regulatory interactions; presenting and defending safety findings, emerging safety signals and benefit-risk evaluations, while providing clear scientific and clinical interpretation to enable regulatory decision making.
• Responsible for authoring safety surveillance plan and reviewing case report forms, investigator brochures, CSRs, package inserts, and NDA/PLA documents, including patient narratives.
• Responsible for medical analysis and assessing patient safety impact for product quality or other quality related events
• Keeps abreast of industry standards and initiatives regarding signal detection, risk management, and risk communication.
• Represents GPV  CS&PV at Labeling Committee/ Executive Committee discussions on new information impacting product profile.
• Manages the continuous analysis of adverse events to identify signals and trends for assigned products.
• Performs review and approval of clinical trial medical coding.
• Participates in the creation and revisioning of SOPs.
• Provides strategic input on safety issues during development portfolio reviews and governance meetings.
• Prepares/review safety summaries for inclusion in medical information write-ups, including analysis of similar events in alert reports.
• Provides medical analysis and decision making for the development and maintenance of the Company Core Data Sheet, risk management plans (RMPs/REMS) and individual case safety reports.
• Keeps management informed of any critical safety issues on monitored products.
• Serves as mentor and resource for GPV Associates, Scientists and Safety physicians.
• Participates in providing training to GPV team members and other Otsuka staff as appropriate, on the epidemiological and regulatory aspects of programs.
• Participates in