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Alison Ward

Senior Manager Asset & Access Team at Pfizer UK

STEM Ambassador
Follow the things that interest you, try not to put limitations on your own ambitions & career choices but leave yourself open to opportunities, who knows where you might end up!
Alison is a...

Communicator

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Coordinator

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Explorer

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About Alison...

Who am I?

"I completely agree with the personality types of communicator, coordinator and explorer and these align really well with the skills needed in my current and previous roles, but also in terms of the types of work that I find enjoyable and fulfilling. "

What do I do?

"In my current role I am responsible for developing the strategy that will enable specific medicines to be reimbursed by the NHS and made available for patients across the UK. This involves me learning about medicines while they are still in clinical trials, understanding the needs of patients and healthcare professionals in a disease area, and how this new medicine might bring additional benefits to these patients, Drs, nurses but also to the NHS as a whole. I can then work with a wide range of colleagues to develop a strategy to communicate how the value of this medicine balances alongside the cost for the NHS to use it. The value and costs are not always as obvious as you might think as new medicines that improve a patients symptoms & quality of life might reduce the need for them to have additional hospital stays or even surgery, and the costs not only include the cost of the medicine itself but the need for Drs appointments to manage any side effects. I am enjoying the opportunity to continue to learn in this new role, and the chance to feel connected to a bigger purpose through seeing the positive impact that successful outcomes from this process have on enabling patients to access new medicines. "

How did I get here?

"At school & university I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do for a career. I was interested in and enjoyed a whole range of subjects, and ended up keeping that breadth in my A level and university course choices. When I left university I was accepted on a graduate training programme for a market research agency that specialised in healthcare & pharmaceuticals. I think I might have been inspired by chatting in the holidays to a friend's older sister who worked in market research and thinking that spending your time understanding what people need, want and think about the things in their lives sounded really interesting & fun! I really benefited from the graduate programme as we had the chance to rotate around different teams within the company, learning about different types of research, building up different skills and getting to know lots of different people It was also a lot of fun being on the same learning journey (both in and out of work!) with a lovely group of people. I stayed with that company for 6 years enjoying the variety of working on projects across a wide range of disease areas, working with pharmaceutical companies in the UK and abroad, but over time I became interested in seeing how the market research data & insights were taken forward by our clients, what happened after our projects ended? I moved to Pfizer in 2004 with the idea of working here for a few years, and am still here! My first role was an internal market research role supporting one specific medicine, commissioning research projects to understand the needs of the patients and healthcare professionals who might use it, and using data to forecast the uptake of this newly launched medicine, and it did give me that opportunity to see how the market research elements fitted into the bigger plans for Pfizer medicines. One of the benefits of working for a large organisation is the chance to find out about other jobs, & the opportunities to take your career in different (zig zag) directions, and after a few years I moved roles within Pfizer into brand marketing. I've really enjoyed the breadth of responsibilities within the different marketing roles I have had, they have enabled me to continue to use my numerical skills & market research curiosity, but also the chance to work on more creative & hands on projects designing communication materials, arranging conference presentations & meeting with health care professionals and patients. I've developed my leadership skills through building and leading teams made up of people from different backgrounds & areas of expertise and responsibility, all of whom play a part in ensuring patients and healthcare professionals have the opportunity to use our medicines. More recently I have made another zig zag career change, to work in our market access team, where we are responsible for the strategy & pricing that will ensure our medicines are reimbursed so that patients treatment with them can be paid for by the NHS. "

The life I live

"Outside of work I'm kept busy by my children, but I also enjoy getting outside for a walk or run with friends. I've realised how much I enjoy & benefit from time outside in nature. This year I took on the challenge of taking part in a 50K ultramarathon and enjoy proving to myself that I can do hard things! "

My typical day

"A typical day does involve spending a lot of time in front of a computer screen, but there is often a variety of different activities. I may be reading and replying to emails, dialling into virtual meetings with colleagues based in the UK or other countries, working with numbers in Excel or preparing presentations for future meetings. Currently my week is a mixture of days working from home and days in the office. When I'm in the office there is often the opportunity to catch up with colleagues who I don't work directly with, either in the coffee queue or as I move around the building, which is great for building and maintaining a network of people you can turn to for advice as well as getting a general sense of what is happening around the company. If I don't have meetings all day long I try to get to a lunchtime class at the onsite gym as it really helps to energise me for the afternoon, and it's one less thing to fit in when I get home! "

My qualifications

"A Levels in Economics, English, History, French & General StudiesDegree in Social Sciences at Durham University (Economics, History & English) Graduate training programme at a healthcare market research agency "