Brand Lead Specialty

At Astellas, we believe that nurturing exceptional relationships with our employees delivers exceptional business results.

Everyone at Astellas has a responsibility for creating a brighter future for patients around the world. From the first moment, Astellas will inspire you to put this ethos into practice – with a positive, agile company culture and with well-defined ethical principles, values and systems.

Everything we do is led by our company values of integrity, being patient centric, taking ownership, delivering results and communicating openly. These values are essential to Astellas’ relationship with its employees and now is an exciting time to join us as we continue to evolve as a cutting-edge, value driven life sciences innovator.

Purpose of the Role

The Lead, Transplant Brand – India is responsible for leading and managing the transplant portfolio in India. The role focuses on defining the brand direction, driving business growth, and ensuring strong execution of all brand activities. This role ensures that the needs of doctors, patients, and the healthcare system are well understood and addressed through simple, effective, and compliant actions. The role represents the brand within cross-functional teams and ensures alignment across sales, medical, and market access teams. The role is also responsible for improving patient access and strengthening Astellas’ position in transplant therapy in India through strong planning, collaboration, and consistent execution.

The Lead represents the consolidated brand voice in cross-functional teams (E.g. Sales, Commercial Excellence, Market Access, Compliance, Regulatory and Medical Team) and ensures impactful evidence communications are incorporated in the Operational Plans. The Lead will ensure prioritization of Operational Plan activities to demonstrate the value of Astellas’ products to relevant external stakeholders including but not limited to HCP and patients. The Lead is responsible for seeking global alignment of OP activities across brands. This role requires in-depth understanding of the Indian Pharma environment and close partnership with cross functional stakeholders to optimize insight translation into marketing strategies and tactics that support the Brand Strategy.
This position requires excellent interpersonal and matrix leadership skills to support effective partnerships with key internal and external stakeholders including global/regional/local commercial teams, Regional/International markets Brand Strategy team/Medical Leads, and external stakeholders (such as KEE).

Responsibilities and Accountabilities

Brand Strategy and Planning
Lead the development of the annual brand plan for transplant products in India
Define clear priorities, focus areas, and key actions for the brand
Use market insights, business data, and customer feedback to guide decisions
Regularly review and update plans based on market changes and performance

Brand Ownership and Leadership
Take full ownership of brand performance and growth
Act as the main point of responsibility for all brand-related decisions
Ensure balance between short-term results and long-term growth
Provide clear direction to internal teams on brand priorities
Patient journey and challenges
Track competitor activities and market trends
Use insights to improve brand plans and execution

Scientific and Medical Alignment
Work closely with medical affairs to ensure all communication is accurate
Support development of scientific content for healthcare professionals
Ensure all materials and activities follow compliance guidelines
Present scientific information in a clear and practical way

Stakeholder Engagement
Build strong relationships with key transplant HCPs and centers
Support engagement with hospitals and institutions
Participate in scientific meetings and discussions
Represent the brand in relevant forums when required

Patient Access and Market Access Collaboration
Work with market access team to manage PSPs in transplant therapy
Develop & Support innovative initiatives to improve patient reach and continuity of treatment

Evidence and Insights Generation
Support generation of local data such as real-world evidence and surveys
Work with medical and other teams on research and studies
Use data to strengthen brand communication and decisions
Ensure effective use of insights across teams

Cross-functional Collaboration:
Work closely with Sales, Medical Affairs & Regulatory, Market Access, Commercial excellence, supply chain, finance and Legal/Compliance for alignment and smooth execution across all functions.
Support internal training and communication

Performance Management
Track brand performance including sales and key business metrics
Monitor effectiveness of initiatives and activities
Identify risks and opportunities early & Take actions to improve results

Budget and Resource Management
Manage the brand budget responsibly & Allocate resources based on priorities
Track spend and ensure effective use of investments

Compliance and Ethics
Ensure all activities follow company policies and local regulations
Maintain high standards of integrity and ethical conduct
Ensure accuracy and compliance in all communications

Execution of Brand Activities
Ensure effective execution of all marketing and promotional activities
Work closely with the sales team to implement plans in the field
Monitor quality and timeliness of all activities
Identify gaps and take corrective actions quickly

Market Understanding

Develop strong understanding of:
Transplant therapy landscape in India
Treatment practices and HCP behaviour

Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in pharmacy or biotechnology, MBA preferred
8–12 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry
Experience in Specialty Brands preferred.
Demonstrated strategic thinking, problem solving and decision-making skills
Demonstrated strong interpersonal relationship & collaboration skills within cross-functional teams
Ability to recognize problem situations and use both formal and informal methods to find solutions and make independent decisions on complex problems.
Thorough understanding of UCPMP guidelines. Strong sense of ethics, compliance and integrity
Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills

Working Environment:

This positionis based in Mumbai and will requireon-site work.
(OR) At Astellas we recognize the importance of work/life balance, and we are proud to offer a hybrid working solution allowing time to connect with colleagues at the office with the flexibility to also work from home. We believe this will optimize the most productive work environment for all employees to succeed and deliver. Hybrid work from certain locations may be permitted in accordance with Astellas’ Responsible Flexibility Guidelines.

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