Author: Christian Velten

Two weeks ago I participated in a strategy workshop organized by Arthur D. Little and the German Ministry for Education and Science (BMBF). As part of our talks we discussed the value of scientific information as well as the existing scientific information distribution and access structures. As two major problems we identified that scientists are not really aware of a variety of information resources they could access, and that publication and valuation processes will intensively change within the next years. To provide you with the corresponding background: the BMBF commissioned the management consultant Arthur D. Little and the ‘Gesellschaft für…

Within 5 weeks in Q2/2009, I designed and implemented a new literature support process for periodic safety reports by Novartis Drug Safety. The service was fully compliant to regulatory requirements and covered all global Novartis drugs (~160) as well as all periodic safety reports to relevant authorities by Novartis Global Drug Safety (PSUR, PBRER, ASR, DSUR). For example in 2012 and 2013, around 1’000 produkt-related literature searches per year were processed by the service (on average 85 per month). Originally this process had been intended to be an interim solution. But due to its stability, reliability and scalability, it was subsequently expanded to Sandoz (generics) and Novartis Vaccines products, and…

Between 2009 and 2013, I responsibly cared for the internal customer relationship management on behalf of the Novartis Knowledge Management business unit. My objectives had been to proactively manage customer relations, to align our deliveries with our clients’ business needs, to design efficient customer service processes ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction, and to coordinate the customer support team. In this role, I responsibly conducted an  internal customer survey by doing series of interviews with middle and senior management stakeholders. I published the results in April 2009 as internal  report “Current situation of the Novartis Pharma internal information supply – An analysis of needs and…

Journalists as well as politicians are desperately looking for lab results that nicely fit to a political ideology.

Traditionally an old years end is the time of reflections. No, I do not mean the bright glittering snow in some people winter holidays. I am talking about thoughts regarding the sense of life. Did I get the best out of the old year? Could I have done something better? What will be in the new year, what challenges and tasks are waiting for me? And what are my personal priorities in life? As a young PhD student – quite a few years ago – I read a Science article by Gregg Easterbrook about the social as well as ethical…

Do you remember? Y2K had been announced as the great entry into the millennium of biotechnology! Did you get it? 2000 in biotechnology was planned as the year of the big conferences and meetings as well as the year of the phenomenal announcements. This should have been the grandiose prelude for an international campaign against the technique critics. But did anyone – besides scientists – really pay attention to all the efforts. Honestly: no. No, because this is how it should be _ or no, because we missed the chance to present our science to the people. If you picked…

Nov 2008 – Jun 2014 / NOVARTIS PHARMA Identified strategic and operational needs, translated those into effective solutions and support processes, providing Novartis with superior strategic information and medical evidence for a knowledge-driven competitive advantage. • Coordinated and supervised globally distributed teams (Basel, India, UK) delivering high quality and compliant in-house product intelligence. Achievements eNova, a unique source of product information at Novartis Achievements Business Intelligence Pharma December 7, 2013 “eNova QuickAnswers” iOS app available Achievements Digital Intelligence Pharma October 7, 2013 Driving organizational change Achievements Business May 19, 2012 Drug Intelligence Report available Achievements Business Intelligence Pharma November 30, 2010…

For more than 25 years I had been an active boy scout. A very active boy scout. Scouting tremendously contribute to my personal growth and development in my early years. I spend time together with other kids having totally different backgrounds, which definitely broadened my perspectives. And I had amazing leaders, mentors and friends who always put a lot of trust and acknowledgement on me. Seriously, there is nothing better that can happen to an adolescent. I took my own very first leadership role in the tender age of 14, and have been a leader of various youth groups in…

Back in 2002, I decided to contribute to and play a more active part with local affairs & politics in my home town. Over time my involvement grew by being … I continued my local political commitment until we moved close to Basel in late 2008 to start a position at Novartis. Today, I am “just” a politically interested citizen. But I still look back to the exciting times in local politics, where I learned so much and met so many dedicated people across political camps.

Between 2000 and 2008, I investigated prior art, freedom-to-operate, infringement evidences and patent portfolios for reputable patent attorneys and life science industry clients, like Roche and BASF. In 2004, I ad-hoc joined a BASF due diligence team that was preparing a company buy-in as an external expert for analyzing the biosequences portfolio (assets) of the company planned to be acquired. I locally evaluated the IP relevance of the protein and DNA sequences offered, e.g. by checking for uniqueness and redundancies. I applied in-depth computer-based sequence analysis using algorithms like BLASTx, TBLASTx, FASTA, FASTM, Smith-Waterman, and ClustalW2. CLIENT:BASFPROJECT TIME FRAME: May 2004