Leaders in innovation

• 26+ years of drug development experience specializing in immuno-oncology in Pharma/Biotech and CRO environments
• Provides operational executive leadership for Oncology study portfolio at Fortrea
• Chief Development Officer experience managing cancer vaccine clinical development program
• Pragmatic and innovative Clinical Development Leader, building and managing early phase immuno-oncology portfolios, and operationalising various early/late phase protocols and programs in Oncology and Cell & Gene Therapy field

Diana Aguirre, MD, is Senior Medical Director in oncology for Fortrea Clinical Development Services, based in France. Dr. Aguirre has more than 25 years of experience in both oncology clinical practice and drug development within mid and large size Pharma companies, focused on solid tumors and systemic treatments development, planning and implementation of global oncology studies from phase II to phase IV and strategic interactions with different key stakeholders in oncology clinical development. 

Dr. Aguirre earned her Medical degree from the University of Caldas in Colombia and completed her Medical oncology training at the national Cancer Institute in Colombia. She completed a Masters degree in pharmacogenomics and molecular biomarkers in oncology at Paris XI University. She joined our company in January 2014.

Maixing Ai, MD, is a Senior Medical Director, based in Princeton, NJ, U.S. Dr. Ai is a trained immunologist/rheumatologist with more than 22 years of clinical practice. He has extensive experience managing different immunologic/rheumatologic disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis. 

Dr. Ai has more than 16 years of pharmaceutical and CRO industrial experience. He has experience with many clinical trials on NSAIDs, DMARDs, small molecules and biologics in autoimmune diseases. He has also worked on cell and gene therapies in autoimmune disease and musculoskeletal disease, with hands-on experience in cell therapies for lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic sclerosis. 

Since joining Fortrea (formerly Labcorp/Covance), Dr. Ai has worked with many biotech companies and global pharmaceutical companies. His experience also includes Phase II-IV protocol design in many indications. 

Dr. Ai earned his medical doctorate degree from University of Luebeck, Luebeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. He has authored/co-authored more than 60 papers/books in rheumatological topics.

Dr. Peter Alfinito is an Executive Director in the Strategic Delivery & Growth group and leads a global group of operational strategists broadly covering Internal Medicine diseases. His expertise lies in Hepatology, Endocrinology/Metabolism and Cardiovascular disease areas and he is based near Philadelphia , PA. Peter has more than 25 years of academic, pharmaceutical and CRO experience including working in early drug discovery, translational medicine and clinical development. He is an expert in the design of clinical plan strategies, site selection and patient recruitment across MASLD/MASH, T1DM, T2DM, Obesity, PBC, PSC, and CVOTs.

Peter maintains key relationships for Fortrea with top KOLs and networks in Metabolic diseases to facilitate the smooth transition of trials from the design stage to the operational stage. Peter earned his bachelor degree from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. from Rutgers University. He joined the company in 2015.

Victor Angélico, MD, is a Senior Medical Director for Fortrea, based in Paris, France. He provides clinical and medical expertise to project teams and other Fortrea departments to advance clients’ drug development programs. Dr. Angélico performs medical monitoring on assigned projects; reviews protocols, case report forms and other data and materials, and contributes to the scientific leadership of the Oncology area at Fortrea with a special focus in early phase clinical studies and hematological malignancies. 

Dr. Angélico is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Oncology with 16 years in the clinic and has significant medical and pharmaceutical expertise with 14 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Before his current position, he served as Senior Medical Officer for Chiltern, France and as Medical Director at IQVIA France. Dr. Angelico joined our company in January 2019.

Dana has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and CRO industry, with 9 years at Fortrea.

Her clinical research experience spans across global project management and drug development in a broad range of therapeutic areas including neuroscience, in which her expertise lay in several psychiatric indications such as ADHD and schizophrenia, as well as Alzheimer’s disease, and acute and chronic pain indications.

Her experience with Phase I to III studies includes pediatric and adult populations, DEA schedule II and III drugs, in-patient and emergency room/critical care settings, as well as with a variety of drug delivery devices (transdermal, sub-lingual, intranasal, etc.) and diagnostics.

Dr. Leone Atkinson, MD, PhD, is Executive Medical Director and Therapeutic of Neuroscience and Ophthalmology. A neurologist with a doctorate in medical genetics, she trained at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC and the University of British Columbia, Canada.

With over 23 years in clinical drug development across pharma, biotech, and CROs—including Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, PTC Therapeutics, Covance, Labcorp and Fortrea—she has led programs in neurodegeneration, autoimmune disease, neuropathic pain, rare neurological diseases.

A scientific reviewer for NINDS and former adjunct instructor at Rush University, Dr. Atkinson is also an alumna of the Elevate Women’s Executive Leadership Program.

Leone is based in the U.S.

Liliana Baila, MD, is Senior Medical Director for Fortrea, based in Brussels, Belgium. She serves as lead project physician on clients’ drug development projects. Dr. Baila provides medical/scientific support to project teams, performs medical and safety monitoring on assigned projects, and develops and reviews protocols, case report forms and other data and materials. Dr. Baila has more than 25 years of experience as a physician, research clinician and medical director. Before joining Fortrea, she served as Clinical Research Physician for the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) in Brussels. Dr. Baila began her career as a physician training in neonatology and pediatrics at University Hospital in Romania. She joined our company in June 2020.

Moez Benali, MD, PhD, Senior Medical Director at Fortrea, also member of our global medical team, holds a medical degree and board certification in oncology supported by a PhD in molecular biology and anti-cancer drug development. He has over 22 years of overall working experience, 17 of which have been within the pharmaceutical industry (J&J, GSK, BMS, SOBI and Novartis Oncology) across Europe. As a well-rounded medical affairs and clinical development strategist, he has led activities across the life cycle drug development, and registered and launched 11 drugs at EMA, nine of them being the standard of care. 

Dr. Benali is a member of several cooperative groups such as ELN, EORTC and EBMT and head of Oncologues Sans Frontières. He joined our company in October 2022.

Publications

• CAR-T-Cell Therapy in Multiple Myeloma: B-Cell Maturation Antigen (BCMA) and Beyond

Maria Ignacia Berraondo, MD, is Executive Medical Director and Head of Americas Oncology Therapeutic Expertise. Is a board-certified medical hematologist based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dr. Berraondo has +12 years of experience in clinical research, providing clinical and medical expertise to project teams and other Fortrea departments to advance clients’ drug development programs and contributing to the planning and execution of the scientific strategic leadership of the Oncology-Hematologic therapeutic area.

She manages a team of high-performing medical monitors who are part of the North America and Latin America oncology team. She leads the Hematologic Leadership Center at Fortrea, and contributes to strategic partnership development in the region.

Publications

• Equitable inclusion of diverse populations in oncology clinical trials: deterrents and drivers
• Antibody-drug conjugates, immune-checkpoint inhibitors, and their combination in advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Carmen Besliu, MD, is Senior Medical Director in Bucharest, Romania. She serves as global lead project physician on clients’ drug development projects and provides medical/scientific expertise to project teams. Dr. Besliu reviews medical data and other materials, is responsible for medical and safety monitoring, and provides training in disease states and protocol-specific requirements to advance knowledge of good clinical practices across the company. She has more than 25 years of experience as a physician, research clinician, medical affairs head, and medical director. Before joining Fortrea, she was Oncology Medical Affairs Head for Novartis Pharma Services in Bucharest. She also has held medical affairs and clinical research positions with Baxter Healthcare, Sandoz, Roche, and AstraZeneca. Carmen joined our company in February 2021.

Publications

• The Evolving Landscape in Multiple Myeloma: From Risk Stratification to T Cell-Directed Advanced Therapies

Olga Bodriagova, MD, PhD, is a Medical Director in Oncology for Fortrea Clinical Development Services, based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Dr. Bodriagova has more than 20 years of experience in oncology clinical drug development as an Investigator, CRA and Medical Monitor in all phases of clinical development projects from early phase to post approval in different therapeutic areas, mainly oncology and women’s health. Dr. Bodriagova is serving as global lead project physician, providing medical and safety monitoring on assigned projects. 

Dr. Bodriagova earned her medical degree from the Kyiv Medical Institute in Ukraine and completed OB/GYN residency at the Kyiv City Hospital #2. Dr. Bodriagova received an oncogynecology certification from the Kyiv Institute of Postgraduate and defended her PhD thesis in the field of endocrine gynecology. She joined our company in 2014.

Publications

• Bladder Cancer, Loss of Y Chromosome, and New Opportunities for Immunotherapy
• Recent Advances in Gynecological Malignancies: Focus on ASCO 2023

Sarah Bolger-Ford is Senior Director within the Ophthalmology section of the Strategic Delivery and Growth group at Fortrea, based in the UK. She has a PhD in Physiology from King’s College London (UK) and has more than 26 years in the industry, from trainee CRA, through project management to her present position, and joined our company in November 2006. ​

She works with the pre-award team to provide client’s with tailored proposals, supports study teams in strategic delivery of awarded work and contributes to the growth of the ophthalmology portfolio.

Sarah is passionate about being part of the development of sight preserving and sight restoring solutions for patients.​

Sarah is based in the UK.

Patrícia Andrade Brandalise, MD, is a boarded clinical oncologist in Brazil since 2005. Dr. Brandalise earned her MD and MsC degrees at Campinas State University (UNICAMP), Brazil, and received her oncology qualifications in the Campinas Institute of Oncology. She is an active member of the Brazilian Society of Oncology. 

Dr. Brandalise has more than 18 years of experience in clinical oncology with clinical, investigational and administrative responsibilities and 15 years serving in pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Fortrea, Patrícia worked for Janssen and Abbvie as Medical Director for Latin America in the Hematology and Oncology Business Unit. She also served as Oncology Medical Leader for Roche Brazil implementing several compassionate use programs in Latin America, preparing and delivering launches for new molecules/indications. She also has been designing and implementing Phase I-II-III-IV trials in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, México, Peru, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Korea and Australia, many as lead physician.

David Brock, Senior Director for Strategic Delivery and Growth, is based in the UK and has over 35 years of experience in clinical research. Since qualifying as a Microbiologist in 1988, he has worked in Project Management, Clinical Operations, Biostatistics & Clinical Data Management, Medical Writing, Regulatory Affairs, and Strategy at Sponsor companies, CROs and in the UK’s National Health Service. As the Divisional General Manager at a General Hospital leading the General Medicine services, he gained experience of working with all aspects of internal medicine. He has broad experience of clinical trial strategy across all Phases.

Amber Burg is the Therapeutic Area Delivery Head for Neuroscience and Ophthalmology at Fortrea. She has more than 27 years of industry experience from a Clinical Trial Associate through CRA and Project Management across multiple therapeutic areas and joined our company in 2001. She develops strategy and provides delivery oversight for the Neuroscience and Ophthalmology portfolio at Fortrea. Amber’s passion for patients is demonstrated by the strategies she implements to reduce patient burden and getting new products to market by delivering studies quickly and with quality.

Amber is based in the US.

Andrea Buschiazzo, MD, MBA, is a Senior Medical Director at Fortrea, a Board-Certified Rheumatologist and a Clinical Pharmacologist (University of Buenos Ares). At Fortrea, she offers therapeutic area expertise in inflammation and autoimmune diseases as well as global clinical development. 

Dr. Buschiazzo is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and provides medical leadership on projects teams, medical/scientific consultation and therapeutic expertise globally. She oversees study specific medical/safety monitoring activities, ensuring compliance with ethical, legal and regulatory standards as well as Fortrea and Sponsor SOPs, representing the Medical Affairs department in business development activities. 

She started her pharmaceutical career with Merck Sharp & Dohme in Medical & Scientific Affairs and Clinical Development, working in multiple therapeutic areas as an Associate Director before moving to a regional clinical development leader role at Servier for LATAM. Later, she worked at Kendle (then INC) as a Global Project Director and was responsible for successful development programs leading to registration of several innovative products before becoming a Managing Director at ICON. 

Dr. Buschiazzo has 33 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and CRO industry and 34 years in clinical practice. She completed a fellowship in autoimmune diseases at the Clinic Hospital in Barcelona. She published many articles and posted abstracts at the main Rheumatology Congresses (ACR/EULAR/SAR). 

She has provided global medical monitoring services and therapeutic advisory in almost all autoimmune diseases including Systemic Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Gout, Psoriatic Arthritis, Spondyloarthritis, Paget’s disease, Sjögren’s Syndrome, Vasculitis, Juvenile Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Fibromyalgia. She has experience as Global Project Director and Medical Monitor for 10 Lupus studies, including Lupus Nephritis (Phase II-III) and the trials running prior to the approval of belimumab as the first biologic for SLE.

Oxana Bzhadug, MD, PhD, is a Medical Monitor of Fortrea's global team, based in Moscow, Russia. Dr. Bzhadug has significant medical and pharmaceutical expertise with 14 years in the industry. Dr. Bzhadug received extensive scientific and clinical experience as a medical oncologist at Cancer Research Center (Moscow, Russia) for nine years. She has more than 23 years of experience in clinical trials, starting as sub-investigator in Phase I-III clinical trials and continuing in the industry supporting Phase I-IV trials within biotech (Amgen) and CRO. 

Dr. Bzhadug earned her Medical Degree in Moscow Medical and Dentist University and completed her Medical Oncology Fellowship in Cancer Research Center (Moscow). She has PhD degree in molecular biology of Breast Cancer. She joined our company in 2019.