Jean-François Ricci is the CEO and Principal Consultant of Wellmera. Since establishing the company in 2011, Jean-François oversees the management of Wellmera AG and the Management Team. He has eighteen years of experience, including the last five years in consulting and 13 years in the pharmaceutical industry, working at the global level as well as regionally in the US. Jean-François has extensive experience in developing global and regional pricing, health economics, and commercial strategies, and delivering fact-based solutions to maximise commercial impact for pharmaceutical assets.
Prior to founding Wellmera AG, Jean-François was a core member of senior global multidisciplinary teams in the pharmaceutical industry, leading pricing and reimbursement, market access, and health economics teams for early launch and in-line products/franchises. His expertise encompasses oncology, general therapeutic areas (e.g. cardiovascular, diabetes and neuroscience), and specialty care (e.g. transplantation, immunology, and ophthalmology).
Jean-François holds a Doctor of Pharmacy from the Université Claude Bernard, Lyon, France. He holds a PhD in Clinical and Administrative Sciences and an MA in Business Administration from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA, US. Jean-François has authored and co-authored many peer-reviewed journal publications and presentations at conferences across several disease areas and methodological topics.
Daniel Muscionico is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Wellmera and a member of the Management Team. Daniel brings to his position extensive experience from managing life science companies. At Wellmera, he will lead the Basel Team and will set up operations and processes to help Wellmera transition into its next growth phase, coordinating its activities in Switzerland and the US.
Daniel most recently served as Chief Operating Officer at a global regulatory life sciences consulting firm targeted towards biotech, medtech and pharma ventures. Daniel helped the company grow and establish its leadership within the industry thanks to optimized operations. He has been responsible for managing day-to-day international operations and overseeing HR, Finance, Corporate IT, Legal and Compliance, and Business Development.
Previously, he was CEO of the OFAC Group, a shared services company for healthcare professionals contributing to several national digital health and smart data projects. He has a particular interest in data protection and patient rights issues. His expertise encompasses management of information and health systems, GDPR / ISO 27001 certifications, and ensuring convergence of services and technology.
Being confronted daily with access and funding issues as part of his business activities, he graduated in 2005 at the Geneva School of Economics and Management earning an Executive MBA in Management Finance. His dissertation topic related to managed care and new compensation models in healthcare systems, such as capitation.
Daniel values building scalable solutions for better healthcare delivery and establishing market access conditions that saves lives.
Daniel holds a Doctor of Pharmacy from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He also holds an MPH Degree (Master of Public Health) from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer at the Geneva University Institute of Global Health delivering courses in public health, health economics and market access to students following the Master of Pharmacy and Master of Global Health curricula.
Ahmad Bechara is a Director at Wellmera with over fourteen years of experience in both the pharmaceutical industry and academic research.
He is responsible for a wide range of global pricing and market access deliverables across several therapeutic areas, including cardiometabolic, hematology, oncology and rare diseases. Ahmad provides strategic insights and recommendations on clinical trial design to maximize market access and reimbursement opportunities. He is involved in the development of global pricing and market access strategies, evidence gap analyses, and payer objection handling tools. Ahmad designs and facilitates product workshops and training for countries to help countries prepare for HTA submissions, payer negotiations, and communication on the value of their products. Additionally, Ahmad has developed for global teams ATC and DDD strategies and submission dossiers to the World Health Organization.
Prior to joining Wellmera, Ahmad worked at the Global Market Access Cardio-Metabolic franchise of Novartis Global (Basel, Switzerland) where he was involved in pre-launch and launch preparations of several assets. He managed market insight collection and digital tools for payer and KOL engagement and developed a business case for creating a new stock-keeping unit to reduce drug wastage.
Ahmad holds a Ph.D. in Genetics and Neuroscience from the University of Claude Bernard in Lyon, where he researched the molecular mechanisms of topographic brain map formation and plasticity. Ahmad has authored and co-authored several publications in the genetic and neuroscience fields.
Catia Proenca is an Associate Director at Wellmera and a member of the Management Team, where she works on real-world evidence and market access projects. Catia is involved in the management and design of real-world evidence studies, from prospective observational research to cross-sectional studies, including patient and caregiver-reported outcomes. She contributes to the development of market access strategies aimed at communicating the value of medicines to key stakeholders, preparing a positive environment to support the uptake of products by identifying gaps and advising on evidence generation, and conducting marketplace analyses to understand the competitive environment.
Catia has over thirteen years’ experience in both industry and academic research. Prior to joining Wellmera Catia worked in Real-World Evidence Cardio-Metabolic franchise at Novartis Global (Basel, Switzerland) where she was involved in the design and publication of non-interventional observational studies. Prior to that, Catia worked at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research for her postdoctoral research in autism.
Catia holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York and the University of Lisbon, where she researched the molecular mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders. Catia has authored and co-authored several publications in the field of neuroscience, cardiology and oncology. She is currently enrolled in a MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Isabella Sormani is a Senior Consultant at Wellmera and a member of the Management Team with five years of experience, both in the pharmaceutical industry and consulting. Isabella is involved in health economics and market access projects supporting pricing and reimbursement processes in several disease areas, with a focus on oncology and neuroscience, developing market access strategies, supporting clients in the coordination of payer advisory boards, providing strategic insights, and developing global value dossiers and payer objection handlers.
Prior to joining Wellmera, Isabella worked at Novartis Farma S.p.A. (Origgio, Italy) as a Medical Information and Communications Manager across several therapeutic areas (e.g. multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease). Her responsibilities included monitoring local drug regulations, and developing and finalizing the scientific documentation for the master dossiers needed to obtain regional and local product listings. She then held positions in which she gained experience in the evaluation of in-licensing opportunities, collaborating with drug and business development departments and supporting management teams.
Isabella holds a MSc in Industrial Chemistry and Management from the University of Milan, Italy and a specialized Master’s Degree in International Healthcare Management, Economics and Policy (MIHMEP) from the Bocconi School of Management, Milan, Italy.
James Milnes is a Senior Consultant at Wellmera with over 12 years of experience in drug discovery and development in the biotechnology industry. James is involved in market access projects, providing strategic insights, developing global value dossiers, and payer objection handlers to support the pricing and reimbursement processes in many disease areas, including oncology and rheumatology.
Prior to joining Wellmera, James raised over £4.5 million to fund early drug discovery and development, collaborated on securing over €16 million for academic-industrial research partnerships, and was the lead biologist on out-licensed drug programs with contracts totaling over €120 million. James has hands-on experience in the planning and execution of research and development projects across a variety of therapeutic areas such as cardiac arrhythmias, metabolic diseases, (e.g. diabetes, obesity), and chronic immunologic/inflammatory disorders, (e.g. multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis), which has resulted in over 28 peer-reviewed publications and over 50 presentations at international conferences.
James holds a first-class BSc in Physiology from the University of Bristol, UK, a PhD in Cardiac Medicine from the National Heart and Lung Institute, UK, and a Research Diploma from Imperial College School of Medicine London, UK.
Giuseppe Gulotta is a Senior Consultant at Wellmera. Since June 2016, he has been working across different market access and HEOR projects. He has supported global market access teams in preparing the launch of innovative oncology drugs and has contributed to the development of global evidence packages to support evidence of the clinical, economic, and humanistic value for early launches of oncologic drugs.
He has experience in real-world-evidence projects with tasks ranging from literature reviews to the management of real-world outcomes research studies. Also, he has contributed to the management and preparation of training workshops on HTA and health economic models for breakthrough therapies. Giuseppe has participated in the design and conduct of several payer negotiation workshops and training on flexible pricing solutions and combination pricing in the EU5, CEE, Middle-East and Latin America.
Giuseppe holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biotechnology and a Master’s Degree in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Siena, Italy. He also holds a PhD in Medical Microbiology from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany, and a Master’s in Healthcare Management (MIHMEP) from the SDA Bocconi, Milan, Italy.
