Lionel Bascles Sanofi
Lionel Bascles joined Sanofi in 1998, after a few years as a teacher at university and a researcher in academia. During his career in pharmaceutical industry, Lionel has worked in Business Development, International Clinical Trials, and Project Direction & Management. He also spent three years (2003-2006) in Singapore where he set up and developed the Clinical Study Units from Asia Pacific region, including China, for Sanofi.
In 2010, Lionel was one of the key leaders in Transforming Sanofi RnD and establishing the Clinical Sciences & Operations (CSO) platform, integrating all expertise required to design, conduct, analyze, report studies, and dossiers for Sanofi, across the portfolio.
Lionel has been heading the CSO since June 2016. He brings to this role his scientific and operational experiences, his leadership in clinical development, a strong cultural, people and patient sensitivity.
Since 2016, Lionel has been active in fostering innovation inc. digital in clinical development operations, engaging his team into building a comprehensive digital & innovation roadmap. This mid long-term objective requires humbleness and good partnerships with innovative start up, biotech or more established partners. It does also require keeping patients, sites and people at the center, understanding how technology, new approaches and best practices may enable sites and teams, and more importantly increase benefit for patients.
Lionel strongly believes that AI/digital technologies should enable
- all patients in accessing more easily trials,
- sites in facilating their participation in trials reducing the technology and administrarive burden,
- Study team members, in making faster decisions.
AI/digital should also help in addressing critical goals and core values such as increasing diversity and equity in clinical trials and heathcare, as much as reducing the carbon impact; providing that human remain at the center (Responsible AI).
Among key initiatives, Lionel was responsible for the creation of Sanofi’s Making Investigator Lives Easier (SMILE) program that revamped site engagement leading Sanofi to #1 on the CenterWatch Survey for the past few years. Additionally, under his leadership Sanofi’s embarked on now what is a 12-year roadmap whereby patients inform 100% of all our clincial programs. Lionel is also one of the main Sanofi champions of plai, the industry-leading application, developed by Aily Labs, that generates new insights to support Sanofi teams daily decisions.
What the future holds for Lionel? His focus is 2-fold:
- Accelerate the pace of digital transformation to speed breathrough to patients
- Collaborate within Sanofi and externally (e.g. Beacon of Hope, BMGF, any site & patient association,..) to improve diversity, equity and inclusion at Sanofi, in clinical trials and healthcare
Lionel is the CEO of Sanofi Recherche & Development (France), anf also proud to sponsor the PRIDE+ at Sanofi. Lionel hold a PhD in Biochemistry from Bordeaux (France) University, where he was a sessional lecturer during his PhD and post-doctoral lab work.
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