Dr. Vasilisa (Vaska) Sazonov is the Head of the Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolic (CRM) Commercial team at Novartis International (Basel, Switzerland) and an Observer to the Board of Directors at Anthos Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA). Vaska brings over two decades of comprehensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with a diverse skill set across commercial operations, strategy development, general management, market access and health outcomes research, both in Commercial and R&D divisions. She has published and lectured widely on such topics as access to medicines and innovative private-public partnerships.
Currently, Vaska is the Head of the Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolic (CRM) Commercial team at Novartis International. She plays a pivotal role in steering the company’s CRM strategy for the international business, bridging science and commercialization throughout the product lifecycle, and co-creating a future-focused cardiovascular portfolio. She brings broad experience in cardiovascular diseases (such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, atrial fibrillation and heart failure) from her time at Merck & Co. (MSD), as well as overseeing programs in complement-driven renal diseases at Novartis. Vaska has been with Novartis for the past two and a half years, initially as the head of Global Access and Therapy Area Policy, and later, as the global head of the eXploratory Therapy Area that included renal, ophthalmology, and acute/critical care portfolios.
Prior to working at Novartis, Vaska held key leadership roles at AbbVie, Allergan, and spent 15 years at Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD). She has had a number of global, regional and local roles leading pipeline strategy, global market access and pricing, customer solutions, and she was the general manager of MSD Slovenia. Vaska has a PhD in Pharmaceutical Economics from Purdue University, a Master’s in Health Economics from the University of York and a PharmD from the University of Ljubljana. Vaska lives outside London with her husband and two children.