Remembering 

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As the beginning of spring season is fast approaching, leaving memories of the grey winter days and morning frost, we wanted to share some of our recent news with you.

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The month of March has been an exciting time for us, culminating with the news of an exceptional person joining our board.  Last week we announced the appointment of Dr. Zsuzsanna Devecseri, MD, MBA, to our Board of Directors. Zsuzsanna is an exceptional biopharmaceutical business executive who brings extensive leadership experience to SMDG as we are growing our R & D and several programmes.  Zsuzsanna is a passionate physician and scientist and has worked for decades in leadership positions at Abbott, Sanofi, Genzyme, and now at Novartis on lifesaving therapies for patients. We know that she is bringing her passion to help patients and her outstanding pharmaceutical expertise and advice to SMDG.

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 I know all of you celebrate the International Women’s Day on March 8th, like us.  We are slowly changing things better for women, whether it is through lifesaving therapies, advancing women’s health or changing the way women are promoted or how we support and invest in women founded companies. Many women and men are contributing to these changes every day through their efforts.  That is why it was an honor to attend a session on March 8th titled, “One Woman’s Inspirational Journey to lead a Biotech company”. I was thrilled to be invited by some of the amazing women of Arvinas to join them for the International Women’s Day celebration and for a Fireside chat.  Arvinas is a clinical-stage biotechnology company leading the way in the development of targeted protein degradation therapeutics, based in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.  I joined Dr. Angela Cacace, Senior Vice President of Neuroscience and Platform Biology; Dr. Katie Digiananitonio, Sr. Research Scientist; Ms Zully rivera-pacheco, Senior Planning Specialist, Strategic Operations for a virtual fireside chat to speak about some of our own experiences as women working in the life sciences industry and lessons learned.  Thank you, Angela, Katie, Zully and Ms. Deborah Kroeger, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition who initially invited me.  The events this year remind us of the power of remembering our accumulative efforts and responsibilities.

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As you know over the last few years we have received a number of recognitions and awards in recognition of our work and therapeutic platforms. However, I feel that the recognition we received late last month by the SME News brings our work to the attention of the public and shows the importance of our work to a broader public community.  I am therefore honored to be recognized for the CEO of the year by the SME News. 

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Finally, as always our greatest responsibility, focus and mission is bringing our life saving therapies to patients. That work could be done through partnerships and your support.  Therefore, do not hesitate to reach out, get in touch and meet us at any of the upcoming meetings we will be at this year.  Please send us a meeting request to meet with our team at the next event or conference. 

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Please keep in touch.

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Shadi

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March 2024