Pharma News

Woman of the Week: Gamida Cell’s Abbey Jenkins

This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.

Welcome to the Woman of the Week podcast, a weekly discussion that illuminates the unique stories of women leaders who are catalyzing change throughout the life sciences industry. You can check out all our podcast episodes here.

Since taking the helm of Gamida Cell as president and CEO nine months ago, Abbey Jenkins has negotiated a follow-on public offering; secured a financial partner; primed the company for the launch of its first product; and navigated changes to the company’s board. Undaunted by the pressures of being a first-time CEO, Jenkins is leaning into her decades of experience as a commercial and business development leader to propel the 20-year-old cell-therapy company into its next stage.

“I wanted to be the CEO of a company with a meaningful product or products where we could make a difference in patients’ lives and have the ability to create value for shareholders and create a market for products like these,” Jenkins said.

Gamida Cell received approval in April for Omisirge, which Jenkins said is “the first allogeneic stem cell transplant therapy to be approved on the basis of a global, randomized phase 3 clinical study.”

“I was excited to join the company because of the science and the product and the team,” Jenkins noted. “The science we’re building is unique and simply elegant. Our NAM or nicotinamide technology enables us to expand and enhance cells. When I was contemplating this opportunity and talking to the board of directors, I was incredibly excited about Omisirge … this is a potentially curative and lifesaving therapy.”

Jenkins has had a lifelong interest in science and, while pursuing an honors degree in microbiology,  she took a class called “Marketing of Biotechnology,” which “changed everything.”

“I had never thought about business or thought of myself as a business person and this was the pivot from scientist to business person,” she said.

In the late 1980s, Jenkins joined the industry as a sales rep for Pfizer, which was in the midst of launching Viagra. She was inspired by the leadership advice of the then CEO Bill Steere, who noted that “anybody who was going to get into this industry and be here for the long term needed to learn it from the front lines.”

“I went from being a government scientist, that’s literally what my business card said, to a Pfizer sales rep,” Jenkins said. “My very first manager asked me, ‘Where do you want to be in 10 years? Where do you want to be in 20 years?’ I was thinking I’m just trying to learn this job, but those are good questions. Luckily from a very early timeframe, she pushed me to think more long term.”

During that early part of her career, Jenkins, a 2022 PharmaVoice 100 honoree, said her time at Pfizer was like going to the “Harvard of pharmaceutical training.” Afterward, she went on to roles with increasing responsibility, including C-suite and executive positions at Lyndra Therapeutics, Emergent BioSolutions and Aquinox Pharmaceuticals.

One of the biggest lessons she’s learned since being named CEO is to trust her instincts and be bold.

“My biggest, ‘I’m sure every CEO probably feels this way,’ (thought) is: Don’t think you’re moving too fast. Often you regret not moving fast enough, and one of our values at Gamida Cell is to be bold,” she said. “I look forward to moving even faster going forward. I would tell my nine-months-ago self, which sort of feels like nine years ago at this point, to trust your instincts and move as quickly as the company needs you to move, as the patients need you to move, as the shareholders need you to move — and trust yourself.”

Here, Jenkins shares how leading with clarity and courage creates transformative change, her secrets to maintaining balance and boundaries, and why thinking big is key to building a fulfilling and “limitless” career.

 

Welcome to WoW, the Woman of the Week podcast by PharmaVoice powered by Industry Dive.

In this episode, Taren Grom, editor-in-chief emeritus at PharmaVoice, meets with Abbey Jenkins, president and CEO, Gamida Cell Ltd.

Taren: Abbey, welcome to the WoW podcast program.

Abbey: Thanks, Taren. I’m excited to be here.

Source link
#Woman #Week #Gamida #Cells #Abbey #Jenkins

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *