Lisa Sinclair is the senior vice president of corporate operations at Arvinas Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company in targeted protein degradation therapeutics in oncology and neurosciences.
In this role, Sinclar leads corporate operating model planning and is accountable for strategic sourcing and management; technical operations; quality, environmental health and safety; IT and security; and facilities management. She has more than 25 years of biopharmaceutical experience, specializing in strategic operations, portfolio management, and new product development planning from preclinical to launch.
Before joining Arvinas, Sinclair served in operational and strategic roles of increasing responsibility in biopharmaceutical and rare disease biotech companies.
What have been your biggest professional accomplishments so far?
One of my biggest accomplishments is building and implementing team and governance operating models that optimize the value of new innovative medicines.
These models enable cross-functional collaboration and integrate insights inside and outside of the business to aggressively accelerate the path to health authority approval. Ultimately, these approaches are adaptive and allow for efficient development of medicines focused on the right pathway, data and plan.
Value is created through focusing on the greatest unmet needs and opportunities for patients, while significantly reducing drug cycle timelines and cost.
A key example occurred during our development of Ultomiris in life-transforming rare diseases at Alexion. The model and prioritized planning approach for Ultomiris was unprecedented in speed and delivery. This enabled the team to significantly reduce development timelines to approval 50% faster than industry benchmarks.
My experience in a range of operational roles from large biopharmaceutical companies to midsize and startup biotechs has given me a unique perspective on what is possible and how to partner with R&D, commercial and administrative colleagues and teams to ensure robust plans that rapidly deliver therapeutic opportunities to key milestones and ultimately to patients.
What’s the next big goal you want to accomplish professionally?
My next big goal is to support our Arvinas team in advancing vepdegestrant through regulatory filings to patients. Vepdegestrant is a potential first-in-class PROTAC therapy for breast cancer and would be the first launch for our company. This is very exciting for our entire team.
What’s one of the biggest professional challenges you’ve overcome?
Raising capital for two successful IPOs at rare disease biotech startups in Connecticut was a tremendous challenge. SpringWorks Therapeutics was my first experience in fundraising for an early-stage company. My previous experiences were in management roles at revenue-generating global commercial-stage biotech and biopharmaceutical companies.
There were many learnings. One personal realization was that one’s expertise and capabilities from larger companies can be useful and efficient when adapted to the needs of a startup.
How are you involved in the community?
For the past few years, I served as the co-chair of Executive Women In Bio (WIB) for Connecticut. WIB is an organization of professionals committed to promoting the careers, leadership and entrepreneurship of all women in the life sciences.
As the co-chair of our steering committee, we organize and implement programming, networking engagements, speaker events and mentorships, and engage with the life sciences industry and academic communities in Connecticut.
This has been an amazing opportunity for me to partner with incredibly brilliant leaders to advance women’s professional development and career paths in the life sciences business and board room.
What legacy do you want to leave after your career is over?
Throughout my career in pharma/biotech, I have been very fortunate to work with and learn from incredibly talented teams and diverse leaders across R&D, commercial and corporate functions.
It is important to me to be an engaged and thoughtful leader who leaves a legacy of enabling successful teams, inspiring colleagues, and developing emerging leaders while always doing what is right for patients and the business.