img1

Pills don’t teach skills


Working for Roche over the last three months gave me an opportunity to work with passionate colleagues in an entrepreneurial environment, to get a deep understanding of the challenges individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders are facing and to gain a wealth of knowledge about digital solutions in healthcare as well as insights into how pharmaceutical companies can better foster innovation in this area.


Originally half Bulgarian, half Russian, I spent most of my last 12 years in the UK pursuing my university education in International Relations and Management followed by working in London for a life science-focused consulting company before enrolling in an INSEAD MBA programme and landing this great opportunity with Roche.

I became passionate about life sciences due to a personal family story which showed me first-hand the life-changing impact that advancing our medicines can have on people’s life.

In my current position at Roche, I am leading a business case creation for a digital platform that will enable autistic individuals to achieve their full potential.

Compared to my previous experience, my time at Roche has  given me an opportunity to work with digital health products – something I’ve never experienced before and which turned out to be quite different from working on pharmaceuticals.

The Innovation & Sustainability (I&S) programme helped me to develop because  it allowed me to learn about the digital space in Pharma and understand the internal decision-making process, as well as meet many wonderful people!

To people who are interested in the I&S programme I would recommend to be curious and be ready to come with a solution-focused mindset – most of my interview was not about myself, but about how we can solve the problem together with my team.

Interested in the Innovation & Sustainability Programme? Click here for more information.

Curious to learn more about our programmes at Roche? Click here.
img1
img1

Digital expertise is a new core competency pharmaceutical companies can no longer do without.
-The Digital Pill: What Everyone Should Know about the Future of Our Healthcare System.

Our impact

My work at Roche helps bring digital innovation to millions of individuals with autism. In addition to many strengths, many of them also struggle to achieve their goals, like going to university, due to lack of certain skills. Our digital solution empowers them and their caregivers and therapists to identify personalised skill gaps, which can ultimately enable the delivery of the right treatment and the monitoring of their progress in a standardised and systematic way. On top of the scientific contributions, my work contributes to propositions of effective business models that would best allow sustainable and patient-centric digital solutions to reach patients early.

The place to Work

I’ve met many humble, intelligent and caring people during my time at Roche and received a lot of support from my project team, which empowered me during my time here. Coming from a consulting background, I’ve also enjoyed a much better work-life balance, which allows me to spend more time on my interests outside of work and with my family!

Our culture

I am constantly impressed by the collaboration culture at Roche – whenever we needed an input from an expert, we could always find the right person to help us even if we had never met them before and be sure that they would find a bit of time in their busy schedule to brainstorm with us! This significantly reduced the amount of work we needed to do, but also increased its quality.