PATRICK LOERCH, PH.D.
GLOBAL HEAD, DATA SCIENCES & PREVENTION BIOMARKERS
WORLD WITHOUT DISEASE ACCELERATOR
As Global Head, Data Sciences & Prevention Biomarkers, World Without Disease Accelerator (WWDA), Patrick leads a team focused on developing strategic data science efforts to enable the prevention, interception and cure of the WWDA’s targeted disease areas of focus. This includes identifying relevant cohorts, clinical trial designs, and predictive analytic approaches, as well as developing key biomarker discovery and subsequent validation efforts to drive regulatory and clinical submissions. Patrick also helps identify emerging bioinformatic, machine learning and other data science platforms for investment and integration into the overall WWDA efforts.
Patrick has over 15 years of experience in healthcare, leading data sciences teams across the spectrum of healthcare research, from genomics-based target and pathway identification to observational patient studies. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Patrick held a leadership role at Celgene, where he led the real-world data organization responsible for building comparator patient cohorts to support the clinical, market access and regulatory needs of Celgene’s CAR T therapies. In that leadership position, he also oversaw the establishment, alignment and implementation of a company-wide stage-gate process to guide the creation and use of real-world evidence supporting Celgene’s entire oncology pipeline.
Patrick is a recognized change agent with experience that spans start-ups, integrations, pharmaceutical companies and strategic partnerships. Prior to joining Celgene, Patrick co-founded a start-up called Shift Medical, focused on establishing an on-demand, digital market place connecting nurses with open shifts at local hospitals and nursing homes. Prior to founding Shift Medical, Patrick spent seven years at Merck & Co where he led informatics teams in both the IT and R&D organizations.
Within IT, Patrick managed the build versus buy strategy in support of Merck’s target identification and validation pipeline; this included the integration of informatics capabilities during the Merck and Schering merger. Within R&D, Patrick and his team supported the neuroscience therapeutic area, conducting integrative genomics analyses to identify the pathways underlying the onset and treatment of schizophrenia.
Patrick started his career at Rosetta Inpharmatics, a genomics start-up based in Seattle that was acquired by Merck. He holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Washington State University and a Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Harvard University.