More than three years ago, Olivier Leconte got in contact with other industry leaders to form the Pharma Statistical Programming Heads Council (SPHC). Similar to PHUSE, this council initially kicked off in Europe, with statistical programming heads from J&J, Bayer, GSK, Novartis, Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim and Merck.

The goal of this group was to build an informal network to discuss non-competitive topics, such as general people development, career opportunities and digital transformation challenges.

After successful and valuable inaugural meetings in Europe, Olivier extended the invitation to join to global statistical programming heads based in the US. As a result, the Top 30 pharma heads now meet on a regular basis to exchange on industry-relevant topics.

The Pharma Statistical Programming Heads Council subgroup who worked on the SCE White Paper. Front row: Marie-Claude Laramee, Delyth Jones, Sheetal Patel Back row: Joseph Rowley, Sascha Ahrweiler, Olivier Leconte, Holger Dach, Mark Bynens, Des Burke

PHUSE has been a great supporter of this network right from the get-go. For example, the global SPHC use the PHUSE Microsoft Teams channel to collaborate and exchange relevant presentations. Even more importantly, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SPHC reached out to PHUSE for support on COVID-19 industry approaches related to statistical programming. The COVID-19 White Paper was an outcome of this effort.

Whenever possible, the group tries to meet face-to-face. PHUSE Connect events are a perfect opportunity for this as many global Statistical Programming Heads Council members will be in attendance. After two years of virtual meetings, the council members are delighted to meet in person in Atlanta for the US Connect 2022.