James Wabby is the Global Head, Regulatory Affairs - (CoE) Emerging Technologies, Devices, and Combination Products at AbbVie in Irvine, California. He has 22 years of experience in increasing quality compliance and regulatory affairs responsibilities within the GxP regulated environment pertaining to Nutritional, Cosmetic, Branded Pharmaceutical, Generic, Biologic, Medical Device and Combination Product areas. James received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Duquesne University and received his Health Care Compliance Certificate from Seton Hall University Law School. He is a member of various regulatory and quality work groups including RAPS, OCRA and the ASQ Orange Empire Section.

Dr. Karthik Balasubramanian, Ph.D is Vice President for CMC and Technical Operations at Verrica Pharmaceuticals. He has over 15 years of experience in all phases of medical device and combination product development, from R&D to Technical Operations. Prior to joining Verrica, he has worked in numerous combination product and device areas in roles of increasing responsibility, from syringes to large scale diagnostic systems, as well as in sterile injectables, topicals, transdermals, and respiratory products. He has a bachelors in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University, and a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University.

Dr. Bano is the Vice President of Combination product Quality at Amgen. She is a Physician, with a Masters in Clinical Research (UCSD), Pharmaceutical engineering Certification, a Database Administrator and a certified Project Management Professional. She is an Abbott President’s award winner, avid Toastmaster and a certified coach. Khaudeja has more than 25 years professional experience, including patient care. She has held several global safety positions at Guidant, Abbott (multiple divisions like Vascular, Diagnostics, and Established Pharma), and AbbVie Inc. She currently serves as the working group chair of the Combination Product Coalition's Post-marketing Safety Reporting team.

John Barlow Weiner is the Associate Director for Policy in the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Combination Products, which is tasked with ensuring the sound and consistent regulation of combination products and also with the classification and assignment for regulation of medical products (drugs, devices, biological products, and combination products).

Jonathan has over 16 years of multidisciplinary background in regulated medical products (drugs, biologics, medical devices, and combination products) with practical experience in Development/Engineering, Quality Assurance, and Regulatory Affairs for various types of products and a focus on drug delivery. Other areas include digital health (connected devices and SaMD), IVDs, along with clinical development (bridging) and LCM. Jonathan is engaged with the global community by speaking at conferences, lecturing in courses, serving key roles within prominent industry organizations, and interfacing with regulators on a variety of topics. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and is an ASQ CQE and CMQ/OE.

Chin-Wei Soo is the Global Regulatory Head, Combination Products, Devices, and Digital Health at Roche/Genentech. He is accountable to provide technical regulatory oversight to Roche’s entire device, combination product, and digital health portfolio, covering all large (BLA) and small molecules (NDA) throughout the product lifecycle. Chin has 18 years of regulatory and quality experience, including strong expertise in combination products and digital health.

Demetra Macheras is currently Director, Regulatory Policy and Intelligence at AbbVie. She assesses and coordinates comments on proposed regulatory policies for the U.S., Canada, ICH, and WHO regulatory environments and ensures appropriate AbbVie personnel are aware of emerging and final regulatory policies. She also provides regulatory and strategic support to global project teams. Demetra has over 27 years of industry experience and has held positions in Regulatory Affairs, QA, Compliance, and Operations. Demetra is also active in a number of external industry associations.

Dr. Darin Oppenheimer is an Executive Director of the Drug Device Center of Excellence focusing on Medical Devices and Combination products at Merck. After spending 15 years working in Regulatory Affairs and Development for various organizations within the Medical Device and Pharmaceutical industry, Darin knows how to strategically maneuver the regulated industry to develop and bring products to market.

Karl Saldanha is an Associate Regulatory Program Director at Genentech where he focuses on regulatory strategies associated with development and marketing approval of devices and combination products. He has 10 years of industry experience spanning roles in process engineering, manufacturing, and regulatory. He holds a B.S. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco Joint Graduate Program.

Michael is the Global Regulatory Therapeutic Area Lead at Otsuka Pharmaceuticals Development & Commercialization covering multiple Therapeutic Areas including Digital Medicine/Digital Therapy, Cardio/Renal and medical devices. He is accountable for the regulatory strategy in the development of several products in these therapeutic areas and led the first FDA approved digital medicine. Michael has 19 years of experience within the regulatory space covering the U.S., E.U., Japan, and other key geographical areas and has strong expertise with combination products and digital medicine.

Suraj Ramachandran, MS, RAC, is a Director, Regulatory Affairs in the Device and Digital Health Center of Excellence at Merck. With over 10 years of experience, Suraj is currently responsible for supporting various medical devices and combination products, such as pre-filled syringes, inhalers and contraceptives. In addition, he is heavily involved in providing guidance for digital solutions and has led many development efforts regarding medical device software. Suraj is also an active participant on the TransCelerate Patient Technology Workstream and leads the Regulatory sub team within this initiative. Suraj holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from the University of Michigan. In addition, he has earned the RAPS RAC Certification.

Experienced Medical Devices, IVD and Combination Product Expert with over 40 years of experience, including 24 years working at the U.S. FDA CDRH. Author of the 1996 Medical Device Quality System regulation and member of the authoring group for Combination Product GMPs in Part 4. US Expert on GHTF and IMDRF 1991-2016, working with Regulatory Agencies around the globe. At FDA conceived and developed the Medical Device Single Audit Program (MDSAP) and in the private sector opened an Auditing Organization and a new Notified Body in Ireland for EU IVDR/MDR Designation. Executes regulatory and QMS services to include consulting, auditing, and education. Masters degree in Biomedical Engineering.

Mike Benecky joined GSK in October 2011 as Senior Director, Global Regulatory Affairs in located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Mike is a Subject Matter Expert in the Regulatory Aspects of Digital Medicine. Successful projects at GSK included launch of the MyAsthma mobile medical device app in the UK, execution of the PARADE Virtual Clinical Study in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients and implementation of digital adherence technology within respiratory medicine clinical trials. In April 2020, Mike joined UCB as a Senior Director, Global Regulatory Affairs where he provides regulatory strategy for UCB Teams seeking to implement wearable sensor technology in clinical trials.

CAPT Melissa Burns is a Senior Program Manager in FDA’s Office of Combination Products (OCP). In this role, she is responsible for coordinating activities related to combination product review and regulation including development and review of guidance documents, regulations, and procedures and policies. Prior to joining OCP, Melissa worked for several years in FDA CDRH. Melissa worked for several years in the private sector including positions with a medical device manufacturer, a hospital, a healthcare architecture firm, and a consulting firm. Melissa received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech and a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Connecticut.

Sue is a Director in Global CMC Regulatory Affairs with GSK. In her role she is responsible for leading the Mature Products Respiratory CMC Regulatory team developing strategies to support manufacturing site change projects and is a Subject Matter Expert for Devices and Combination Products. Sue joined GSK in 1988 as an analyst leading the analytical development of respiratory products. She moved to regulatory affairs in 2002 continuing with GSKs respiratory products; spanning clinical trial, marketing application and post-approval variation global submissions. Sue has a BS in Chemistry & Toxicology, and an MSc in Pharmaceutical Analysis & QC. She is active on the IPAC-RS Board of Directors, CPC Steering Team and associated Working Groups.

Stephanie Kelly has over 20 years work experience in the biotech, medical device, and pharmaceutical industries as well as the legal field having worked at GlaxoSmithKline, the Pennsylvania Department of Health Legal Department, Ratner Prestia, Pfizer and Siemens Healthineers prior to joining CSL Behring in November 2018 as the North America lead for Regulatory Intelligence and Policy. Stephanie has served in Regulatory & Standards Policy roles since 2013, She has been active in the Combination Products Coalition (CPC) since joining CSL Behring and now serves as the vice-chair of the International Affairs working group. Stephanie is also active in both BIO and the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine regulatory policy working groups.

As a partner and Managing Director, Christina is responsible for the operations and technical oversight of Human Factors MD. Christina is an expert at translating research findings such as user needs, requirements, product strengths, and weaknesses into compelling design directions and solutions. She brings over 15 years of experience in human factors having spent more than 5000 hours in surgical suites, medical device usability studies, and outpatient facilities. She has presented papers to the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the American Psychology Society, and has been providing multiple workshops and lectures on navigating the various HF Guidance documents.

Mr. Nguyen is the Director of the Office of Combination Products (OCP) since January 2008. OCP is primarily responsible for making jurisdictional determinations, ensuring timely premarket reviews, ensuring consistent and appropriate post-market regulations, and developing policy, guidance documents, and regulations. Mr. Nguyen joined the agency in 1993 as a scientific reviewer in the Office of Device Evaluation (ODE), Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). From 2000 - 2007, Mr. Nguyen was the Chief of the Pre-Market Approval Program in CDRH where he was primarily responsible for ensuring the uniform and consistent application of the PMA regulations and policies across CDRH and CBER.

Robin M. Weinick, PhD. brings 25 years of experience to her DIA role as Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Americas, and Global Program Officer.Robin joins DIA from RTI International, a large, nonprofit research institute dedicated to improving the human condition. She also has served as Associate Director for Health at the RAND Corporation, a premier U.S.-based think tank, and on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She began her career in federal service with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She holds a B.A. in Health and Society from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. on Population Dynamics from Johns Hopkins University.

Tim joined AstraZeneca in 2007 to lead a team responsible for developing delivery devices for AZ’s new drug portfolio. This encompassed all dosage forms and had a significant focus on inhalation and injection devices. Tim’s current role is to lead the Medical Devices & Combination Products group within AstraZeneca Regulatory Affairs. The group is responsible for developing and implementing regulatory strategies and processes for both new and existing medical devices and combination products. This encompasses conventional pharmaceuticals, biologics and AZ’s activities in Digital Health. Tim is a leading member of a number of medical device & combination product industry groups and associations.

Mike has over 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, ranging from QC labs to CMC development and Regulatory Affairs. He has worked with a variety of combination products, including drug eluting intrauterine devices, prefilled syringes, and most recently received one of the first FDA approvals for a mobile app in combination with a drug and autoinjector.

Kristina Lauritsen, PhD serves as a Combination Product Policy Advisor within the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the FDA. In this role, she is responsible for engaging in development of CDER's policies related to combination product review and regulation, including activities such as guidance development, facilitating coordination with the FDA's Office of Combination Products, CBER and CDRH, and representing CDER in cross-center combination product working groups. Prior to joining CDER in 2014, she spent four years in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, followed by seven years in the Office of Combination Products. She holds a B.S. in Biology from Shippensburg University.

Dr. Keith Morel is VP of Regulatory Compliance at Qserve Group, one of the largest European-based medical device consulting companies. He has worked in the medical device industry since 2000. Prior to joining Qserve, he was Senior Director or Regulatory Compliance at Accuray. Keith was also a Senior Project Manager for DEKRA Certification for 9 years. During his time at DEKRA he was a quality system and regulatory lead auditor, as well as a design dossier reviewer. He performed more than 100 audits and 200 Design Dossier/Technical File reviews. Before DEKRA, Keith worked in R&D in various roles as Engineer, Manager and Director, for several technologies including IVUS catheters and super-oxidized water products.

Armin Ritzhaupt, is a scientific administrator at EMA providing regulatory support to development, evaluation and surveillance of medicinal products for human use. He provides regulatory support to the Innovation Task Force and leads on activities related to the implementation of the new medical device and in vitro diagnostic regulations. Armin worked in industry from 2002 to 2015 in different roles in clinical development and global regulatory affairs before joining EMA. He holds PhD in biochemistry from the University of Liverpool, and a Masters of Global Public Health from the University of Manchester. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in virology at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), FDA.

Rob Berlin is Head of U.S. Regulatory Policy at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Rob leads a team focused on driving U.S. regulatory policy, advocacy, and intelligence activities, to ensure optimal advancement and lifecycle management of GSK’s product portfolio. Rob came to GSK from the FDA where he most recently served as the Director of the Division of Clinical Policy within the Office of New Drug (OND) Policy, an office he helped to establish as a founding member of the leadership team. Prior to joining OND Policy, Rob worked in CDRH, FDA’s Office of Policy, and in the Office of Chief Counsel. He began his career at Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells) after completing his law degree and M.P.H. in Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota.

Susanne Fornero-Quaak is a pharmacist by training with a PhD in pharmaceutical development of a plasmid DNA vaccine from the University of Utrecht. Susanne started her professional career as project pharmacist at the Dutch Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She then worked as a formulation scientist at HAL Allergy in Leiden, The Netherlands, before joining BSI in 2017 as a medicinal expert. In this function she reviews medicinal dossiers of device drug combinations, coordinates consultations with national competent authorities and EMA and assists in the preparation of notified body opinions for art 117 devices.

Shannon is the President of Agilis Consulting Group, an assistant professor in the Quality Science Education program at Pathway for Patient Health and is active on several standards and conference committees for medical devices and combination products. In addition to 20 years in industry as a systems engineer, Shannon also worked as Team Lead for Human Factors in FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) and as human factors reviewer within the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Division of Medication Error Prevention and Analysis (DMEPA). At the FDA she led reviews of Human Factors data for premarket submissions through 510(k), PMA and De Novo as well as NDA, BLA, ANDA pathways, and IND and IDE requests.

Manfred Maeder PhD: Manfred Mäder is Head Device Development & Commercialization in TRD (Technical Research and Development). Prior to this, he held the position Head of Global Compliance & Audit for Devices & Combination Products overseeing all Alcon, Pharma, and Sandoz sites producing this type of products and Global QA Head of Technical Research and Development at Novartis Pharma starting in February 2011. Prior to this position he was Senior VP of Quality Management & Regulatory Affairs, at Ypsomed, a company producing Medical Devices and Combination Products starting in 2007. Previously, he was responsible for Quality Assurance Management at Sanofi-Aventis for the Frankfurt Injectables site. Before then, being based in Kansas

Sarah Mollo serves as a Combination Product Policy Analyst and Product Jurisdiction Officer in CDRH. Prior to joining the CDRH combination product policy team, Sarah was a lead reviewer and biocompatibility consultant for general hospital devices branch for 3 years before serving the team lead for injection products within OHT3/OPEQ/CDRH. Sarah earned her bachelor’s in Microbiology and Cell Science from the University of Florida and her doctorate in Immunology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Prior to joining the FDA she was a post-doc at Harvard University.

Paul has 28 years of experience as a human factors professional working in the healthcare industry including combination product development, pharmaceutical dosing form delivery, implantable devices and medical software. Paul joined AbbVie in 2013 leading pipeline biopharmaceutical product human factors efforts and is now the director of human factors within combination product development in R&D. Paul has a Master’s degree in human factors / applied experimental psychology.  He is also a standing member of both the AAMI and IEC human factors standards boards.

By education biomedical engineer with a Master degree in business administration. Julia gained experience in development, regulatory approval of combination devices and ATMP products. She was further involved in the development of standards for ATMP products. Currently Julia Frese is heading the division of Medical and Health Services at TÜV SÜD Japan and is responsible for the development of article 117 service within the organisation. She is further co-chair of the Team NB working group for article 117.

CAPT Irene Z. Chan received a B.S. in Pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Rutgers University. CAPT Chan currently works at the Food and Drug Administration where she serves as Deputy Director in the Division of Medication Error Prevention and Analysis, responsible for leveraging her knowledge of regulations, human factors, and risk management to provide oversight of safety recommendations regarding drug nomenclature, labels, labeling, packaging, and product design.