WASHINGTON — June 17, 2024 — DIA, a global organization of life sciences professionals, is honoring five recipients with its annual Global Inspire Awards for their leadership, commitment, and success in improving health and well-being during a ceremony at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego.

The Global Inspire Awards recognize individuals and organizations that have made outstanding improvements to global health while advancing DIA's mission of providing a neutral environment to share the latest developments in healthcare.

This year's recipients are:

• Dr. Shun Lu, Professor and Chief of Shanghai Lung Cancer Center, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University is being honored with the Excellence in Service Award. The award is given to someone who has consistently advanced DIA's mission and provided outstanding service as a DIA volunteer. With Lu as the DIA China advisory council chairman, DIA has doubled the number of participants at its China Annual Meeting and built a business operation and financial model for the future. Lu has also developed and chaired the DIA China Oncology Drug Innovative Forum in Shanghai, which was designed to accelerate China’s innovative cancer drug development and fulfill unmet oncology patients' needs, for the past three years.


• Nimita Limaye, the Research Vice President of Life Sciences R&D Strategy and Technology at IDC, is receiving the Global Connector Award, which spotlights someone who advances DIA's mission and promotes global collaborations. She has directed life sciences customers on diverse initiatives such as the use of real-world data and has championed technology adoption in drug development and the benefits of decentralized clinical trials. Limaye, who has held leadership roles at contract research organizations (CROs), consultancies, and pharmaceutical firms, has been an active contributor to DIA since 2008.


• Kamila A. Novak is being honored with the Community Engagement Award as a DIA Community Chair who consistently drives engagement while advancing knowledge and thought leadership. Novak, who has been actively involved in clinical research since 1995, established her firm, KAN Consulting, in 2010. She co-chairs DIA's clinical research community and is a core team member of the good clinical practice (GCP) and quality assurance (QA) community. She also leads working groups on computer system validation and data interoperability and participates in working groups on clinically meaningful outcomes and project management.


• Judith P. ter Horst, a Regulatory Consultant at Zwiers Regulatory Consultancy BV, is being named the Author of the Year. The award is given to the author or group of authors whose article made the greatest impact on readership as determined by the number of downloads reported by Therapeutic Innovation & Regulatory Science in the preceding issue year. Ter Horst was the lead author of "Implementation of Quality by Design (QbD) Principles in Regulatory Dossiers of Medicinal Products in the European Union (EU) Between 2014 and 2019," published in January 2021, which had more than 6,600 views in 2023 and has been downloaded more than 15,000 times.


• The Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership (GARDP) will be honored with the Global Award for Outstanding Contribution to Health. Headquartered in Geneva, GARDP focuses on accelerating research and development, as well as ensuring access to treatments for drug-resistant bacterial infections. Through partnerships with public, private, and non-profit entities, GARDP aims to maintain the power of antibiotics for generations to come.

"The caliber of this year's Global Inspire Award recipients demonstrates the remarkable expertise and dedication found within the DIA community," said Marwan Fathallah, DIA's President and Global Chief Executive. "Their work underscores the crucial roles vision and perseverance play in driving meaningful scientific progress."

Recipients of DIA's Global Inspire Awards, aside from the Author of the Year, must receive two nominations from active members of the organization to be considered a candidate. Those candidates then undergo an extensive vetting process before a committee comprised of Fellows of DIA decides the winner.

The awards are being presented in conjunction with the DIA 2024 Global Annual Meeting, the world's preeminent multi-disciplinary life sciences forum. Thousands of biopharmaceutical experts, regulators, innovators, academics, and patients have gathered in San Diego for the event in the pursuit of scientific breakthroughs.

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