Horton International, North America has successfully placed Elizabeth Luczak as the Vice President of R&D Quality Assurance for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a leading global biotech bringing transformative medicines to people with serious and life-threatening diseases around the world.
Vertex discovered and developed the first medicines to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis (CF), a rare, life-threatening genetic disease. In addition to clinical development programs in CF, Vertex has more than a dozen ongoing research programs focused on the underlying mechanisms of other serious diseases.
Founded in 1989 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Vertex today has research and development sites and commercial offices in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia. For eight years in a row, Science magazine has named Vertex one of its Top Employers in the life sciences.
The focus of the search was to identify a leader capable of formulating and implementing the next evolution of Quality within Vertex by transforming the function from a compliance function focused on “staying out of trouble” to a trusted business partner enabling the Vertex organization to continue to focus on what it does best – providing patients with transformative medicines – with compliance as the byproduct.
Horton International conducted a global search focusing on candidates with executive level Quality experience in high-performance drug development environments. After considering multiple candidates, Vertex leadership selected Ms. Luczak, an experienced, innovative leader with more than 25 years pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience across multiple functions and disciplines at Sponsor and CRO organizations. Her record of staff engagement, retention, development and growth across global organizations with various organizational models is second to none.
“Elizabeth’s track record as a transformative and strategic change-agent, coupled with her proven accomplishments within evolving and complex environments will be a terrific addition to Vertex’s Global R&D Quality Assurance team. We are thrilled to have found an executive of her caliber to continue to build on Vertex’s record of success,”…
…said Molly Robb, Managing Director, Global Life Sciences and Healthcare Venture Capital and Private Equity Search Practice, who led the search from the firm’s Boston office.
For additional information and the latest updates from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, please visit www.vrtx.com.
