Annette Bak, PhD, MBA

Bio:

Annette Bak, PhD, MBA leads Advanced Drug Delivery at AstraZeneca and serves on the Pharmaceutical Sciences leadership team. Advanced Drug Delivery has the mission to transform diverse modalities, small molecules and new modalities alike, into investigational medicines and is a global organization based in Sweden, UK and US.

Since joining AstraZeneca in 2016, Dr Bak has been instrumental in delivering new modality formulations for clinical studies, notably VEGF mRNA for cardiac regeneration, building intracellular drug delivery capabilities, and sponsoring initiatives on augmenting drug discovery with artificial intelligence. 

Dr Bak previously worked for Amgen and Merck in the US with responsibility for small molecule and peptide formulations, building outsourcing partnerships in China, in-licensing and partnership evaluations, and contributing to getting small molecule therapies to the market.

Dr Bak has published more than 40 articles, has more than 35 invited presentations, and serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She holds several patents for pharmaceutical technologies enabling drug delivery of small molecules and biologics.

A key volunteer in the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), she is the President for the association and responsible for leading implementation of  the 2021-2025 strategic plan and ensuring that the AAPS communities are thriving. Dr Bak was the 2020 co-recipient of the AAPS Alice E Till Women in Pharmaceutical Science Recognition, honoring women who has made significant contributions to the to the mentorship, advancement and support of women in the pharmaceutical sciences.