Expertise in Action: The Women Driving Innovation Across the Life Sciences Lifecycle

Pascale Cousin

Medical Device Director

Guiding Innovation from Idea to Regulatory Reality

Innovation often begins long before a product exists. Pascale Cousin works with companies at the earliest stages of development, helping innovators determine whether their solutions should be classified as medicinal products, medical devices, or other regulated technologies — decisions that fundamentally shape the path to market.

Her role combines deep regulatory expertise with strategic advisory, supporting organizations when uncertainty is highest and regulatory complexity can appear overwhelming.

By helping clients translate scientific concepts into viable development strategies, Pascale contributes to building the regulatory foundations that enable innovation to move forward confidently.

“Regulation is not a barrier — it is a playing field. Understanding its rules opens the path to innovation.”

In a rapidly evolving regulatory environment influenced by emerging technologies, cybersecurity, and AI, excellence means maintaining curiosity, agility, and continuous learning. For Pascale, PLG’s strength lies in its collective expertise — an international network capable of guiding innovation through complexity with clarity and confidence.

Mita Patel

Service Area Lead, Marketing Authorisation Services

Turning Regulatory Complexity into Market Access

Operating at the intersection of regulatory science and global coordination, Mita Patel leads complex multi-country submissions supporting pharmaceutical companies across Europe.

One engagement that illustrates her impact involved guiding a global pharmaceutical partner through coordinated regulatory strategies across multiple manufacturing sites and product portfolios. The challenge required harmonizing documentation, aligning regulatory and commercial priorities, and maintaining procedural timelines despite authority delays and evolving expectations.

Her work extends beyond technical execution to strategic orchestration — ensuring collaboration between regulatory, clinical, pharmacovigilance, and project management teams.

“Regulatory complexity is not a barrier—it’s a framework for better decisions when structured correctly”

Through proactive planning, transparent communication, and risk anticipation, Mita helps clients accelerate approvals while safeguarding compliance — directly supporting faster access to medicines across markets.

Elisa Elena Mariano

P&R and HTA Strategy & Support Service Area Manager

Building Trust Through Strategy and Transparency

For Elisa Elena Mariano, impact is measured not by a single project but by the trust built across many engagements. Combining a scientific background with healthcare management expertise, she supports market access and HTA strategies that balance analytical rigor with stakeholder alignment.

One defining experience involved leading a national HTA project where initial client skepticism evolved into long-term partnership after transparent communication and realistic strategic positioning demonstrated tangible results.

Her approach emphasizes honesty and clarity — presenting strengths and limitations openly while aligning expectations with achievable outcomes.

“Competence makes the difference — but only when communicated with transparency and respect.”

Elisa sees leadership as enabling others to succeed. Transitioning from an  individual contributor to a team leader reshaped her perspective: success is no longer individual achievement but collective growth.

Marta Comellas

Outcomes Research Lead

Bringing the Patient Voice into Decision-Making

Healthcare innovation is increasingly measured not only by clinical efficacy, but by the real impact treatments have on patients’ lives. Marta Comellas works at the intersection of science, patient experience, and healthcare decision-making, ensuring that the patient perspective becomes a measurable and actionable component of medical innovation.

Through outcomes research and the development of patient decision aids (PDAs), Marta helps translate complex scientific evidence into tools that empower patients to participate actively in treatment decisions. These initiatives contribute to transforming the traditional physician-centered model into a more collaborative patient–physician relationship.

Her work plays a key role in advancing value-based healthcare (VBHC), where medical decisions are guided not only by clinical outcomes but also by the quality of life and priorities of the people receiving treatment.

“Data provides information, but patients provide purpose.”

Over the past decade, Marta has also witnessed a significant cultural shift within healthcare. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs), once considered subjective, are now recognized as essential evidence in clinical research and healthcare evaluation. By applying rigorous scientific methodologies to measure patient experience, her work ensures that the patient voice becomes reliable data that informs both regulatory and strategic decisions.

Ultimately, Marta’s work contributes to making healthcare systems more responsive, sustainable, and aligned with what truly matters to patients.

Lorenza Ricacho

Regional Head of Patient Safety,  Commercial Eyes (Australia)

Scaling Patient Safety Across the Asia-Pacific Region

In an increasingly globalized pharmaceutical landscape, ensuring patient safety across multiple regulatory jurisdictions requires both strategic oversight and operational precision. Lorenza Ricacho leads pharmacovigilance strategy and delivery across the Asia-Pacific region, helping pharmaceutical companies build scalable safety systems that support international growth while maintaining strict regulatory compliance.

One engagement that illustrates her impact involved supporting a rapidly expanding pharmaceutical client across Japan and the broader Asia-Pacific region. The project focused on transitioning from locally managed safety operations in Australia to a fully integrated regional pharmacovigilance framework. This transformation established compliant reporting pathways, strengthened oversight structures, and improved coordination between global and regional teams — enabling the client’s safety infrastructure to scale alongside its growing portfolio.

Balancing speed to market with regulatory rigor proved one of the key challenges. By building governance structures designed to evolve with the client’s expansion, Lorenza helped transform a transactional engagement into a trusted long-term partnership.

“Bringing clarity and structure to complexity in order to protect patients.”

Through her work, Lorenza contributes to advancing life sciences by ensuring that robust pharmacovigilance systems support safe, compliant, and efficient access to medicines worldwide. By translating regulatory complexity into practical, scalable solutions, she enables organizations to navigate evolving regulatory environments while keeping patient safety at the center of every decision.

Angela Petrigliano

Engineering CoE Director

Leading Industrial Excellence Through People and Merit

Industrial excellence plays a critical role in the life sciences ecosystem. Behind every medicine reaching patients lies a complex manufacturing environment where operational rigor, engineering expertise, and strong leadership ensure quality, safety, and reliability at scale.

Angela Petrigliano brings more than two decades of experience in pharmaceutical operations and industrial leadership. Her career began in logistics and warehouse management at Bayer and evolved into increasingly strategic roles, including Head of Operations and plant leadership positions in both multinational and privately owned pharmaceutical manufacturing sites. Over time, she has led multidisciplinary teams spanning engineering, maintenance, and production operations.

Today, as Engineering CoE Director at ProductLife Group, Angela coordinates and guides multiple engineering teams supporting pharmaceutical manufacturing environments. Her work focuses on optimizing processes, strengthening operational efficiency, and ensuring that facilities, equipment, and technical systems meet the highest standards of quality and regulatory compliance.

Leading technical teams in environments historically dominated by men has been one of the defining challenges of her career. For Angela, leadership is built through credibility, transparency, and the ability to create a culture where people are empowered to grow and challenge themselves.

“Competence, determination, and passion have no gender.”

By combining technical expertise with people-centered leadership, Angela contributes to creating high-performing teams capable of managing complex industrial environments. Ultimately, her work supports the production of safe and effective medicines — demonstrating how operational excellence and engineering discipline are essential pillars in advancing life sciences.

Carolina Ahrendt

Principal Consultant, Regulatory Affairs 

Turning Regulatory Strategy into Market Approvals 

Behind every successful drug approval lies complex coordination between science, regulation, and execution. Carolina Ahrendt operates at this intersection, helping pharmaceutical companies navigate the final and often most demanding stages of development as they prepare regulatory submissions and move toward commercialization.

Throughout her career, Carolina has supported multiple U.S. marketing applications that ultimately received FDA approval, including therapies in oncology, rare diseases, and schizophrenia. These projects were particularly meaningful because they involved emerging biotech companies transitioning from research-focused organizations into commercial-stage companies — a transformation that requires both regulatory leadership and disciplined program execution.

Her work focuses on aligning teams, timelines, and regulatory strategies across multidisciplinary stakeholders working under aggressive development schedules. By bringing structure and clarity to complex development programs, she helps organizations maintain momentum even when unexpected obstacles arise.

“I help clients bring their products to market so patients have better treatment options.”

Within PLG, Carolina values the collaborative culture that spans countries and service areas, enabling teams to solve complex regulatory challenges together. By translating regulatory strategies into executable plans, her work ultimately supports the timely approval of therapies that expand treatment options for patients worldwide.