Med Ad News 2024 Marketer on the Rise: Sarah Hansen
Med Ad News 2024 Marketer on the Rise: Sarah Hansen
Sarah Hansen is associate director, US Patient Marketing Metabolics, Alexion. She was nominated by Snow Companies.
It’s common for individuals working in biopharma to have one great “superpower.” Maybe they’re exceedingly intelligent, maybe they’re gifted with business acumen and organizational abilities, or possibly they have outstanding people skills. Only few individuals can be outliers in all three of those dimensions. Sarah Hansen is one of those rare people who can do it all and do it well. And she puts all of her talent in the service of patients.
The Yale graduate entered the healthcare space as a registered nurse. She worked in the emergency department and the pediatric ICU unit, where she first began directly impacting the patient journey — providing critical support for those in need, while bringing her characteristic combination of tenacity and empathy to her work. Hansen made the switch to biopharma 10 years ago, when she joined Alexion as a OneSource Senior Case Manager. In this role she was able to engage with patients in their treatment journeys by providing disease education, funding and access assistance, connection to community resources, and ongoing support. During her tenure in case management, she supported patients in all three of Alexion’s business units – including several of the HPP Stars who she now supports in a different capacity via Alexion’s STAR Ambassador program.
When Hansen was tapped to join the US Metabolic Marketing department, she brought with her that sense of patients being more than patients and more than customers: they’re people who happen to share the same medical condition. For that reason, it was important to her to guide the entire marketing process by what patients really want and need, empowering the patient voice.
Working closely with Elizabeth Grice, Director, U.S. Patient Marketing Metabolics, Hansen led Alexion’s national patient programming to spread HPP and STRENSIQ awareness. She helped bring the entire branded and unbranded materials portfolio to life along with several award-winning patient educational resources to life. This included a top-of-the-line disease education kit, an HCP starter kit, and an expanded social media footprint. On top of that, she mentored interns in marketing, business, strategy, and project management.
Outside of work, Hansen is very involved in the cultural community, serving in leadership roles of various nonprofits that bring musical and theatrical productions to the community and give aspirational young artists a platform to hone and showcase their craft.
