I joined AstraZeneca in 2013, as a Senior Statistician in Discovery Sciences. Before becoming a Statistical Team Leader in Early Clinical Development, I supported project teams as statistical lead across multiple disease areas.  In 2020, I stepped into the role of Head of Early Respiratory & Immunology statistics, managing a global team of statisticians in the design, planning, analysis and reporting of early clinical trials. I bring a combination of experience from multiple therapy areas and stages of drug development, and a wide operational expertise. I have been co-leading innovation workstreams such as the Seamless Ph2/3 and Early Phase Endpoints, represented early statistics at governance interactions and contributed as a Global Product Statistician and Biometrics Team Leader across BioPharmaceuticals. After an MSc in Engineering Physics, I directed my PhD research towards stochastic modeling and analysis of the developing mouse embryo. Continuing the stochastic modeling track, I held a postdoc at Fraunhofer Chalmers Centre for Industrial Mathematics focusing on PK/PD modelling of non-esterified fatty acids in pre-clinical models.

My work connects directly to AstraZeneca’s mission of being a patient-centric BioPharmaceutical company in the way that we as statisticians always have novel tech in the forefront of what we're doing. We are trying to find ways of doing our clinical trials more efficiently and better suited to patients’ needs, by applying statistical learning, AI and other data science tools.

Sofia Tapani Head of Early Respiratory & Immunology Statistics, Executive Director Statistics, AstraZeneca

2021

Featured Speaker on Statistical Leadership in Pharma, Day of Statistics at Swedish Statistical Society

CURRENT ROLE

Head of Early Respiratory & Immunology Statistics, Executive Director Statistics, AstraZeneca

2020 Current role

Accountable for the strategic and operational planning and delivery of Early Statistics contributions to the Early Respiratory & Immunology, Vaccines & Immune Therapies and Neuroscience therapy areas. A core part of my role is to lead the quantitative strategy within my team, drive innovation and deliver clear messages that guide decision making.

2017 Principal Statistician Early Clinical Development

Responsible for the statistical strategy within clinical drug project work, providing support to projects in the early clinical phase I/II. This includes design, planning, evaluation and documentation of clinical trials and programmes. I was working with innovative clinical trial design such as Basket/Umbrella designs in the Cardiovascular area. My role was very much a leadership role acting as a statistical expert within the project team and coaching colleagues in training and support.

2011 PhD in Mathematical Statistics at Chalmers University in Gothenburg

My PhD, presented at Gothenburg University and Chalmers university of Technology, November 11, 2011, was directed towards stochastic modeling and time series analysis of the developing mouse embryo. Continuing the stochastic modeling track I’ve held a postdoc at Fraunhofer Chalmers Centre for Industrial Mathematics focusing on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modelling of non-esterified fatty acids in pre-clinical models. This collaboration was a joint program together with AstraZeneca and led to a permanent position as lead statistician within pre-clinical statistics.

Veeva ID: Z4-66289
Date of preparation: July 2024