Senior Medical Advisor - Rare Disease, France

As Senior Medical Advisor, you will lead the French medical strategy and launch readiness in rare CNS (central nervous system) diseases. You will develop and execute the affiliate medical plan, build scientific partnerships with expert centres and key stakeholders, generate and share actionable medical insights, and support evidence-generation and publication activities. As a member of the cross-functional brand team, you will provide medical leadership to regulatory, market access and launch-readiness work, while maintaining scientific independence and compliance. The position is mostly office-based, with frequent travel to meetings, customer visits and conferences.


Key Responsibilities:

• Own the French medical pre-launch and launch plan for a new treatment in rare CNS diseases, including milestones, budget, risks and launch-readiness governance.
• May line manage up to two Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs).
• Map the rare disease environment, including diagnosis and referral pathways, expert and reference centres, registries and unmet needs, and maintain deep scientific expertise in the therapy area and product data.
• Develop and execute compliant engagement plans with experts, healthcare professionals, scientific societies, patient organizations and caregivers, and lead advisory boards, expert meetings and congress activities.
• Capture and communicate medical insights to shape medical strategy, evidence generation and cross-functional launch decisions.
• Develop the affiliate evidence-generation and publication plan, including real-world evidence, research collaborations and investigator-initiated research, and oversee medical studies, grants and sponsorships within agreed governance.
• Provide non-promotional medical input to the French access strategy with Market Access and Regulatory, and partner with Pharmacovigilance, Compliance, Supply and regional and global teams.
• Create and deliver scientific training materials and review promotional and regulatory materials for medical accuracy and compliance with Shionogi SOPs, GCP, ICH guidelines and French requirements.

We are looking for an experienced, scientifically credible Medical Advisor with a genuine passion for rare disease and a patient-first mindset. You are a proactive, entrepreneurial self-starter who learns a new therapy area quickly and builds trusted relationships with experts, healthcare professionals and patient organisations. You bring maturity, integrity and strong interpersonal skills, and you thrive both as a collaborative team player in a cross-functional environment and when working independently.

Requirements:

• Degree in pharmacy, biology, medicine or equivalent; Master's or PhD.
• Minimum 3–5 years' experience as a Medical Advisor.
• Experience in rare diseases.
• Experience working with patient advocacy groups.
• Experience working cross-functionally with sales and marketing teams.
• Demonstrated ability to enter a new therapy area and rapidly become knowledgeable in the disease area and product data.
• Understanding of health economics.
• Practical knowledge of handling medical information queries.
• Computer literacy, including literature searching (PubMed/MEDLINE) and familiarity with commonly used technology.
• Fluent French and English.
• Experience working within affiliate or country teams in a medical function is a plus.
• Flexible when the business requires it, and able to travel, including internationally, to scientific congresses and Shionogi meetings.