Thomas Schoenknecht has over 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry in various leading roles such as project management, research & development and business development. Before joining SHL in 2013, Thomas was head of global Key Account Organization at Schott Pharmaceutical Packing Division with a specific focus on new product developments addressing customer needs. Prior to Schott, Thomas worked at Amgen Inc California as Director of Drug Product and Device Development, where he oversaw and managed Amgen’s global drug delivery container projects and interfaced Amgen’s drug delivery device platforms. Finally, previous to Amgen, Thomas headed up the Research & Development activities at Gerresheimer’s Pharmaceutical Packing Division and was leading the Product Management and Business Development activities of this division for sterile drug delivery solutions.
Thomas has a Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry from the Max-Planck-Society and the University Goettingen, Germany and a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University Goettingen. He is a frequent speaker, moderator and committee member at conferences regarding drug delivery and packing material science; Thomas was heading the PDA interest group for prefilled syringes and being active as member in various DIN ISO committees regarding primary packaging materials and drug delivery devices.
Thomas Schönknecht is currently an Executive Director, Business Development at SHL Group, responsible for global Business Development, Key Account Management and new Technology Evaluation within SHL’s Medical division.
- Why did you decide to do a webinar with us?
Webinars offer an excellent platform for an open interactive exchange with our business partners regarding important topics driving our industry. As such, you need to find a provider who can offer an advanced platform and should be seen among the leading webinar providers with an excellent reputation to offer presentation content of interest to our targeted audience. After thorough evaluation, we are very happy to be working with Business Review Webinars, who can provide a robust platform and has been able to help us reach our targeted audience.
- What will the audience gain from attending your webinar?
Devices for drug delivery are becoming a more vital factor for the success of a new drug being launched to the market or later during life cycle management. To have a successful device development program some few basic prerequisites need to be fulfilled – such as the selection of the drug container, HF studies, and final packaging. This webinar will highlight the most important ones and provide insight through real case studies on how a device development program should be planned and executed.
- Who or what inspired you to get into the industry?
My interest for the pharmaceutical industry was first fostered and later induced through scientific work on my masters and later my Ph.D. thesis, where I analyzed the molecular structure of biomolecules that can become a target for new medical applications or even a new lead structure which can be converted later on into a new therapeutic. Working at the forefront, identifying new therapeutics and later establishing robust drug delivery solutions for these new drug substances gives you a good feeling, as you are working in a field where you help to make the life of people a little bit better.
- What’s the most useful thing someone has ever taught you?
I had the opportunity to learn how to do research and development during my masters and Ph.D. time in the lab of Manfred Eigen, a Nobel laureate in Chemistry. The most valuable thing I gained from my scientific work and from him, was self-reflection and how to analyze given issues or challenges from different perspectives, which enables me to identify the optimal solution for a given task based on a complete understanding of the problem at hand.
5. Where would you recommend visiting in the world and why?
For me as a person having lived on various places and on different continents, every new place I am going to for business or vacation does reveal its own magic and beauty if you are open minded and willing to explore it without prejudice. However, if you are interested in device technology in addition, I can clearly recommend to visit Taiwan and our headquarter in Taoyuan near Taipei.