Principal Research Scientist - Modeling and Simulation

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Tik Tok.

The Local Delivery Translational Sciences (LDTS) organization at AbbVie, leads the strategy, generation, analyses, interpretations, and reporting of non-clinical data and communications/agreements with global regulatory agencies in the areas of Translational Pharmacology, Non-clinical Pharmacokinetics, Exposure-Response, Immunogenicity, and Biopharmaceutics.  The organization supports all phases of non-clinical development, supporting all new molecular entities across multiple therapeutic areas.

The organization is responsible for defining the relationship between drug exposure (e.g., concentrations in blood/ local tissue) and efficacy and safety measures in non-clinical models to select the optimal dose, dosing intervals, and biomarkers for FIH studies.

The organization provides critical support for conducting technical due diligence of new business opportunities (both in-licensing and out-licensing) by assessing probability of success for achieving the Target Product Profile (TPP). It also contributes to responses to defend our intellectual properties and extension of patent protection, provides critical support for life-cycle management of marketed products, responds to questions from post-marketing safety, legal, pharmaceutical manufacturing and regulatory for marketed products world-wide, and publication of scientific information in patents and manuscripts.

The Principal Research Scientist – Modeling and Simulation is an onsite role based out of our Irvine, CA location. 

As a member of multidisciplinary teams, this individual will contribute both Pharmacokinetic and Modeling and Simulation (M&S) expertise to lead efforts to build in silico drug models that describe the relationship(s) between exposure (drug, antibody, biomarker) and response (pharmacodynamic,) for both desired and undesired effects.  These models will support formulation development as well as early-stage clinical development activities utilizing various sources of data from both nonclinical models and humans.  This individual should be comfortable with exploratory analyses and non-conventional modeling beyond systemic drug development including ophthalmology, and aesthetics/dermatology.  This scientist should be proactive, inquisitive, a self-starter who is eager to learn and thrives in a fast pace and independent environment, with a desire to interact as a modeling and simulation expert with matrix project teams.

Specific responsibilities include:

• Apply PK and PK/PD modeling/simulation to guide the design and execution of in vivo preclinical animal experiments and/or early-stage clinical trials.
• Identify opportunities to apply and develop modeling and simulation strategies across the R&D portfolio, with a focus on ophthalmology and aesthetics/dermatology.
• Integrate M&S knowledge to contribute to optimizing translational sciences strategies.
• Analysis of PK/PD data, both clinical and nonclinical, through the use of sophisticated mathematical and statistical modeling and simulation tools to support dose selection, study design and proof-of-concept.
• Identify and monitor vendors and consultants or engage internal resources as appropriate to meet project deliverables.
• In collaboration with other stakeholders, conduct and integrate data analyses and summarize modeling outcomes to support IND, CTA, IMPD, NDA, and BLA filing and regulatory correspondences. 
• Exploratory analyses and non-conventional modeling beyond systemic drug development with a focus on locally-administered/acting products.
• Maintain awareness of current technologies in PK/PD and PBPK modeling.
• Develop close and effective partnerships with other nonclinical and clinical pharmacology/PKPD and biomarker scientists, safety scientists, research scientists, clinicians and project teams.
• Design and provide scientific oversight of preclinical PK/TK studies
• At project level, establish and maintain effective collaborations with key stakeholders to facilitate data integration for biomarker selection, candidate nomination/selection, and human dose prediction

• BS with typically 14+ years of experience OR MS with typically 12+ years of experience OR PhD with typically 6+ years of experience in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Quantitative Pharmacology, Biomedical/Chemical Engineering, Pharmacometrics or related field,
•  2+ years of experience in PK/PD modeling & simulation, quantitative pharmacology, and/or applied population PK in the pharmaceutical industry.  
• Academic and/or industry experience in either physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling or population PK/PKPD modeling.
• Strong knowledge of biology (mechanism of action)/pharmacology, clinical immunology, protein sciences, statistics, and pharmaceutical development
• Ability to learn new areas of biological sciences and build on solid foundation of quantitative skills to develop models.
• Data manipulation and programming skills and ideally with the use of programs such as SAS, R, S+ or similar programs.
• Experience using Phoenix WNL,GastroPlus, and SimCyp
• Scientific publications in area of specialization.

• Effective written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong ability to collaborate with others.
• Ability to keep up-to-date with and propose the implementation of scientific and technological developments in the area of modeling.
• The successful candidate is required to have ability to work within a diverse workforce.

Preferred Experience

• Experience with biologics including gene therapy
• Experience with general programming and data analysis tools/languages such as R, Matlab, Berkeley Madonna, ADAPT, etc.

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law: ​

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future. ​

• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.​

• This job is eligible to participate in our short-term incentive programs. ​

• This job is eligible to participate in our long-term incentive programs​

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law. 

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community.  Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled. 

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