Department of Statistics
Statistics in Pharmaceuticals 2025

Organizers

Administrative Support

TBD

Charles Liu, Gilead

Charles Liu Charles Liu is currently a Statistical Advisor in the Biostatistics Innovation Group at Gilead Sciences. Previously, he held positions at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Cytel, and Boston University. His current research interests include model selection, dose response modeling, and portfolio decision making.

Meizi Liu, Takeda

Meizi Liu currently serves as a Senior Manager of Statistics at Takeda, where she is the study lead for several early-phase trials in oncology and cell therapy. Prior to her role at Takeda, Meizi earned her Ph.D. in biostatistics from the University of Chicago. With a strong foundation in statistical science, Meizi has co-authored various publications in peer-reviewed statistical journals, focusing on areas such as dose optimization, Bayesian dynamic borrowing, and Bayesian adaptive designs in clinical trials.

CG Wang, Regeneron

CG Wang Dr. CG Wang is the Head of Statistical Innovation in BDM. Previously, Dr. Wang was an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University. He also worked as a Mathematical Statistician at CDRH, FDA. Dr. Wang has extensive experience in clinical trial design and analysis, especially in regulatory settings, and in statistical software development.

Claude Petit, Astellas

Claude Petit After earning her PhD in Biostatistics related to Bayesian Analyses, Claude joined the Pharmaceutical Industry 25 years ago. Lecturer at Yale School of Public Health for a decade and VP Statistical & Real Word Data Science at Astellas since 2021, she is leading a global team of talented Statisticians, Real World Data Scientists and Programmers.Eternal learner, she has a passion for leadership, growth, and teaching. In 2021, she became a certified Executive Coach and funded Creating & Coaching Essential Leaders, LLC to empower one woman at a time. In 2024, Dr Petit was the President of the Leadership in Practice Committee (LiPCom) part of the Biopharmaceutical section of the American Statistical Association.

Revathi Ananthakrishnan, BMS

Revathi Ananthakrishnan Revathi Ananthakrishnan works as a Biostatistician at Bristol-Myers Squibb on designing, analyzing and interpreting immuno-oncology trials. She has a broad interdisciplinary background of Mathematics, Statistics, Physics and Biology. She did her PhD in Theoretical (Bio)Physics and her post-doc in Biomathematics. All her work in academia on modeling cell elasticity, cell movement and cell division had relevance to cancer. After her post-doc, she started working as a clinical trials Biostatistician in Industry, and did her PhD in Biostatistics while working in Industry. She is interested in various aspects of Oncology clinical trials and clinical trial methodology, especially in the design of early phase Oncology trials, and has published in this area. She has worked on several early phase Oncology trials as well as trials for regulatory submission for solid tumors and blood cancers.

Zhongkai Wang, Gilead

Zhongkai Wang Zhongkai (Kai) Wang is currently a Senior Manager, Biostatistics at Gilead Sciences. His work focuses on virology late-phase development and risk-based quality management (RBQM) analytics. Prior to joining Gilead, Kai was a study lead statistician in several late-phase pediatric immunology studies at Eli Lilly. Kai received his Ph.D. in Biostatistics from University of Florida.

Yannis Jemiai, Cytel

Yannis Jemiai Yannis Jemiai is the Chief Scientific Officer at Cytel and head of its Strategic Consulting business unit. With over 15 years of experience in biostatistics and clinical trial design, Yannis leads a global team dedicated to helping clients design innovative and adaptive clinical trials that accelerate development timelines and improve decision-making. Yannis has also played a pivotal role in shaping Cytel’s software vision and development, ensuring integration of cutting-edge statistical methodologies into industry-leading platforms that transform clinical research.As a thought leader in the life sciences industry, Yannis has been instrumental in promoting the adoption of adaptive trial designs, Bayesian methods, and real-world evidence that address the complex challenges of clinical development. Under his leadership, Cytel’s Strategic Consulting team provides strategic insights and robust statistical approaches that empower organizations to navigate complex regulatory landscapes and optimize their trial outcomes.Yannis earned a Ph.D. in Biostatistics and a BA from Harvard, as well as an MPH from Columbia University. Passionate about the intersection of science, technology, and healthcare, he champions the role of statisticians and data scientists as strategic leaders and key collaborators in transforming the life sciences industry.

Albert Man, Servier

Albert Man Albert is a biostatistician at Servier Pharmaceuticals, where he supports Oncology trials across all phases of drug development. He earned his PhD in Statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include Bayesian statistics, machine learning, factor analysis, dynamic borrowing, and adaptive clinical trial design.

Leo Li, Boston University

Leo Li Haolin (Leo) Li is an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the Boston University School of Public Health. Prior to joining BU, Leo earned his Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on survival analysis, machine learning, clinical trials, and epidemiological study designs. Leo’s recent work in these areas has been recognized with ASA Distinguished Student Paper Awards from both the Health Policy Statistics Section (HPSS) and the Lifetime Data Science (LiDS) Section. He is also actively involved in statistical leadership, having served as the founder and inaugural president of the ASA Student Chapter at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Ruoyuan Qian, OSU

Ruoyuan Qian Ruoyuan Qian is a fourth-year PhD candidate in Biostatistics at The Ohio State University, expected to graduate in August 2026. Under the guidance of Dr. Bo Lu, her research focuses on developing Bayesian and frequentist methods for dynamic borrowing in hybrid and single-arm clinical trials, incorporating external control data to enhance statistical power. Ruoyuan aspires to be a biostatistician in the pharmaceutical industry, where she can apply her expertise in causal inference, external data borrowing, and clinical trial design to advance drug development.

Glen Laird, Vertex

Glen Laird A practicing pharmaceutical industry statistician for over 20 years, Glen Laird is currently the head of Biostatistics Methodology and Innovation at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, having previously led the GMA Biostatistics group at Vertex. Prior to his 7 years at Vertex, Glen worked in oncology biostatistics at Novartis, BMS, and Sanofi, assuming roles with increasing responsibility across early and full development. Glen graduated with a PhD in Statistics from Florida State University and worked as a survey statistician for RTI International before joining the pharmaceutical industry.

Kelley Kidwell, UMich

Kelley Kidwell Kelley M. Kidwell, Professor and Associate Chair of Academic Affairs at the University of Michigan, is interested in the design and analysis of clinical trials. Her methodological work centers on better matching the way in which we practice medicine and public health (critical decisions over time tailored to individuals) to the way in which we experimentally study it. Dr. Kidwell's methods work has primarily focused on the design and analysis of sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trials (SMARTs), in standard or large size trials for treating common diseases and disorders, and in small samples or for treating rare diseases.