Amy Nicole Nayar | Vice President of U.S. Patient Advocacy & Government Affairs
Novartis Gene Therapies

Amy Nicole Nayar, PharmD, MS HEOR is a visionary biotech executive, renowned for her ability to anticipate and navigate the evolving healthcare landscape. She is recognized for pioneering industry firsts in corporate affairs, medical, commercial, and access in the biopharmaceutical sector. Dr. Nayar's experience spans from serving as a department of one to building teams of over 150 professionals. At Pfizer, she built the corporate affairs advocacy function from the ground up; at AbbVie, she focused it on shaping the external environment; and at AveXis, she shaped policy in line with rare community needs. Her teams exceed traditional expectations by generating real-world evidence, co-designing trials, validating patient reported outcome measures, accelerating recruitment, advocating for newborn screening implementation, and publishing best practice guidelines. Dr Nayar led communications at Porter Novelli, encompassing branding, reputation and crisis management, media relations, content creation, storytelling and multiple campaigns. She held profit and loss responsibility, improved client retention, grew business and increased profit margin. As a certified executive coach in change management, Dr. Nayar empowers teams to demonstrate resilience in navigating challenges, embrace innovative approaches to enhance organizational outcomes, and uphold unwavering integrity to prioritize patient outcomes. Dr. Nayar serves on the advisory board of Cell & Gene, as industry chair for the EveryLife Foundation Public Policy Community Congress, on the business council for the Milken Institute Faster Cures, and as an industry representative in multiple patient-focused drug development cross-sector initiatives. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including two this year: the Advanced Therapies Industry Award for placing the patient at the heart of Cell and Gene Therapy, and the Prix Galien Award. Dr. Nayar earned her undergraduate and doctor of pharmacy degrees from the University of Michigan, her master’s in health economics and Outcomes Research from the University of Arizona, and is currently pursuing a certification in artificial intelligence at Harvard Medical School.