Astellas’ Head of Patient Centricity on his New Book "A Bandana and a Bluebird," and Lessons from Patients for Medicine Development

Anthony Yanni, MD, is responsible for leading the development and execution of the company’s global patient centricity strategy across all functions of the organization. With a vision to better and more genuinely understand the patient journey in the real-world setting, along with the continued development of a patient-centered corporate culture worldwide, one area in which he is focused is on creating sustainable processes to address key areas that matter to patients and applying their unique insights to the entire product lifecycle – from early research to development and, ultimately, to utilization.Previously, Dr Yanni held multiple roles at Sanofi most recently serving as Head of Patient Insights, Solutions and Outcomes where he led a global team to create a first-in-industry process to integrate the patient and clinician perspective into research portfolio decision-making.Earlier in his career, Dr Yanni spent nearly 15 years in clinical practice serving as a primary care physician, Chief of Internal Medicine and Chief Medical Officer for a health system in the Northeastern United States.Dr Yanni was selected as one of 2021’s 100 Most Inspiring People in the life-sciences industry by PharmaVoice Magazine and most recently was recognized with the Reuters Pharma Europe Patient Champion Award for having “real impact on patients, carers and international health systems”.