Published on 5/1/2019 12:00:00 AM
Yow‐Ming Wang, PhD, Co‐Director, Therapeutic Biologics Program, FDA, Silver Spring, MD
The opportunity to network and collaborate with members of ASCPT has benefited Dr. Wang's career. She cherishes the discussions and brainstorming with other ASCPT members about topics that are important for the clinical pharmacology discipline. She enjoys many aspects of her ASCPT membership, of which volunteering is her favorite. She loves the interactions with other volunteers, e.g., discussing and contributing to Annual Meeting programs. These discussions have afforded her a window through which to learn what does and does not work from other colleagues. She finds the energy and commitment of her fellow volunteers to be contagious—they energize her to actively contribute. She encourages the younger generation of scientists to follow her example. She advises “take the first step, reach out to volunteer leaders of any ASCPT Network/Community of your choice! You will discover the fun of volunteering with the ASCPT professional family.”
The choice of clinical pharmacology and translational medicine was a natural career progression for Dr. Wang. Her graduate training included a degree in pharmacology and a PhD with a research focus in pharmacokinetics and model‐based data analysis. She also appreciates that clinical pharmacology and translational medicine are pivotal to the success of biopharmaceutical development through her industry experience spanning from translating animal data in support of first‐in‐human studies to preparing regulatory submissions in support of biological license applications. Her current job in the Office of Clinical Pharmacology at the FDA has reaffirmed her passion for the field because of the opportunity to impact drug development and patient care through regulatory interactions with industry, review of regulatory submissions, and scientific research and policy development.
As a scientist working at the FDA, Dr. Wang's impact on patient care is through facilitating the development and approval of safe and effective therapeutic proteins. When the inevitable scientific challenges arise, she works with colleagues in the FDA and in the industry through collaboration and research in hope of finding a means of addressing the problem. She contributes to improving the way new medicines are brought to the market to treat patients.
Dr. Wang believes that ASCPT has been and continues to be a strong advocate for the field. She points to the Journal Family, the webinars, the awards/grants, and Annual Meeting as among the many ways ASCPT promotes scientific excellence and scientific exchange. For the future she believes that e‐learning will be an important mechanism for training and dissemination of information. She hopes that ASCPT will invest in more e‐learning for the future through sponsoring or cosponsoring public workshops dedicated to challenging issues and impactful topics in clinical pharmacology of biologics.
Dr. Wang joined ASCPT in 2014. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Biologics Community.
