There’s a new life-sciences-focused consulting firm in town. Founded by a duo with about half a century’s worth of experience in biopharma and medtech between them, Santander Pharma Consulting—no relation to the major banking firm—stepped into the spotlight with a launch announcement Tuesday.
The firm, based in Durham, North Carolina, will offer a range of support services to drug and devicemakers of all sizes, though its focus is on “small or emerging enterprises,” per Santander’s website. To those clients, it’ll offer guidance on commercial strategy development, team building, revenue generation, business planning and development, and financial management.
Santander has pledged to provide “hands-on support” in each of those areas, with an aim of “delivering tailored solutions that drive growth, maximize efficiency, and ensure compliance,” according to Michelle Yanez, the firm’s co-founder and chief financial officer.
“At Santander Pharma Consulting, our mission is clear: to help our clients optimize their commercial success by leveraging our teams’ experience,” Robert Yanez, another co-founder and the firm’s CEO, added in the announcement.
Fierce Pharma Marketing has reached out to Santander for clarification on the relation, if any, between Michelle Yanez and Robert Yanez.
Each of the founders arrives at the consultancy with more than two decades of experience in the life sciences industry. Michelle spent the bulk of her career—from 2002 to 2022—at specialty pharma BioDelivery Sciences International, including a stint as director of financial reporting through BDSI’s acquisition by Collegium Pharmaceutical in early 2022. She joined Mira Pharmaceuticals as financial controller and director in May of that year and was named its CFO a year later.
Robert, meanwhile, got his start as a product manager at GSK, Valeant Pharmaceuticals—now Bausch Health—and Johnson & Johnson. From there, he spent about six years in increasingly senior marketing director roles at XenoPort, followed by stints as director of commercial operations at BDSI and as senior director first of marketing and global research sales, then of strategic partnerships within the Americas, for devicemaker Circassia, now known as NIOX Group. Since early 2021, he’s served as chief commercial officer of Bryn Pharma.