Post-Market Drug Evaluation Advisory Committee

The Post-Market Drug Evaluation (PMDE) Advisory Committee is a multi-disciplinary group that provides credible, strategic PMDE advice and expertise to CADTH on queries, strategic initiatives, and key priority areas.

The members of the Advisory Committee include decision-makers, applied researchers, methodologists and/or analysts, patients and/or caregivers, clinicians, industry representatives, PMDE Network (CoLab) members, and PMDE Operations Centre staff. Its size and composition reflect the program’s commitment to be operationally responsive to changes in the pharmaceutical environment, and position CADTH to enable future-ready health care by responding to the evidence needs of decision-makers.

PMDE Advisory Committee reports to the CADTH president and CEO. Members must abide by the CADTH Conflict of Interest Guidelines as well as the CADTH Code of Conduct.

• PMDE Advisory Committee Terms of Reference 
• CADTH Conflict of Interest Guidelines 
• CADTH Code of Conduct

Chair

Dr. Ran Goldman

Dr. Ran Goldman is a professor of pediatrics, a clinician-investigator and pediatrician, with a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine and clinical pharmacology and toxicology. He did his specialized training in Toronto, and served as a staff physician at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). He was then recruited to BC Children’s Hospital as the Chief of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Ran Goldman also served as the Assistant Dean of Continuing Education at the University of British Columbia. He is currently the University’s Co-Chair of the Division of Pediatric Translational Therapeutics in the Faculty of Medicine, and a member of the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

Dr. Ran Goldman completed a Master of Health Research Methodology and trains numerous students in conducting effective research. His research program focuses on pain in the acute care setting and his lab findings resulted in an improved pain management approach for children worldwide. With more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Ran Goldman does not only discover, but successfully disseminates, his team’s findings into clinical practice guidelines for children with pain in the acute care setting. He is leading the world’s largest online resource for acute care medication research — Pediatric Research in Emergency Therapeutics (PRETx.ORG).

Members

Dr. Colleen Metge

Colleen graduated with a degree in pharmacy from the University of Alberta in 1975. After working front-line pharmacy (hospital and community) and then with the professional organization of pharmacists in BC, she enrolled in a doctoral program in pharmaceutical policy at the University of Maryland in Baltimore in 1990. Obtaining her PhD with an emphasis on epidemiology and economics, Colleen then accepted a position at the University of Manitoba, Faculty of Pharmacy, where she stayed in a tenured position until 2009 teaching ethics, epidemiology, economics and pharmacy administration, and undertaking a myriad of health services research. Her first project with the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy was to ready the Drug Programs Information Network (DPIN) administrative data for research purposes (Medical Care 1999).

Dr. Colleen Metge retired from the university in 2009 to take the position of Director, Research & Evaluation with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA). Before her retirement from the WRHA in June 2017, she managed an embedded research unit of 12 PhD/masters level colleagues who provided health services research and evaluation to Winnipeg’s health authority and the province of Manitoba. She continues in her role as research scientist and associate professor at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and the Department of Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, and has an active research program. Dr. Colleen Metge is the author of 112 peer-reviewed publications and of numerous technical reports for government. In addition, she has served as both chair and committee member on the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research’s Innovation to Commercialization grant review committee and the Expert Advisory Committee for the Vigilance of Health Products (Health Canada). She currently also reviews applications for Research Manitoba’s Innovation Proof- of-Concept grants and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s (CIHR’s) Public, Community and Population Health (PH2) Committee.

Jean-Eric Tarride

Trained as a health economist, Jean-Eric Tarride (MA, PhD) is a Professor of Health Economics and Health Technology Management at McMaster University in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (HEI), and McMaster Chair in Health Technology Management. Jean-Eric is the Director of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis (CHEPA) at McMaster University, and the Director of the Programs for Assessment of Technology in Health (PATH), The Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.

His primary research interests are in methods for the economic evaluation of health technologies and programs, real-world evidence generation, and re-assessments. Dr. Jean-Eric Tarride has authored more than 180 peer-reviewed journal articles related to economic evaluations of health care programs and has successfully collaborated with clinicians and academics by providing economic leadership in more than 70 peer-reviewed grants. He has received several grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and other public funding agencies. In addition to his academic expertise, Dr. Jean-Eric Tarride has worked for more than 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry in various roles including Director of Health Economics and Reimbursement at AstraZeneca Canada (July 2012-August 2014) and Senior Manager Outcomes Research at Pfizer Canada (2001-2005). He continues to act as a consultant for industry and governments. Before joining the PMDE advisory committee, he was a core member (Health Economist) of CADTH’s Health Technology Expert Review Panel (HTERP) from September 1, 2017 to August 31, 2022. He was also a member of the pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review (pCODR) Economic Guidance Panel from 2015 to 2017./p>

Fawziah Lalji

Dr. Fawziah Lalji obtained her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She subsequently completed a fellowship in infectious diseases pharmacotherapy at the Vancouver General Hospital. She is a professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC. After graduating, she practised pharmacy in both the acute care (hospital) sector and public health (at the BC Centre for Disease Control) sectors.

Applied research around the population and public health of communicable diseases has been the focus of Dr. Fawziah Lalji’s research for most of her career. Her work focuses on health outcomes associated with immunizations and antimicrobial stewardship, using British Columbia’s administrative databases. The Lalji lab’s past projects include antivirals in preventing hospitalizations during the H1N1 pandemic, prevention of zoster infection, and use of antibiotics and the development of asthma in children. Presently, her lab is evaluating the appropriateness of antibiotic use for common infections, such as urinary tract and respiratory tract infections. She also has a number of projects centred around pneumococcal disease prevention in British Columbia and Ontario. Dr. Fawziah Lalji collaborates with researchers across the country and has been a recipient of many awards. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and research abstracts in prestigious medical journals.

Joan Paulin

Joan Paulin has an MBA in Finance, has been an active volunteer for many years, and has held executive positions on several not-for-profit boards.

She has been involved in the rare disease space since 2014 when her then 24-year-old daughter was diagnosed with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Joan is currently on the Board of Directors at PHA Canada.

She has participated in Dr. Eric Hoskin’s National Pharmacare Consultation in 2018; CORD’s Patient Partner’s Leadership Program in 2020; CADTH’s Best Brains Exchange in 2021 and in a Pulmonary Hypertension Priority Setting Partnership in 2022. She participated in the drafting of submissions to Health Canada (National Pharmacare); CADTH (Supplemental Process); and the PMPRB. Joan is passionate about improving patient care across the spectrum of rare and chronic diseases from earlier diagnosis and access to new therapies to greater patient engagement throughout the drug development, approval, and funding processes.

She welcomes the opportunity to provide her input and to work with other equally passionate individuals on the Post Market Drug Evaluation (PMDE) Advisory Committee.

Frank Gavin

Frank Gavin has been involved in health care and health research, mainly as a volunteer, for over 25 years. In 1995 he joined the Family Advisory Committee to The Hospital for Sick Children, chairing it from 1997 to 2001. In 2002, Frank founded and then for six years chaired the Canadian Family Advisory Network (CFAN), which links family councils at pediatric centres across Canada. From 2011 to 2017 he was a public member of the Canadian Drug Expert Committee (CDEC) at the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH). He directed the Citizen Engagement Program for CHILD-BRIGHT, the national Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) research network focused on children with brain-based developmental disabilities, from 2016 to 2021. He now serves on the inaugural Patient Advisory Committee of the Society for Medical Decision Making. In 2017 he received the Best Patient Reviewer Award from the BMJ. For nearly 30 years Frank taught English at Centennial College in Toronto.

Dr. Hasan Sheikh

Dr. Hasan Sheikh is an emergency and addiction medicine physician in Toronto and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto Department of Family and Community Medicine. He holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government where he was awarded the Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship, the Gleitsman Leadership Fellowship for Social Change, and served as a Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Fellow.

Dr. Hasan Sheikh’s academic work focuses on Canadian health care policy, and in particular using the emergency department to diagnose upstream social and health policy failures.

Michelle Pashovitz

Michelle Pashovitz is currently the Manager, Drug Review and Appropriate Use with the Drug Plan and Extended Benefits Branch within the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health. Michelle is a practising pharmacist and holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy (BSP) from the University of Saskatchewan. Following completion of her BSP, Michelle went on to complete a hospital pharmacy residency. After a number of years in hospital practice, she pursued a Master’s in Business Administration. She has practised in both hospital and community-based practices, and has served on a number of committees and boards.

Samir Khan

Samir Khan is the Director of Policy with Health Canada’s Office of Pharmaceuticals Management Strategies. He has been with Health Canada for over 12 years, leading policy, legislative and research teams in the subject areas of mental health, controlled/addictive substances, and pharmaceuticals. Samir holds a PhD, specializing in behavioural neuroscience and pharmacology, has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and is a member of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine.

Craig Simon

Dr. Craig Simon obtained his PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from Queens University in 1995. He joined Health Canada in 1996, initially in the role of a reviewer for drug submissions and then as Manager of the Division of Biopharmaceutics Evaluation. Dr. Craig Simon has worked as associate director in the Office of Clinical Trials, the Bureau of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Bureau of Metabolism, Oncology and Reproductive Sciences, and recently served as the Director of the Bureau of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 2020, he joined the Marketed Health Products Directorate and is currently acting as the Director of the Health Products Surveillance and Epidemiology Bureau. Dr. Craig Simon has also served as an expert resource for WHO and the USP and as co-chair of the International Generic Drug Regulators Pilot (IGDRP) Bioequivalence Working Group.

Adrienne Stevens

Adrienne Stevens is a clinical epidemiologist and methodologist. She serves as the Methods Lead for the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), an external advisory body to the Public Health Agency of Canada. In her role, she provides scientific oversight to working groups and NACI secretariat staff in the recommendation development process and undertakes methodological research relevant to NACI’s mandate. Her career experience has focused on evidence synthesis to support health care decision-making for a variety of local, provincial, national, and international commissioners, and she has held leadership and methodological roles within Cochrane. Adrienne has a PhD in Epidemiology.

Virginie Giroux

Virginie Giroux is currently the Director, Health Economic and Outcomes Research at Merck Canada Inc., where she leads the team that develops economic evidence and evaluations for Health Technology Assessment agencies and payers in Canada. She is also responsible for the development and execution of local value evidence generation strategies in support of policy and patient access, including early input into clinical trial design for pipeline products.

Virginie started her career as a health economist, key account manager, and team lead with Brogan Inc. (now IQVIA). She then joined Merck in March 2009 as a health economist. At Merck, Virginie has held roles of increasing responsibilities within the patient access department. She is active within the industry association and has been an industry representative on the RWE Steering Committee for the past 2 years. Virginie holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from H.E.C. Montréal, and a Master of Science in Economic Sciences from Université de Montréal.

Jefferson Tea

Jefferson Tea is currently Vice-President Medical and Scientific Affairs at Takeda Canada Inc., leading Medical Affairs, Evidence Generation, Real-World Evidence, Regulatory, Medical Information/Pharmacovigilance and Quality Assurance.

He has over 20 years of medical-marketing-market access experience in the bio-pharmaceutical industry in multiple therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, diabetes, gastroenterology, immunology, rheumatology, nephrology, neuroscience, rare diseases, vaccines, plasma-derived therapies, and oncology. He previously worked with multinational companies such as Amgen, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, MDS Pharma and Fournier Pharma, at the Canadian, US and global levels.

Patricia Caetano

Executive Director, Non-Insured Benefits Branch, Manitoba Health and Seniors Care, Government of Manitoba

Erica Craig

Provincial Pharmacy Director, Pharmaceutical Services, Department of Health, Government of New Brunswick