Maha Saad, PhD, MBA, joined Larimar Therapeutics in October 2024 as Vice President of Pharmacovigilance (PV) and Product Safety, bringing over 17 years of experience in drug safety, risk management, and PV quality assurance.
Prior to joining Larimar, Dr. Saad held roles of increasing responsibility in both large pharmaceutical companies and small biotech organizations. Most recently, she served as Associate Vice President of PV and REMS at Braeburn, where she built and optimized systems and processes to ensure compliance with global regulatory requirements and internal standards. Before that, at Atara Biotherapeutics, a clinical-stage cell therapy company, she led efforts to prepare the PV system for the commercial launch of tab-cel® and played a key role in Biologics License Application (BLA) activities. Her scope of work included oversight of vendors, case management, database strategy and implementation, safety data exchange agreements, PV inspection readiness, and staff training.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Saad spent several years at Johnson & Johnson, progressing to the role of Americas PV Head. In that role, she was responsible for ensuring PV compliance across North and Latin America, including oversight of local operating companies, systems, marketing partners, and vendors. She also held PV roles at Bristol Myers Squibb and Sanofi, where she supported safety sciences activities such as signal detection, risk management, safety assessments, and aggregate reporting.
Dr. Saad earned a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University, where her research focused on nanocarrier drug delivery systems for cancer treatment. She also holds an MBA from the Lehigh University School of Business and Economics and is certified in project management.