Dr Sushmita Bhattacharya is a part of the Pharmaceutical Industry since 2009, ever since she completed her PhD from IIT Roorkee. All along, through working with multi-cultures globally during her tenure with the top companies like Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Lilly and ICON, and excelling in her work, she’s garnered tremendous recognition and respect. Her influence extends globally and locally within her company and beyond. Because the Pharma is so well aligned to the service of mankind through the drugs it makes every day, the nomination note below for Sushmita stands for her Excellence in Service to the Society.

Sushmita started her career in the Pharmaceutical Industry immediately after her PhD in 2009. She was amongst 34 selected for the prestigious Novartis Biocamp 2009 from amongst 17000 other applicants and this gave her a peep into how the pharmaceutical industry operates from within. To say the least, she was impressed by all she saw and made up her mind to make it her career. The pharmaceutical industry is one that saves lives, makes a difference to the lives of millions of patients around the globe every year and their loved ones. It helps people live happier, healthier and more active lives. Thousands of people across the length and breadth of the company work as one team, spreading smiles around the globe.

Soon after the active participation in the Novartis Biocamp, Sushmita got an offer from Novartis to join the Medical Writing Department. She has not looked back ever since. After a productive and steep learning phase at Novartis, Hyderabad and having carved a niche for herself there, following changes on the personal front she relocated to Bangalore and joined Novo Nordisk. Here she quickly rose through the ranks to reach the top of the pyramid as an individual contributor as an Associate Lead Medical Writer. In addition to her routine responsibilities, she took an active part in grooming other colleagues, coaching them on the nuances of the job, was on the audit preparedness board, on-boarding, training and employee engagement committees. In all of the roles that she played, she achieved significant milestones and was noticed, cherished and respected across the organisation. She was identified to be a part of the select few in the company wide talent team and groomed in people leadership through a collaboration between IIM Bangalore and Novo Nordisk. From Novo Nordisk her people management aspiration drew her to Lilly, an American Pharmaceutical Company. Here, she had the enviable distinction of leading two global submissions through periodic stays at the company headquarters in Indianapolis. Apart from this, here in Bangalore India, she led a team of medical writers and was actively involved in other improvement and innovation activities across the organization, globally and locally. Her team performed spectacularly on the global plane. She very recently was offered the position to lead Medical writing, India for ICON Clinical Research Services. This marks the beginning of another great phase of leadership where she has strategic, functional and operative responsibilities for the India Team. Following are some more details of what makes her a great fit in leadership in her current organisation.

Ability to deliver results alongwith encouraging and motivating the team:

Any team always has all level of performers and each member comes with his/her unique set of qualities and strengths. Sushmita has the ability to understand the strengths of each individual member of the team, encourage everyone to work at their best performance level while laying down strong rules of expected standards of quality delivery and timeliness. The team is motivated, enthused and is keen to put in their best. Sushmita is not a people pleaser so it comes with its own set of difficulties at times when the ground rules of impeccable

quality and high standards of professionalism are uncomfortable for some, however she can navigate her way through these difficulties well and get even her detractors in the team to comply, perform and respect her for her abilities despite reservations with her exacting standards. The teams she has led so far have performed very well on the global plane and are recognised for excellence in work and professionalism. Her team members are often assigned the most visible and challenging of projects and the performance of her team helps in positive image building for the talent in India for the remaining parts of the organisation.

Natural respect due to ethical practises:

As a manager, Sushmita is fair, unbiased and strives for each person in the team to perform at the best of his/her ability. She strives to attend to the needs of the team and makes herself available to whenever they need her. This includes time outside of routine office hours for her when she is travelling, which means she can make herself available to suit the timezone of her team. She is conscious of her team’s developmental needs and strives to provide them with opportunities in keeping with their aspirations, the company goals and their developmental needs. She makes conscious efforts to cultivate diversity and inclusion in the team through adequate hiring initiatives and inculcating an all-embracing team culture.

Strong technical abilities and deliberate global exposure:

Apparently, because of her deliberately carved career trajectory (spanning work with colleagues from different cultures of the world) and her own journey in her days as an individual contributor (IC) when she was assigned on the most complex and diverse of projects with add-on responsibilities all through like mentoring, training, coaching others, improvement initiatives in the organisation, audits, she is able to help her team more effectively with reviews and suggestions on handling situations than a manager who would have had less exposure to the technical space and global exposure. In her days as an IC, she navigated the length and breadth of medical writing through concerted efforts, and trust building through high quality performance- publication deliverables, regulatory documents spanning narratives to right-to-operates, submissions, and public disclosures and learnt it all in depth. So that knowledge comes in handy when she is faced with questions on documents or stakeholder management from team.

Keenness to learn and embrace changes:

Sushmita is open to learning and constantly tries to raise the bar for herself. Not only does she engage with external world despite busy work schedules, within the organisation too, she takes the initiative to bring in the latest industry trends and pushes it through change agents and management to change the way the department or site operates. She is also keen to take up a global MBA now and has qualified in 8 colleges through a rigorous set of evaluations but the plan is stalled due to Covid-19 difficulties.

Collaborative attitude: Often good collaboration amongst the different parts of the organisation come with an added advantage- the output is greater than the sum of its parts. Throughout her career she has worked hard as cross-functional collaboration to bring in an exalted way of working and delivery of her own niche. This could be through getting macros built for medical writing by IT, or cross-pollination of ideas, strengths and knowledge through various cross-functional initiatives.

Overall, she is making rapid strides everyday through conscious effort, a positive attitude, hard work, empathy, authenticity, vision and foresight and genuine concern and good wishes for the team she leads.

Sushmita has just been nominated by her manager in the Next Gen Women Leader by her manager in the company headquarters at Dublin. That nomination form is also attached for the kind perusal of the award committee.

In the words of her current manager,

I have been impressed with Sushmita since she joined the company. My role is global head of a number of operational functions within ICON & normally I have senior directors reporting into me. Due to a series of circumstances, Sushmita as a manager in India started to report into me last year. I have been extremely impressed with her leadership skills, her intelligence, and her ability to innovate and deliver practical solutions to the operational problems that we face. Key to this delivery are her communication skills and ability to influence others in terms of change management & collaboration. She has really taken on board and embodied the ICON Culture of ‘Integrity, Collaboration, Accountability and Delivery & Partnership’.

Selected testimonials from her other stakeholders in the recent past:

“Sushmita, thank you for your partnership this year. You quickly took accountability for strategy and sourcing for A, B, C and D (asset names masked for confidentiality) regulatory documents. This includes leading complex submission with a device partner that is ongoing. You have been a great partner with these teams especially with many new faces. I appreciate these efforts and our strategy discussions related to these teams! I hope to work with LCCI in my new role. Best Jeff” {Functional manager, Indianapolis 2018)

Thanks for being a great manager! Thank you, Sushmita, for being approachable and supportive. Thank you for all the conversations we have had - I have taken away a lot from our 1:1s and I appreciate your openness in sharing knowledge, perspective, and experience. Whenever I have needed your advice and support, you have always been there. I feel privileged to have you as my manager – thanks for everything! (My direct report, Lilly Capability Center India (LCCI), Jan 2, 2019)

2 months of Results with People Sushmita, Thank you for spending 2 months working directly with the team in the US on key deliverables. You came during a critical time of ambiguity (FDA feedback and ad hoc analyses); you identified specific goals and worked through those goals with the team. This asset has the added complexity of being a cross-labeled submission with a partner. We appreciate your willingness to navigate ambiguity and adapt to the needs of the project and work with new team members. Your time and presence

here were greatly appreciated! (Advisor and COO for diabetes asset for which I led submission, LCC, Indianapolis, Oct 22, 2018)

Sushmita, thanks so much for always being willing to help with writing support! Your help was especially appreciated when another writer had to unexpectedly be out of the office and you were able to step in and complete the GBGE reg response. Your expertise, partnership, and flexibility is invaluable! Thanks so much for your support! (Function manager, LCC, Indianapolis, Oct 30, 2018) GSC-LCCI audit follow-up Thank you, Sushmita, for leading the effort to complete our biggest audit commitment of creating a refresher training for good documentation practices. You took the lead on this and got the training completed ahead of our audit due date. I appreciate your expertise and leadership in getting this done. Thanks again! (Function Director, LCC, Indianapolis, Aug 29, 2018) Thank you! Thank you for your help with all the projects and also for providing timely guidance. It was great working with you and the medical writers working with you would surely be benefitted with your

vast knowledge and sharing of the same. Thank you for being so humble and always beings a call or message away whenever help is necessary. This kind of support from leaders is highly necessary to meet client and customer expectation at all times, especially during crisis considering geographical and time zone differences. Much appreciated. (Colleague, LCCI, May 4, 2018) Thank You! Thank you for being approachable, clarifying even my tiny queries, and your valuable feedbacks - it helps so much to learn :) I look forward to working together again! (Data Integrity colleague, LCCI, Dec 27, 2017) GSC-LCCI audit participation Thank you for your time and expertise in meeting with the GQAAC auditors this week and answering their questions. You stayed calm under pressure, provided the information they needed, and represented GSC very well. Great job! Karen (Function Director, LCC, Indianapolis, Sep 22, 2017)

You are awesome Thank you sooooooooo much for being such a wonderful colleague. I really appreciate you for showing the patience to clarify all my queries/doubts whenever I approached you. (Data Integrity colleague, LCCI, June 7, 2017)

Cheers to a successful (XYZ) submission I wanted to thank you for taking up the responsibility of carrying the (XYZ) submission through. I know you will be successful and the team is fortunate to have a group of writers that bring their best to the table. I won't be able to thank you in person as I'm exiting and won't get to see the final outcome, but I have no doubt you will make a very positive impact for patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease. Thank you for all you are doing to ensure quality and integrity in this submission. Best, Ashlee (Submission Lead, Diabetes Compound, LCC, Indianapolis, May 25, 2017)

LCCI Magazine

For leadership of the LCCI magazine project and overcoming significant time and resource challenges resulting in its being published in a record time and in the most impactful manner. (Managing Director, Lilly Capability Center India, Apr 24, 2017)

From her own previous team:

Additional information, only if required- Not to be considered as main write-up

Presentation of papers at conferences

1. Sushmita Bhattacharya (May 27-29, 2020). Webinar. Invited talk on COVID-19 Implications on Clinical Research organised by Christ Church College, Kanpur.2. Sushmita Bhattacharya (Jun 19-20, 2019). Lean-In for Science and Technology: An industry perspective, in the International Conference of Indian Council of Chemists, Paris, France.3. Sushmita Bhattacharya (Jun 19-20, 2019). “ICH and FDA guidelines for Summaries of Clinical Safety and Efficacy (SCS/SCE) and Integrated Summaries of Safety and Efficacy (ISS/ISE)”, organised by Indian Society for Clinical Research, New Delhi.4. Sushmita Bhattacharya (June 13-15, 2015). Page XX, In-silico hints towards inhibitor development from the enzyme EPSP synthase (Sub-Theme: Chemistry of Drugs and Therapies), in the 4th International Conference of Indian Council of Chemists, Tashkent.5. Sushmita B. (June 11-15, 2012). Page 84. Structural elucidation of shikimate pathway enzymes: Hint for herbicide design, International Conference of Indian Council of Chemists, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.6. Sushmita B., (June 11-15, 2011). Page 84. Structural Bioinformatics study of EPSP synthase from Bordetella pertussis, International Conference of Indian Council of Chemists, Bangkok, Thailand.7. Bhattacharya Sushmita, Bhattacharya Anindita, Bhattacharya Sagarika (Jan 30-Feb 2, 2011),

“Structural bioinformatics study of 5-enolpyruvylshikimate- 3-phosphate (EPSP) synthase from Bordetella pertussis”, 7th Asian Biophysics Association (ABA) Symposium & Annual Meeting of the Indian Biophysical Society (IBS) at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India.8. Dev Aditya, Bhattacharya Sushmita, Dhindwal Sonali, Kumar Pravindra (Jan 30-Feb 02, 2011), “Structural studies on DAHP synthase from Arabidopsis thaliana: a target for developing herbicide”, 7th Asian Biophysics Association (ABA) Symposium & Annual Meeting of the Indian Biophysical Society (IBS) at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India9. Anindita Bhattacharya and Sushmita Bhattacharya (4-5 Oct 2010) “Investigation of the Formation of Atmospheric Sulfate under Elevated PM10 Concentration in Kanpur City”, Proceedings of National Conference on Biotechnology and the Environment (NCBE 2010), National Institute of Technology (NIT), Durgapur, India10. Anindita Bhattacharya, Sushmita Bhattacharya, S.S. Kalra, B.Singh (22-23 Oct. 2010) “Monitoring of benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene (BTEX) concentrations in ambient air in Kanpur, India”, Proceedings of “Greenchem 2010”- National Seminar on Introduction to Green Chemistry Education: Theory and Practise, Kanpur, India11. Anindita Bhattacharya, Sushmita Bhattacharya, Shweta Chand, Sagarika Bhattacharya (22-23 Oct. 2010) “Sociological Consciousness in relation to Sustainable Development AND Environmental Crisis”, Proceedings of “Greenchem 2010”- National Seminar on Introduction to Green Chemistry Education: Theory and Practise, Kanpur, India12. Sushmita Bhattacharya, Shailly Tomar, Ashwani Kumar Sharma and Pravindra Kumar (2008). “Studies on Arabidopsis thaliana DAHP (3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate 7-phosphate) Synthase” , Proceedings of the 3rd Uttarakhand State Science & Technology Congress, Uttarakhand State Council for Science & Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.13. Anindita Bhattacharya, Sagarika Bhattacharya and Sushmita Bhattacharya (2008). “Critical Loads Analysis of Acid Deposition in Kanpur City”, Proceedings of National Conference on Scientific and Legal Challenges of Global Warming, Brahmanand College, Kanpur, 54.

14. Sushmita Bhattacharya, Anindita Bhattacharya, Shailly Tomar, Ashwani Kumar Sharma and Pravindra Kumar (2007). “Structural Bioinformatics Analysis of Shikimate Pathway Enzymes: A Promising Panacea for healthy living”, Proceedings of the International Conference on Bioinformatics and Drug Discovery (BioConvene 2007), University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 71.

15. Sushmita Bhattacharya, Shailly Tomar, Ashwani Kumar Sharma and Pravindra Kumar (2007). “Structural bioinformatics analysis of Plant DAHP (3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate 7-phosphate) Synthase”, Proceedings of the National Symposium on Biophysics Biophysics in Medicine and Biology under the aeges of Indian Biophysical Society, Chandigarh.16. Anindita Bhattacharya, Sushmita Bhattacharya and Dipankar Saha (2007). “Critical Load of Acid Deposition in Agra, India”, Proceedings of the International Congress of Toxicology (ICT XI – 2007), Montreal, Canada, 10-15.

17. Anindita Bhattacharya, Shaily Maloo and Sushmita Bhattacharya, (2003). “An Assessment of Critical Load in Agra Region”, Proceedings of the National Symposium on Biochemical Sciences: Health and Environmental Aspects (BSHEA – 2003), Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra, 50-53.

(ii) Journals

a) Sushmita Bhattacharya, and Pravindra Kumar (2011). “"An insilico approach to structural elucidation of 3-deoxy-d-arabino-heptulosonate 7-phosphate synthase from

Arabidopsis thaliana: Hints for herbicide design", Phytochemistry Vol. 73, Jan 2012, Pages 7–14

b) Sushmita Bhattacharya (2015) “Combatting the Whooping Cough Bacteria: in-silico Approaches”. Nature and Environment (Nat. Environ. http://www.natureandenvironment.com) (A Biannual Peer Reviewed International Journal of Natural Sciences), Vol 20 (2), Jul 2015, Pages 64–72.

c) Sushmita Bhattacharya. “Exploring the efficacy of Biphenyl Dioxygenase variants in degrading polychlorinated biphenyls through structure studies.” In preparation.

d) Sushmita Bhattacharya. “Purification and characterization of a 14 kD protein from Citrullus lanatus”. In Preparation.

CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS/TRAININGS: Posters/ Oral paper/ Participation

● Workshop on “Document Redaction, Data Anonymization, and Lay Summaries: The New

Clinical Trial Data Transparency Environment” organized by the Indian Society for Clinical Research (ISCR) at Mumbai, India (Feb 9, 2017)

● Medical Writing Workshop on ‘Essentials of Scientific Communications’ organized by Indian

Society for Clinical Research (ISCR) in collaboration with International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP), US held at Bangalore, India (Nov 13, 2016)

● Attended DIA India Conference ‘Demystifying Risk Based Monitoring’ (May 23-24, 2014),

Mumbai, India

● Attended HR Seminar: Write Better Policies, Procedures and Documents (May 6, 2014)

conducted by Information Mapping, Bangalore, India

● Attended cLean Academy Basic course – Six sigma and Lean concept basics (Mar 12, 2014),

Novo Nordisk, Bangalore, India

● Participated in the GSC Talent Development Program conducted by Indian Institute of

Management, Bangalore (30-31 January, 2014) under the aegis of GSC Talent Program, Novo Nordisk, Bangalore, India

● Attended and chaired Study Group Meetings Novo Nordisk, Copenhagen, Denmark (Last:

Aug 18, 2012 to Sep 06, 2013)

● Attended conference of International Society of Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP)

European chapter, Jan 2013, London, U.K.

● Extended Business Trip, Novo Nordisk, Copenhagen (Sep 03, 2012 to Nov 30, 2012)

Preparation of Clinical Trial Report and learnings involved in working in close collaboration with experienced medical writers at headquarters, Novo Nordisk, Denmark

● Training at Novo Nordisk headquarters on MW skills, process and documents (Nov 1-14,

2011), Copenhagen, Denmark

● Short term Course on Drug Discovery: Drug Design, Development, Delivery and Preclinical

Studies (D4PS)- 2010, Hyderabad. Module 1: Drug Discovery and Development Overview, (8-9 Oct 2010, NIPER and IICT, Hyderabad)

Module 2: Dosage Form Development and Novel Drug Delivery Systems (12-13 November, 2010 NIPER and IICT, Hyderabad)

Module 3: Preclinical Phase and Toxicology Evaluation (26-27 November, 2010 NIPER and IICT, Hyderabad)

● 3rd Uttarakhand State Science & Technology Congress-2008 at Indian Institute of Technology,

RoorkeePresented paper on ‘Studies on Arabidopsis thaliana DAHP (3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate 7-phosphate) Synthase’

● Bioconvene 2007-‘International Conference on Bioinformatics and Drug Discovery’ held at

Hyderabad in December 21-24, 2007 Presented Paper on ‘Structural bioinformatics analysis of Shikimate Pathway Enzymes: a promising panacea for healthy living’

● National Symposium on Biophysics ‘Biophysics in Medicine and Biology’ under

the aeges of Indian Biophysical Society November 15-17, 2007

Presented paper on ‘Structural bioinformatics analysis of Plant DAHP (3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate 7-phosphate) Synthase’

● Short term course on Electron Microscopy and their Usage for Nanotechnology Related

Research Work. organised by Centre of Nanotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology,

Roorkee (2007)

● Symposium on New Frontiers in Biotechnology: Genesis, Chandigarh, 2004

Conference attended-India Science Congress 2004

Paper presented on "Coding Length "Polymorphism in human genes related to Polyglutamine Tracts"

● National Symposium on Biochemical Sciences: Health and Environmental Aspects (BSHEA

2003), Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra (2003) Paper Presented on "An Assessment of Critical Load in Agra Region"

● Workshop on Soft Computing at IIT Kanpur (2003)

● Workshop on Patent Awareness organized by Council of Science and Technology

Information, U.P. and Technology Information Forecasting & Assessment Council, New Delhi (2001)

● Frontier Science and Cutting Edge Technologies: Vision for the Future, 90th

Session of Indian Science Congress, Bangalore (2003)

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE IN ACADEMIC YEARS

● On the job project and team leadership at various levels in all companies worked so far (Till

present)

● Served as Social Service Prefect, St. Patrick’s Junior College. Convent of Jesus and Mary, Agra

(1996-1997)