Our Team – Secretariat & Board

Dr Alexander Natz is the Secretary General of the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). From 2008 to 2013, he was also Head of the Brussels Office of Bundesverband der Pharmazeutischen Industrie e.V. (BPI). Before, he worked as a lawyer at Sträter Law Firm in Germany with a special focus on managed entry agreements and licensing of pharmaceuticals. Alexander has also worked in the field of competition law with the European Commission and in the pharmaceutical industry. As a research assistant at Duke University (USA), he has dealt with international pharmaceutical law. His doctorate was supervised by the former judge at the European Court of Justice, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Everling.

Dr Oliver Sude is the Deputy Secretary General and General Counsel of the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). He provides strategic legal advice on all legislative and policy dossiers relevant to the EUCOPE membership.

Oliver is a German-qualified lawyer with more than 20 years’ experience in the field of life sciences. Before joining EUCOPE, he worked with international law firms focusing on EU regulatory affairs, intellectual property, and market access issues.

Dr Axel Korth is the Senior Legal and Regulatory Affairs Advisor to the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). He represents EUCOPE at EC, EMA, HMA, CMDh, and other fora and focuses on regulatory affairs and the provision of strategic advice on legislative proposals and policy dossiers. He also coordinates EUCOPE’s Regulatory Affairs working group and several of its focus groups including, amongst others, Research & Development, Clinical Trials, Medical Devices, and Pharmacovigilance.

Axel is a senior life sciences lawyer with over 15 years’ experience both as an in-house legal counsel as well as in private practice. Prior to joining EUCOPE, Axel worked as Head Legal DACH at Biogen with a focus on market access, pricing and reimbursement, general healthcare law and compliance, antitrust and competition, public policy and government affairs. Prior thereto, Axel worked in commercial legal roles as Head Legal MEA and Senior Legal Counsel WEMEA at Sandoz (Novartis group) and held positions of continuing seniority at international law firms Shearman & Sterling LLP and Taylor Wessing.

Victor Maertens is the Government Affairs Director for the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). Victor leads EUCOPE’s policy work in the area of Orphan therapies and Cell and Gene Therapy. Prior to joining EUCOPE, Victor worked for Brussels-based consultancies, providing pharmaceutical companies, trade associations, and NGOs with advocacy, strategy, and communications advice. His experience and interests include ATMPs, antimicrobial resistance, OMP, blood policy, and neglected tropical diseases.

Matias Olsen is the Public Affairs and Policy Manager for the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). Matias supports EUCOPE on key topics, covering among others, implementation of EU HTA, advanced diagnostics, Real-World Evidence, the Patent Package, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and relevant market access topics. He coordinates members’ thematic working groups, including the P&R/Market Access Working Group, the Genomics Working Group and the EU HTA Regulation Task Force.

Matias has previously advocated on behalf of European cancer patients and worked in the Norwegian Social Security Administration, with reimbursement of medical devices and coordination of social security within the EU/EEA.

Stefano Romanelli is the Government Affairs Manager of the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). Stefano supports EUCOPE’s policy work on the EU Pharmaceutical Strategy and related dossiers. Prior to joining EUCOPE, Stefano worked for a Brussels-based consultancy, providing advocacy and strategic advice on EU healthcare policies to pharmaceutical companies, trade associations and multi-stakeholder groups. In addition to pharmaceutical legislation, his experiences include rare diseases, non-communicable diseases, supply chains and medicine shortages.

Leander Vranken is the Policy Officer of the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). He will be focusing on Digital Health and other related policy areas. Before joining EUCOPE, Leander worked as a policy researcher at a Brussels based EU affairs consultancy in the EU public health sector where he was extensively involved in the policy monitoring of health-related legislative developments. Furthermore, Leander worked in Dutch national public affairs and EU regional policy for several NGOs based in the Hague and Brussels.

Saskia Jansen-Kilian is the Office Manager for the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). As Office Manager, she covers a wide diversity of member relations tasks as well as office management activities. She is responsible for managing finances, providing administrative support to the team, and assisting EUCOPE´s Secretary General.

Prior to joining EUCOPE, Saskia worked for the Permanent Representation of Germany to the European Union. As part of the office management team of the economic department, Saskia accompanied the German Council Presidency and gained insight into the procedures of the European institutions.

Stefania Alessi is a Policy Officer of the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). As Policy Officer, Stefania monitors health-related legislative developments, undertakes policy monitoring and analysis, assists with event planning, produces drafts of preparatory documents, reports, and other papers, and provides support in administrative and logistic matters.
Previously, she was the Medical Information Coordinator of the Novavax EU team at Propharma Group NL, a leading global, independent, single-source provider of regulatory, clinical, and compliance services serving pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies.

Before moving to the Netherlands, Stefania worked for five years as a registered nurse in public healthcare settings in the UK and Italy, working in interdisciplinary teams and developing, delivering and explaining care plans to patients and their families in neuro-rehabilitation, post-surgery, and oncology departments.

Dr Marcus Droege is the Senior Advisor, Market Access & Commercial for the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE). He is a globally accomplished biopharmaceutical executive with extensive experience leading integrated market access and commercialization initiatives of innovative medicines. In his role at EUCOPE, he advises member organizations on commercial strategy related to innovative medicines and in the context of the evolving EU health policy landscape. He also represents EUCOPE at market access and HTA fora and serve as a resource for EUCOPE’s policy partners and members.

Prior to joining EUCOPE, he successfully contributed to global launches of highly transformative specialty medicines across multiple therapeutic areas at both small biotech and large pharmaceutical companies. Marcus most recently led global value & market access activities at Passage Bio after growing his extensive cell & gene therapy launch experience at AveXis, bluebird bio, and Novartis.