Stuart Hurst
Executive Advisor (Launch Excellence)
Stuart has over thirty yearsβ experience in the pharmaceutical industry. During this time, he has worked across sales, marketing, public affairs and market access. Stuart started his pharmaceutical career with Servier before moving to Astra and then joining Pfizer UK in 1997.
Stuart had a number of roles at Pfizer, starting in Sales Management before setting up the Market Access team, one of the first in the UK at the time. Stuart then moved to Pfizerβs Government Affairs team in Brussels, before joining Eli Lilly as Head of European Public Affairs. There he was responsible for a cross-functional team covering Government Affairs, Communications, Policy Development, Patient Advocacy and Corporate Responsibility.
Stuart then moved into rare disease, firstly with Synageva as VP, European Market Access & Government Affairs, where he took an ultra-orphan medicine from phase III results to being ready for pricing & reimbursement submission in all major markets in nine months. He then joined Akcea as Head of Global Market Access, Pricing and Reimbursement and established the function at global and country level, prior to the launch of an ultra-orphan medicine in mid-2019.
Stuart now works as an independent advisor, supporting biotech companies looking to commercialise medicines for rare diseases internationally. His work includes commercial strategy & sequencing, global market access capacity and competency development and market access due diligence. Most recently, Stuart spent three years as a senior advisor for the public affairs firm Rud Pedersen, where he helped establish their EU healthcare team.

