Lauren Cole

Chief Strategy Officer at Valeris

Speaker

Lauren brings an extensive background in patient services and market access strategy, built through leadership roles that reshaped how life sciences companies connect commercial strategy to the patient experience. As Chief Strategy Officer, she leads the integration of commercial strategy, market access, and patient services into a single, connected playbook. Most recently, she served as Vice President, Patient Services at Verona Pharma (a subsidiary of Merck & Co.), where she led a newly formed patient services business unit and drove substantially improved patient access outcomes. Prior to Verona, Lauren served as Executive Director, Patient Services at Ardelyx, where she led the design and launch of patient services solutions for a novel nephrology medication and helped build a house-of-brands patient services model across the company's portfolio. Her background also includes senior patient services and access leadership roles at Zealand Pharma, Akebia Therapeutics, ConnectiveRx, and Cencora's Lash Group.