Certara has announced that Craig Rayner, PharmD, MBA, senior vice president, integrated drug development with Certara Strategic Consulting, has been awarded the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award for the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Monash University.
Dr Rayner is also an adjunct associate professor within the faculty, which according to the 2018 QS World University Rankings by Subject, is ranked #2 in the world for pharmacy and pharmacology.
Monash University President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Gardner AO told Dr Rayner that he was selected to receive the award in ‘recognition of your integrity and ability to inspire others to strive for excellence, your exceptional contribution to your professional field, your community leadership and your ability to inspire our students to reach their highest potential.’
‘Iam thrilled Craig has been recognized by Monash University through this award. He is an outstanding role model for our professional and PhD students, and his intellectual generosity and collaborative mindset are the hallmarks of an established global leader,’ said Monash University Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Dean Professor William Charman.
‘I am honoured to receive this award and extremely proud to be both an alumnus and adjunct faculty member at Monash University,’ said Dr Rayner. ‘Our shared guiding principles of innovation, collaboration, impact and excellence have guided extensive collaborations between myself, Certara and the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences for many years now, and will be the compass that guides our collaborations for many years to come.’
Certara has partnered with Monash University faculty, notably Professor Carl Kirkpatrick, on clinical pharmacology and modelling and simulation projects on a number of diverse topics. These range from pandemic infectious disease preparedness programs, to new medicines to treat respiratory viruses and significant global health diseases, to a novel interdisciplinary quantitative modelling and simulation framework – ‘Pharmacology to Payer or P2P’ – that unites divergent disciplines of pharmacology, epidemiology and health economics to reduce market failures by improving decisions earlier in development.
In addition, a Certara-Monash University-Industry Fellowship Program – that also received funding from MTPConnect – will soon commence. The fellowship involves a combination of academic coursework, hands-on industry training, international industry/academic placements and research, to develop the next generation of industry-experienced drug development scientists through training in clinical pharmacology, pharmacometrics and regulatory science.
Dr Rayner is senior vice president, integrated drug development with Certara Strategic Consulting. In this capacity, he supports more than 140 PhD, MD and PharmD drug development practitioners globally, creating value for clients across the drug development ecosystem and ultimately medicine access for patients. Prior to his current role, Dr Rayner was the co-founder and CEO of drug development consulting firm d3 Medicine until its acquisition by Certara in 2016.
Dr Rayner's past appointments included leadership roles in clinical pharmacology and early development (Roche), clinical development (CSL-Behring), business development/licensing as global due diligence director (Roche), and as an academic researcher in clinical pharmacology and infectious disease research (Monash University).
Dr Rayner received his bachelor’s degrees in pharmacy and pharmaceutical science from Monash University, his doctor of pharmacy from State University of New York at Buffalo, and his MBA from Melbourne University.
