Catherine Litalien is the Executive Director and one of the founders of the Goodman Pediatric Formulations Centre. Using her experience as a pediatric critical care specialist for 16 years, and now, as an academic pediatrician, she understands the need for pediatric formulations and the challenges that compounding brings. With a vision to bringing more child-friendly medicines for children, Dr. Litalien brought together a team and found the initial financing for the Goodman Pediatric Formulations Centre, which opened in February 2016. Dr. Litalien is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and an Accredited Member in the Department of Pharmacology at the Université de Montréal, and the Medical Director of the Clinical Pharmacology Unit at the CHU Sainte-Justine. More recently, she had the opportunity to act as an expert for the Council of Canadian Academies on the Expert Panel on Therapeutic Products for Infants, Children, and Youth that published a report in 2014 entitled Improving Medicines for Children in Canada.

Andrea Gilpin is the General Manager of the Goodman Pediatric Formulations Centre. As the main point of contact and spokesperson, she leads the Centre’s team, provides the strategic direction, and oversees the operations of the Centre. Dr. Gilpin began her career as a scientist and completed her Doctorate in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Toronto. Since that time, her career has brought her through several different roles including working 12 years in small biotechnology companies in investor relations and communications. In 2011, she took a position working at Pfizer and later spent 3 years at Novartis, where she was Head of Corporate Communications for Novartis Canada and in 2015 she moved to a marketing oncology position in the Lung and Melanoma franchise at Novartis.

Julie Autmizguine is the Scientific Director of the Goodman Pediatric Formulations Centre, is responsible of its research activities. Since 2014, she is a pediatrician specialized in infectious diseases at the CHU Sainte-Justine. After her clinical training in pediatrics and infectious diseases at the University of Montreal in 2012, she completed an additional two-year training in clinical pharmacology at the Duke Clinical Research Institute within the American Pediatric Trials Network. During her research training, she also obtained a master degree in the Clinical Research Training Program at Duke University, and didactic training at the Eshelman School of pharmacy, The University of Chapel Hill. Her research activity focuses on pediatric clinical pharmacology. She is interested in reducing off-label prescription and increasing safety and effectiveness of drug therapies for children of all ages. More specifically, she studies the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of antibiotics used to treat infections caused by bacteria resistant to first-line antibiotics in children.

Jean-Marie Leclerc sits on the Internal Advisory Committee for the Goodman Pediatric Formulations Centre and is one of the founders of the Centre. Dr. Leclerc is a trained hematologist-oncologist with an interest in clinical research and drug metabolism in oncology. After his medical training, Dr. Leclerc completed two post-doctoral fellowships, first at CHU Sainte-Justine and the second at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Upon his return to CHU Sainte-Justine, Dr. Leclerc opened his research laboratory and initiated and lead the local oncology clinical research group to participate to the Pediatric Oncology Group studies (POG, now Children Oncology Group) for patients with solid tumors as well as in the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Group (Boston protocol) for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. From 1996-2012, he worked in different leadership roles in the pharmaceutical industry and was in charge of the clinical research, regulatory and medical affairs groups at Pfizer (1996-97), Schering-Plough (1997-2002) and Novartis Canada (2002-12) while keeping part-time clinical activities in hematology-oncology. Upon his return full time at CHU Sainte-Justine in 2012, Dr. Leclerc became the principal investigator of the Boston studies and protocols in the rare tumors program. He also developed and launched a Phase II study in neurofibromatosis. In addition, he developed a new partnership with the DFCI leading to CHU Sainte-Justine becoming a core lab for the group new leukemia study (asparaginase monitoring, under Dr. Y. Theoret, and new generation sequencing for Ph-Like evaluation, under Dr. D. Sinnett).

Yves Théorêt sits on the Internal Advisory Committee of the Goodman Pediatric Formulations Centre. Dr. Théorêt completed his PhD in neuropharmacology at McGill University, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in neurotoxicology at the Université de Montréal and the University of North Carolina. He joined the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre in 1990 as a Primary Investigator, focusing on pharmacotheraphy for brain tumours. Dr. Théorêt is one of the founders of the Clinical Pharmacology Unit of CHU Sainte-Justine whose mandate is to perform “real-time” pharmacotherapy to personalize drug treatment for children and mothers. Dr. Théorêt is the head of the laboratory of this Unit and uses innovative approaches to develop new tests to improve therapeutic drug management. He has several patients to his name.

Denis Lebel sits on the Internal Advisory Committee of the Goodman Pediatric Formulations Centre. Mr. Lebel has been working as a pharmacist at CHU Sainte-Justine since 1992. In this role he is responsible in patient care, teaching, and research. Mr. Lebel has an interest in using technology for process improvement to reduce risks associated with preparation and administration of medicines in children. He is part of the Unité de Recherche en Pratiques Pharmaceutiques. Mr. Lebel understands first-hand the challenges that patients and their families have when they leave the hospital with a prescription that requires a compounded medicine.

ResearchGate

Mélanie Derail has over ten years of experience in the communication field, including five years in Africa (Senegal) and the Middle East (Egypt). Through translation, communication/marketing strategies, or project management, she has all the tools to help an organization achieve its key objectives. A graduate of the Information-Communication Program at the Université de Moncton (NB) since 2006, Mrs. Derail was awarded two journalism scholarships during her studies.

Sophie Bérubé has more than twenty-five years of experience in the pharmaceutical field. After graduation, she worked as a pharmacist at the Montreal General Hospital and later began her career in the pharmaceutical industry. She spent 10 years at Berlex Canada (now Bayer) as a project manager in clinical research and helped for the approval of several drugs for the Canadian market. In 2003, she joined the Shire Canada team where she held Canadian and international pharmacovigilance management positions. Until recently, she led the development of risk management plans that have become critical to the licensing of new medicines by regulatory authorities around the world. Ms. Bérubé completed her studies at the Université de Montréal and holds a Major in Biological Sciences, a Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmacy, a Diploma in Hospital Pharmacy and a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences.