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If you build it, they will come. That’s what Melissa Easy thought about creating a secure website, email and payment system to help physicians and pharmaceutical companies collaborate on clinical trials. In the six years since Easy launched DrugDev has welcomed over 80,000 clinical trial investigators in 115 countries to its network, been chosen to host a breakthrough pharmaceutical industry collaboration named the Investigator Databank, won awards for improving clinical trial operations and made more than $1 billion in payments to investigators worldwide including in Easy’s native Australia.
Have you had a mentor?
Dr. Hugo Stephenson. He is now Drug Dev’s chairman, but he was the founder and owner of the small clinical research organization that I first worked for in Australia. If there is a box, he’s never in it. He manages to simplify things to see the bigger picture and the fastest way forward. More than that, he’s a very involved dad. I wanted to do what he was doing, the way he was doing it. When I told him that I wanted to start DrugDev, he was a big sup porter, and I’m glad to have him on our board.
What has been your biggest challenge?
I suffered from reoccurring miscarriages. It was the first thing in my life about which I had no control. The good news is that I had surgery and have had two successful pregnancies that gave me two wonderful sons.
