Sarah Braet is the Head of Business Development, Drug Discovery at the University of Ghent. Previously - she worked in the pharmaceutical industry and was involved with Tech Transfer, CMO management, partnership management, Quality-by-design, regulatory filings and digital transformation. Sarah holds a Master in Drug Development (UGent) and an Advanced Master in Industrial Pharmacy (UGent), after which she gained experience in Plasma Derived Therapies, responsible for translating manufacturing science to full-scale production. She was responsible for the development and validation of the small and pilot scale of the future manufacturing line, which allowed for improved process performance and implementation of the right continuous process control systems. She combined the successful development and authorization of an automated continuous manufacturing line in Belgium with her Executive MBA at the Vlerick Business School. After this, she relocated to California where she took on the Head of Digital Transformation position for Takeda. Additionally, she has board experience as an emeritus member of Takeda’s Global Millennial Advisory Board to the CEO and executive team. With +12 years of industry experience, Sarah wants to help spin-offs derisk their assets and ready them for regulatory filing and pharmaceutical production in the most (cost-)efficient way. “I am very passionate about empowering people to excel in innovation. Making the right decisions when it comes to how they use non-dilutive funding, and derisking drug discovery assets in the right way makes or breaks your competitive advantage. Drug discovery is about formulating the right kind of hypothesis at the right stage, and cost-effectively evaluate these hypothesis as fast as possible. It's all about asking the right questions and being transparent about research results. Let's fail fast forward, together!”