American College of Rheumatology Convergence 2024 (ACR)

Andrea Buschiazzo, MD, MBA, is a Senior Medical Director at Fortrea, a Board-Certified Rheumatologist and a Clinical Pharmacologist (University of Buenos Ares). At Fortrea, she offers therapeutic area expertise in inflammation and autoimmune diseases as well as global clinical development. 

Dr. Buschiazzo is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and provides medical leadership on projects teams, medical/scientific consultation and therapeutic expertise globally. She oversees study specific medical/safety monitoring activities, ensuring compliance with ethical, legal and regulatory standards as well as Fortrea and Sponsor SOPs, representing the Medical Affairs department in business development activities. 

She started her pharmaceutical career with Merck Sharp & Dohme in Medical & Scientific Affairs and Clinical Development, working in multiple therapeutic areas as an Associate Director before moving to a regional clinical development leader role at Servier for LATAM. Later, she worked at Kendle (then INC) as a Global Project Director and was responsible for successful development programs leading to registration of several innovative products before becoming a Managing Director at ICON. 

Dr. Buschiazzo has 33 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and CRO industry and 34 years in clinical practice. She completed a fellowship in autoimmune diseases at the Clinic Hospital in Barcelona. She published many articles and posted abstracts at the main Rheumatology Congresses (ACR/EULAR/SAR). 

She has provided global medical monitoring services and therapeutic advisory in almost all autoimmune diseases including Systemic Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Gout, Psoriatic Arthritis, Spondyloarthritis, Paget’s disease, Sjögren’s Syndrome, Vasculitis, Juvenile Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Fibromyalgia. She has experience as Global Project Director and Medical Monitor for 10 Lupus studies, including Lupus Nephritis (Phase II-III) and the trials running prior to the approval of belimumab as the first biologic for SLE.

Maixing Ai, MD, is a Senior Medical Director, based in Princeton, NJ, U.S. Dr. Ai is a trained immunologist/rheumatologist with more than 22 years of clinical practice. He has extensive experience managing different immunologic/rheumatologic disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis. 

Dr. Ai has more than 16 years of pharmaceutical and CRO industrial experience. He has experience with many clinical trials on NSAIDs, DMARDs, small molecules and biologics in autoimmune diseases. He has also worked on cell and gene therapies in autoimmune disease and musculoskeletal disease, with hands-on experience in cell therapies for lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic sclerosis. 

Since joining Fortrea (formerly Labcorp/Covance), Dr. Ai has worked with many biotech companies and global pharmaceutical companies. His experience also includes Phase II-IV protocol design in many indications. 

Dr. Ai earned his medical doctorate degree from University of Luebeck, Luebeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. He has authored/co-authored more than 60 papers/books in rheumatological topics.

Patrick McLeroth, MD, is the Vice President and Global Therapeutic Area Head for Infectious Diseases and Critical Care and is based in Pennsylvania, U.S. Dr. McLeroth has more than 23 years of clinical trial experience including as a principal investigator and roles of increasing responsibility at Fortrea focused on planning and execution of infectious disease and critical care clinical development from first-in-human (FIH) to registration and post marketing trials. Dr. McLeroth has provided significant contribution to several approved antibiotics and has co-authored more than 20 papers in infectious disease. Since 2008, he has worked as the lead medical monitor on multiple protocols covering all aspects of infectious disease, including HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, influenza, bacterial infections, fungal infections, tuberculosis and vaccines. 

Prior to joining Fortrea, he worked at Chase Brexton Health Services, Inc. in Baltimore, MD, as Director of HIV Medicine and Research, and was Principal Investigator on more than 30 protocols between 2002 and 2008. Dr. McLeroth completed his MBBCh degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and his internship at the Baragwanath-Chris Hani Memorial Hospital in Johannesburg. Dr. McLeroth completed his fellowship in infectious disease and his residency in internal medicine at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, one of Columbia University’s hospitals. Dr. McLeroth has been with Fortrea, formerly Labcorp, since July 2008.