Isagani (Gani) M. Chico, MD, is Vice President and Global Head for Oncology Therapeutic Expertise, Fortrea Clinical Development Services, based in Baltimore, Maryland. Gani has more than 35 years of experience in oncology clinical drug development from small and medium sized biotechnology companies, CROs and the FDA, focused on planning and execution global oncology clinical development projects from early phase to post approval, leadership of cross-functional strategic teams within medical affairs and clinical development organizations, and management of pharmaceutical, academic and regulatory interactions. Gani earned his medical degree from the University of the Philippines, completed his Internal Medicine residency at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and completed his Medical Oncology fellowship training at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. 

At Fortrea, Gani leads a dedicated team of more than 50 oncology physicians with an average of 23 years of academic and industry-related clinical experience in countries across Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. The oncology medical team executes program and study level medical oversight that span early phase clinical development through late-phase and post-marketing studies. Fortrea also offers a group of consultants that provide expertise in specific tumor indications, technologies and drug classes, including study protocol and clinical development planning and strategy, establishment of target product profiles, feasibility and risk assessment.

Isabella Presch, MD, MBA, is a Senior Medical Director of Fortrea’s Rare Diseases, Advanced Therapies and Pediatrics Team (RAPT). She is a certified pediatric surgeon with more than 10 years of clinical experience across therapeutic areas in academia as well as private and public hospitals. Her pharmaceutical industry experience includes more than 15 years supporting hematologic rare diseases across Phase I–IV. 

Dr. Presch has broad experience in global clinical development developing and overseeing product developments collaborating with internal and external stakeholders, including the FDA, PMDA, EMA, PEI and reimbursement agencies. She also has supported global and local medical affairs leading launches of disruptive treatments in rare hematologic diseases and immunology and has significant experience in supporting due diligences. 

Dr. Presch is a strategic, cross-functional global leader supporting rare disease and pediatric clinical development activities across several therapeutic areas. She was recognized in 2022 with the prestigious Labcorp Chairman´s Award for her outstanding contributions.

Ines Pagel-Langenickel, MD, is an Executive Medical Director of CVMER (cardiovascular, metabolic, endocrine and renal) at Fortrea. As a cardiologist, she has over 18 years of clinical research experience and has served as a principal investigator and co-investigator in several Phase II and III CV trials. Dr. Pagel-Langenickel’s areas of expertise include heart failure, myocardial infarction, CV outcomes, atrial fibrillation, cardiac amyloidosis, stem cell therapy as well as extensive experience with CV outcomes trials and endpoint adjudication. 

Dr. Pagel-Langenickel has an MD from Humboldt University of Berlin, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at NHLBI/NIH and earned an MBA from Mannheim Business School.

Hannah has more than 12 years industry experience focused on healthcare communications, patient insights and input, recruitment and retention solutions and patient support programs. Her experience spans Phase I-III global trials across range of therapeutic areas including neurodegenerative conditions with specific experience in Alzheimer’s Disease, ALS, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, neuropathy and pain. 

She is driven by a strategic mindset to identify and understand the experiences, challenges and needs of patients and their families and build targeted data-driven recruitment strategies that enable truly patient-centric studies.

Gong Qing, MD, is Associate Medical Director for Fortrea Clinical Development Services, based in Shanghai, China. She has over 16 years of academia and clinical practice experience and more than 4 years of early and late clinical development research experience covering oncology and other therapeutic area. Her industry experience includes global trials in solid tumors, including breast cancer, NSCLC, pancreatic cancer etc., for products including biologics, targeted therapy and chemotherapy. Dr. Gong served as Associate Chief Physician before joining in industry and held medical responsibility in Pharma since 2018. She joined our company in March 2020.

• 33 years in industry with experience in pharmaceutical and medical device product development 
• 28 years in Project Management roles 
• Career spans both CRO and Pharma/Biologics/Med Device roles 
• Project Manager/Project Director on two Fortrea home hemodialysis studies 
• Experienced in set up and conduct of hemodialysis studies

Geoffrey Kannan, PhD, MD, is an Executive Medical Director in the Oncology Therapeutic Area, Head of the Americas Oncology Team, and Lead for the Pediatric Oncology Medical Science Leadership Center. Dr. Kannan also provides medical and scientific governance to Sponsors, supporting development and execution of oncology clinical trials. Dr. Kannan brings more than 25 years of oncology scientific and medical experience to Fortrea. Dr. Kannan trained as a pediatric hematologist/oncologist and pediatric neuro-oncologist and has served at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children’s Hospital, and on faculty at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kannan joined Fortrea out of practice as a pediatric neuro-oncologist affiliated with Inova Children’s Hospital and Children’s National Medical Center. At Fortrea Dr. Kannan leads medical and scientific oncology therapeutic expertise and strategic endeavors for Fortrea’s Americas-based oncology physicians, and leads Fortrea’s pediatric oncology initiatives, lending an experienced voice to guide industry partners to bring life-saving therapies to children afflicted with cancer.

Friedrich (Fritz) Wieser, MD, is an OB/GYN who received his MD from the Vienna Medical University (Vienna, Austria). After completing his gynecology residency at the Dept. of Gynecology at the University Hospital in Vienna, he did a fellowship in Reproductive Medicine at UCSF in San Francisco, CA. 

Dr. Wieser has over 20 years of clinical and research experience in a broad range of indications including endometriosis, fibroids, menopause, contraception, gynecological cancer and medical devices. 

Before joining Fortrea as Medical Director, Dr. Wieser was a Global Medical Director at Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, GE) and served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. During that time, Dr. Wieser served as an NIH-funded investigator and sub-investigator for many gynecology studies and lead several global women’s health programs.

Frederick Derosier, DO, is the Head of Fortrea’s Rare Diseases, Advanced Therapies and Pediatrics Team (RAPT). He has 22 years of experience in the pharma/biotech industry and 10 years of clinical practice in Internal Medicine. He has focused broadly on neurosciences and concentrated exclusively within rare diseases for more than 12 years. 

His Phase I–IV expertise spans small molecules, combination products, biologics, RNA and gene therapies and he has experience leading global clinical development programs including clinical development strategy and planning, protocol development, regulatory and patient advocacy group interactions.

Franklin Gaylis, MD, FACS, is a Urology Consultant at Fortrea. He also serves as Executive Medical Director of Unio Health Partners (UHP), the largest Urology group in California and as a voluntary Professor of Urology at the University of California, San Diego. 

Dr. Gaylis is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, member of the American Urological Association and diplomat of the American Board of Urology. He lectures nationally and internationally on the subject of medical quality and implementation science and is considered a leader in the field. His research has been published in clinical journals such as Urology, Journal of Urology, Urology Practice, American Journal of Medical Quality, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Gaylis’ practice of more than 30 years has been focused on treating early and late stage prostate and bladder cancer including surgical procedures as well as clinical trials, Phases I-IV. He has participated in numerous clinical trials over the past 30 years, serving as PI in many and has 40 publications, 30 of which he is first author. Dr. Gaylis has a deep interest in data mining from the EMR and oversees UHP’s healthcare informatics program. He has experience with “big data” analytics and is exploring the feasibility for developing synthetic/external controls in Urology at Fortrea. Dr. Gaylis provides urological guidance for therapeutics, diagnostics and biomarker clinical trials and has conducted several advisory boards for sponsors seeking guidance regarding protocols in development.