Stories
I wanted to do more to help patients fight cancer
Beata Korytowsky, executive director, Medical Affairs, is responsible for health economic outcomes and research and patient advocacy at Mirati Therapeutics Inc. One of Beata’s first jobs prior to Mirati involved engaging directly with patients to survey patient-reported outcomes, allowing her to see firsthand the experiences of those living with cancer. This experience instilled in her a life-long commitment to serving patients, which has shaped the course of her career.
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’ve always loved science. There was a point when I wanted to go into medicine, but instead I discovered I was really good at using data to solve problems.
Early in my career at a world-renowned cancer center, I had the opportunity to work on patient-reported outcomes, which meant that I sat with patients in waiting areas and supported them in filling out health-related questionnaires. One woman in particular inspired me. She was a breast cancer patient in her early thirties. She sat there with a bandanna around her head after losing her hair to chemotherapy, but she had a huge smile on her face. She was determined to beat cancer so she could see her new baby’s first step and see her child grow up and grow old. I remember, at that moment, knowing that I wanted to commit myself to patients in order to do more to help them achieve long-term survival and win their battle with cancer.
I think of patients as warriors. They are ready to put up a fight in the face of a devastating diagnosis. And here at Mirati, we’re doing everything we can to help them.
Part of my responsibility at Mirati is to lay the foundation for and support the company’s clinical assets by identifying and providing evidence to highlight the unmet medical needs across a variety of cancers. My team and I seek to understand what the treatment environment looks like, referencing published data, in an effort to clearly articulate the value we bring to patients with our new medicines.
I also work with patient advocacy groups where I build relationships on behalf of Mirati. Our goal is to work with patient communities to better understand and identify the unmet needs and ensure that the voices/perspectives of patients are incorporated across all activities from trial design to development and, eventually, through commercialization. Patients and caregivers are at the heart of everything we do here at Mirati, and for those reasons, we want to ensure that we are working together to achieve our common goals through awareness and education.
I think of patients as warriors. They are ready to put up a fight in the face of a devastating diagnosis. And here at Mirati, we’re doing everything we can to help them.
The people and the science at Mirati are truly unique and are what I’m most proud to be a part of. The investment in innovative and potentially life-changing science allows Mirati to attract and retain amazing talent. The initial team that built Mirati from the ground up spent a tremendous amount of time, effort and energy putting us on the course we’re on today. As a result, we have an excellent team of scientists, and that excellence continues to attract incredibly talented people across a broad range of functions as the organization continues to grow, develop and expand.