One of the few life science consulting firms built entirely by industry insiders
At Sensa, our senior team has lived it – holding commercial leadership roles across global pharma and biotech organisations before founding this consultancy. As a result, we have deep relationships within the industry and a wealth of experience cross biotech and pharma. That experience means when we advise on market access, pricing or commercialisation strategy, we’re drawing from first-hand knowledge of what works under real-world constraints.
Who we serve
Built for companies where the stakes are too high for generic consulting.
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Pre-commercial biotech
Building access and commercial strategy from the ground up – for companies that cannot afford to figure it out at launch. Senior expertise without the enterprise price tag.
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Specialty & rare disease pharma
Complex launches where standard playbooks do not apply and payer engagement demands deep therapeutic, evidence, and HTA expertise.
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Global & multi-market programs
Coordinated access strategies across the US, EU, and international markets – with IRA, JCA, and reference pricing implications managed as one integrated challenge.
Data-backed decisions at every inflection point
We apply analytics across the lifecycle – from predictive payer modeling in pre-launch through real-world evidence extraction post-approval – so your most consequential decisions are grounded in what the data actually shows, not what last year’s analog suggested.
Our evidence prioritization provides data-driven frameworks for deciding which evidence investments will move payers most
34%
of new US pharma launches fail to meet commercial expectations
$4.5B
real-world evidence market by 2029 – growing 2× from today
Our senior leadership team
Saleem J Shah – Managing Partner
CEO
With over 25 years experience across Pharma and Consultancy, Sal brings a unique perspective on value creation and value strategy for new and existing assets. His background enables him to understand the importance of communicating ‘value-based healthcare’ for life science innovations to Payers at a Global, Regional and Local level. Prior to Sensa Life Science, Sal spent time in a number of leadership roles within Market Access, Commercialization Strategy and RWE functions at Pfizer, Sanofi, Roche, IMS, ICON, Jupiter and Red Nucleus. Sal is a strong proponent of commercialization and value considerations early in a products lifecycle and has spent significant time advising clients in identifying value in clinical stage assets.
Chris Serafino – Strategy Partner
INTERNATIONAL LEAD
Chris is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive specializing in marketing, commercialization, and payer strategy across U.S. and global markets. Throughout his career, he has successfully led strategic initiatives supporting biologics and rare disease therapies, with expertise spanning pricing and reimbursement, HEOR strategy, contracting, competitive intelligence, and launch execution. He is recognized for combining strategic leadership with operational excellence to build high-performing teams and deliver strong commercial outcomes while advancing meaningful patient access globally. Chris has held leadership positions at Amgen, Horizon Therapeutics, Celgene, UCB, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Lederle Pharmaceuticals.
Sarah Pitluck – Strategy Partner
US LEAD
Sarah is a healthcare executive with over 25 years of experience in market access, pricing and reimbursement, health economics, and patient advocacy across US and global markets. With a deep focus on rare diseases and gene therapies, throughout her career, she has advised biopharmaceutical clients on payer strategy, evidence generation, and innovative reimbursement models — including outcomes-based agreements. She is recognized for bringing both strategic and operational expertise to market access challenges across the full product lifecycle, from clinical-stage assets through launch and beyond. Sarah has held senior roles at Spark Therapeutics, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, and Genentech, and has worked at healthcare consulting firms including Avalere Health and Covance Health Economics and Outcomes Services.
Larry Bressler – Strategy Partner
GLOBAL COMMERCIAL LEAD
Larry is a proven senior commercial executive with 20+ years in global marketing, commercial launch, and market access strategies across rare disease, specialty, and vaccines within both startups and large pharma, including Merck, GSK, Shire, Rhythm, Chiesi Global Rare Disease and most recently Disc Medicine. Throughout his career, Larry specialized in crafting and executing successful go-to-market strategies, seamlessly integrating legal and business acumen to navigate complex regulatory landscapes, analyze business development opportunities, develop transformative messaging, and open new markets. Larry’s experience includes building and leading collaborative organizations, with a strong track record of enhancing both revenue and profitability across different organizational scales, from nimble startups to established Fortune 500 firms. Within ultra-rare disease specifically, he has a history of leading impactful product launches on a global scale, establishing commercial frameworks from the ground up, fostering relationships with Key Opinion Leaders, and engaging patient advocacy groups to elevate brand positioning in areas such as Lysosomal Storage Disorder (LSD), Hematology, and Endocrinology.
Irina Raskina – Strategy Advisor
CEE, CIS & MENA Region
Irina is a strategic advisor to biotech, medtech and pharmaceutical companies expanding internationally. With over 20 years in pharma international, she combines scientific training, business strategy and hands-on operational expertise to help life sciences companies turn complex expansion opportunities into executable, risk-controlled growth paths. Having worked with both early-stage biotechs and global players including Novartis, Pfizer, UCB, Ipsen and Norgine, she brings deep experience across CEE, CIS, MENA and LATAM markets across licensing, regulatory pathways and KOL engagement. Fluent across five working languages, she brings both the strategic vision and the operational drive to make projects happen.
Why Sensa is different
Unlike large consultancies, we operate as a deliberately focused life sciences consulting practice. Our team is small enough to offer genuine senior attention on every engagement, and experienced enough to move fast. We are therapy-area agnostic, with particular depth in rare diseases and global pricing strategy. We serve clients across the globe, sitting alongside you as a strategic partner until the work is done.
Our Services
From early market planning to post-launch growth, we help pharma and biotech teams make better commercial decisions at every stage of the product journey.
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Pre-Launch
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Launch
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Post-Launch
Contact us
We’re here to help across market access, pricing, commercialisation strategy and more.