Ari Gnanasakthy, Karoly Kulich join RTI Health Solutions adding decades of pharmaceutical research experience

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC — Ari Gnanasakthy and Karoly Kulich, Ph.D., have joined RTI Health Solutions (RTI-HS), a business unit of RTI International. 

Gnanasakthy serves as head of Patient-Reported Outcomes, and Kulich as senior director of Patient-Reported Outcomes. Gnanasakthy is based in New Jersey and Kulich in Hungary.

"My team and I are delighted to welcome Ari and Karoly to RTI Health Solutions," said Sheri Fehnel, Ph.D., vice president of Patient-Reported Outcomes in RTI-HS. "We've worked together for years in a client-vendor relationship, so we all know each other very well. Their reputations in the United States and European patient-reported outcomes worlds and the pharmaceutical industry in general are impeccable, and I am humbled they chose to join RTI-HS."

In their new roles, Gnanasakthy and Kulich will assist clients to formulate and support the implementation of clinical outcome assessment strategies in multi-regional clinical trials. They will also focus on strategic consulting by helping clients develop comprehensive health outcomes research strategies that consider the needs and requirements of all stakeholders; and facilitate negotiations with regulatory agencies and reimbursement authorities to support product development. 

Gnanasakthy is an expert in the fields of statistics and outcomes research with nearly 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining RTI-HS, he was an executive director and head of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Center of Excellence at Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Within Novartis, he served in several departments including biostatistics, health economics, pricing and outcomes research. 

Through his career, Gnanasakthy has developed and validated more than a dozen patient-reported outcomes instruments with his expertise resulting in almost 40 publications. 

"During the time I spent in the industry, I learned two critical lessons: balancing the interests of internal and external stakeholders is critical to formulating the best strategy, and having appropriate tactical solutions is essential to effectively executing those strategies," said Gnanasakthy. "In my experience, RTI-HS does both of these particularly well for its clients, which made this a very compelling career move for me."

Kulich also joins RTI-HS from Novartis where he was the director of Patient-Reported Outcomes. He brings nearly 15 years of expertise in the pharmaceutical industry, including therapeutic experience in respiratory, neurology, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and several other disease areas. His experience includes designing and implementing strategies for maximizing patient-reported outcomes data available to support regulatory and reimbursement claims.

"As a former client, I was always impressed by RTI-HS's scientific standards and reputation," Kulich said. "Thanks to its large team of highly qualified patient-reported outcomes experts, RTI-HS always managed find the right resources and expertise I needed for my projects. I feel privileged to join RTI-HS and its patient-report outcomes expert group."

With more than 30 publications, Kulich is a distinguished reviewer and member of the International Review Board of Quality of Life Research and a guest lecturer at several universities in Europe. 

"I look forward to working together, this time on the same side of the table," Fehnel said. "There's no question that Ari and Karoly will continue to move our discipline forward and provide invaluable support to our clients."