Akanksha Nagpal, PhD

What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?

As I’ve matured as a leader, I’ve learned the importance of staying attuned to industry trends and thinking with an entrepreneurial mindset. These elements are essential in shaping a clear vision, ensuring that the team’s contributions are meaningful and aligned with broader business goals. Guiding a team to perform in a competitive environment requires not only strategic thinking but also the resilience to stay the course. One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is that effective leadership means knowing when to lead with the head, the heart or the gut – and having the courage to make clear, timely decisions without hesitation or ambiguity.

What do you consider to be your most important career achievement or milestone?

A pivotal milestone in my career was the simultaneous development of scalable manufacturing processes for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) utilizing three different product modalities targeted to both pediatric and geriatric populations. Very early on in my career, this accomplishment not only shaped my approach to developing pioneering therapies that were modality agnostic but also emphasized the importance of combining scientific innovation with executional focus. Since then, I have continued to develop processes and launch multiple products in different modalities, including therapeutic proteins, synthetic peptides, biosimilars, and gene therapies. I love working at BioMarin as its modality-agnostic approach to addressing disease biology resonates with my experience. At BioMarin, I have consistently utilized my expertise to improve manufacturing processes across modalities and to contribute to the launch of breakthrough medicines. These milestones have not only marked significant achievements in my career but have also driven my commitment to bringing transformative treatment options to patients.

What do you aspire to accomplish in your career and why? What obstacles will you overcome?

I aspire to see a future in the biotech industry where safe and efficacious drugs are brought from design to patients within a shorter time period. To achieve this, the biotech and pharma industries need to go beyond making step changes and instead encourage the integration of transformational technologies. As an industry we can start to utilize AI and machine-learning models, have a robust knowledge management strategy that makes data accessible at all stages of drug development, and foster a culture of out-of-the-box thinking to accelerate traditional development timelines.

As a leader at BioMarin, I am focused on maintaining the organization’s position at the fore of innovation. I am constantly encouraging my team to build a toolbox of innovative and proven technologies and have a continuous improvement mindset to bring transformational medicines to people living with genetically defined conditions.

Describe an amazing opportunity in your STEM career.

One of the most amazing opportunities in my STEM career was co-founding a start-up called PROFOLD, which focused on refolding inactive proteins into their correct catalytic state utilizing a microchip. This opportunity not only taught me how to invent a product with potential applications across various drug manufacturing scales, but also how to collaborate with biotech companies to conduct product trials. It was a transformative experience that broadened my understanding of both product development and industry partnerships.

How was AWIS helped you professionally and/or personally?

I am excited to have recently joined AWIS and look forward to leveraging the full suite of membership benefits while also offering my partnership to the community.

What is your favorite word? (only one word)

Learn

How do you define it?

The word “learn” represents a continuous journey of growth. You’re never truly done learning – whether it’s from industry trends, failures, successes, colleagues or interns. I strongly believe that reflecting on key learnings allows you to become a better version of yourself as you progress in your career.

How has this word influenced or inspired your career?

Not everything is taught in school – life itself offers many lessons. Every lesson I’ve learned has helped me become a more holistic and aware thinker. Whether it’s reflecting on experiences, understanding the mechanism of action for a new drug, or learning about different patient populations, these insights inspire me to take defined actions that enable success in difficult and ambiguous situations. The mindset of being a constant learner has brought humility and respect to my leadership approach.

How does AWIS impact your career journey?

I am excited to have recently joined the AWIS community.

What are you currently reading or listening to?

Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle.

What do you consider the best professional or personal advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I’ve received is to be an active listener. The value is in truly listening, not just speaking. Listening with intent and speaking with substance ensures that your contributions are meaningful and impactful.

Akanksha Nagpal, PhD,  joined BioMarin Pharmaceutical in 2022 and is currently leading Drug Substance Technologies within Technical Operations. In this role, she has fostered a culture of continuous process improvement and provided strong leadership to enhance process robustness, enabling BioMarin to bring safe and efficacious medicines from research to the commercial market. Prior to BioMarin, Akanksha held leadership roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Pfizer, Novartis, AstraZeneca, Millipore and Unilever, where she focused on a diverse portfolio of gene therapies, vaccines, small molecules and medical devices. Akanksha earned her PhD in Biochemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology and completed her post-doctoral research at the Stanford University School of Medicine.