Samaneh Kalirai

Samaneh Kalirai was appointed to lead Policy, Reimbursement, and Government Affairs at Zealand Pharma, where she is responsible for policy strategy, public reimbursement pathways, and government engagement across the company's obesity and metabolic disease pipeline. She steps into the role at a pivotal moment for the category, as more health systems move to formally recognize obesity as a chronic disease and establish structured reimbursement frameworks for obesity medications. Samaneh spent eight years at Bristol Myers Squibb, most recently as Head of Global Policy Analytics, where she shaped enterprise strategy across federal drug pricing reform, government payer negotiation, and emerging policy developments, and oversaw the team accountable for it. Earlier at BMS, she guided global healthcare strategy and pricing analytics across the U.S., EU, and Japan, and directed Health Economics and Outcomes Research across public and private payer engagements. Before BMS, she spent time at Eli Lilly and Company conducting HEOR studies behind GLP-1 and insulin launches. Samaneh holds a PharmD from Purdue University and an MPH (Master of Public Health), with a Health Policy focus, from The George Washington University.