Tara Hastings
Global Patient Engagement Lead, Rare Diseases, Rare Blood & Genomic Medicines Sanofi
Tara Hastings is Global Patient Engagement Lead for Rare Diseases, Rare Blood & Genomic Medicines at Sanofi, where she leads strategies to embed the patient perspective across drug development and advance meaningful engagement with rare disease communities. She works collaboratively with patients, advocacy organizations, and cross-functional teams to ensure patient insights inform research, clinical development, and decision-making.
Prior to joining Sanofi, Tara spent more than six years at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, where she led strategic research partnerships and patient engagement initiatives to strengthen collaboration between the Parkinson’s community, researchers, and industry stakeholders. With extensive experience in patient-centered research and stakeholder engagement, she is passionate about integrating the patient voice throughout the clinical development lifecycle.
Seminars
- Partner with patient advocacy groups early to understand lived experience, shape protocol design, and develop recruitment and retention strategies that reflect community needs
- Balance scientific objectives with the patient voice to design trials that remain operationally feasible while reducing burden and improving long-term participation
- Explore real-world examples of creative patient engagement, from improving understanding of gene therapies to collaborating with advocacy organizations to address practical barriers beyond the reach of sponsors alone
