Courtney Abunassar

Courtney Abunassar
Associate Director, Market Access and Policy Research

Courtney Abunassar - Associate Director, Market Access and Policy Research

Master of Arts, Public Administration, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Bachelor of Journalism, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

343-422-6535       

As a member of PDCI’s Strategic Consulting and Policy Team, Courtney helps clients make business decisions that will achieve optimal pricing and reimbursement for their products. She has lead dozens of market access assessments, providing insights to clients about the market access landscape and recommending strategies and roadmaps to optimize access in ever-evolving therapeutic and access landscapes. Courtney has assisted clients to prepare for public and private reimbursement negotiations, including assessing points of leverage between negotiating parties and recommending deal structures that anticipate and satisfy payer needs without compromising value. Additionally, Courtney has led dozens of payer research and advisory board projects, broadening her market access knowledge, insights and connections beyond PDCI’s in-house expertise, and becoming sensitive to nuances of various payer and other stakeholder perspectives from coast to coast.

A key skill developed in her strategic planning work is conducting stakeholder influence mapping to understand the interests, roles and power of individuals and organizations which may serve barriers or facilitators towards a client achieving its market access goals. This skill has helped clients effectively engage internal and external stakeholders to align interests and/or strategically plan to avoid or mitigate challenges.

In addition to her work assisting clients with business decisions directly, Courtney leads PDCI policy projects in a wide variety of topics of interest to the innovative pharmaceutical industry. In this work, she has conducted primary and secondary research to author reports delivering novel insights on topics such as national pharmacare and the private payer PLA landscape in Canada.

Prior to joining PDCI’s Strategic Consulting and Policy Team, Courtney managed and led pricing and reimbursement submission projects, contributing to the strategic planning and development for all HTA submission components in consultation with clients and internal PDCI teams. This experience, combined with her skill for clear communication, has assisted clients to develop and effectively communicate the narrative demonstrating product value to stakeholders.

Prior to joining PDCI in 2011, Courtney worked in strategic policy analysis and communications positions with the federal government and not-for-profit health organizations. Courtney holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a Master’s degree in Public Administration with a specialization in health policy, both from Carleton University in Ottawa. She has also attained a Certificate in Population Health Risk Assessment and Management from the University of Ottawa.