MUSC alumnus honored with Heart of BioNJ Award

MUSC pharmacy alumnus Mark Peters will be one of the three honorees at BioNJ’s 31^st Annual Dinner Meeting and Innovation Celebration, held in East Brunswick, NJ, on February 8, 2024.

Peters, senior director of patient advocacy at Genmab, is a long-time industry executive as well as an adjunct clinical associate professor at Rutgers University. He earned a BS in pharmacy at Rutgers before coming to the MUSC College of Pharmacy for his Pharm.D.

“I am indebted for the great education and experiences that the professors at the College of Pharmacy provided me so I could follow my passion to help improve the lives of patients with serious disease," Peters said.

Genmab was founded in 1999 in Copenhagen. The international biotech company specializes in the creation, development and delivery of differentiated antibody therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases. Peters joined in 2021.

Prior to Genmab, Peters worked as vice president of new business development and outreach for patient advocacy organization CancerCare, and spent 21 years as an executive with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS).

His outreach to patients and the community has included serving as president for the Institute for Medication Access and Compliance and as co-founder of the Hunterdon County Medication Access Program, which improves medication access and adherence in under and uninsured Hunterdon County residents.

The Heart of BioNJ award honorees, which also include Amadou Diarra, senior vice present of global policy, advocacy & government affairs at BMS, and Lisa Salberg, founder & CEO of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association, are selected for their extraordinary patient advocacy.

“I am extremely humbled and deeply honored to receive the 2024 Heart of BioNJ,” Peters posted after the announcement. “Thank you to the BioNJ Board, Marisol Mendez Peron (she/her) and my colleagues at Genmab for their support and nomination. Congratulations to the other awardees.

“I am very grateful to everyone (too many to list) who has provided me with opportunities to serve the patient community over the years. I am blessed to have a role that helps to improve the lives of patients and their families.”