Nora holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and an MBA and has always been passionate about improving access to healthcare in the third world.
At Pasteur Vaccins, the vaccine arm of the Pasteur Insitute in Paris, she was the product manager responsible for the world's first viral Hepatitis B vaccine. She spent 10 years promoting large-scale Hepatitis B vaccination programs in 80 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Her role involved raising awareness of the problem and the solution, advocating with public health authorities to adopt the vaccine in their countries, identifying obstacles and finding ways of overcoming them. After many years of collective efforts, the vaccine is now a component of the standard vaccination program across the third world.
She then worked in international business development in the pharmaceutical industry (Sanofi, SmithKline Beecham), followed by pharmaceutical management consulting (Deloitte Consulting, The Wilkerson group).In 2000, she started working as an independent consultant to biopharmaceutical companies and think tanks. She gained a wealth of international business experience, which could be transposed to the social sector.
During a holiday visit to Roatan (Honduras), she witnessed the devastating shortages of medicines at the public hospital.The hospital pharmacist had no purchasing budget and no access to suppliers. She was disempowered by the system and frustrated. Nora felt that with knowledge transfer in the areas of international procurement and fund-raising, and the creation of a new structure, access to medicines in the Bay Islands could be rapidly and sustainably improved. She founded Medicines for Roatan in 2006.
