To say that Liette Landry has come a long way since her days as the sole female territory manager for food giant Carnation (Nestlé) is an understatement. These days, and some 19 years later, as the Director of the Oncology Business Unit for Schering Canada Inc., Landry’s first job supplying French fries to institutional kitchens seems light years away, but she remembers every detail. Indeed, “I can remember everything, good and bad, and I am often told about my sixth sense,” jokes Landry, who admits that having “total recall” was a bit unnerving for some of her colleagues.

Her venture into the world of pharma on the advice of a Montreal neighbor was “quite an improvement” over having to get up at 5 a.m. to service her institutional accounts. Landry spent nine years at Lederle (Cyanamid) handling a variety of portfolios, from dermatology, to infectious disease, and her first love, oncology. After being promoted as Oncology Product Manager, she assumed responsibility for the development, implementation, and monitoring of effective marketing programs for Novantrone and Leucovorin.

By the mid-1990s, she’d set off to discover new horizons, snagging a post at Technilab Pharma as Product Manager with a portfolio of 33 brands that included brand name and generic products. By 1997, Landry obtained a position at Rhone Poulenc Rorer Canada as Oncology Product Manager and was responsible for the progress and success of products such as Taxotere, Oncaspar, Bonefos, and Gliadel. Landry was back in her environment, oncology.

It was at Schering Canada Inc. in 1999 where her intense interest in oncology would be tapped as Sales and Marketing Manager. She got the opportunity to launch two breakthrough products—Caelyx, for ovarian cancer and Temodal, a drug that would greatly improve quality of life for brain tumor patients and their families.

After two short years, she assumed the role of Marketing Director, Oncology, and Product Manager for Temodal, a position that led to a key accomplishment—the implementation of an innovative brain tumor multidisciplinary CME program, developed in partnership with the Canadian Brain Tumor Consortium, and eventually incorporated as a best practice at Schering-Plough, Schering Canada’s parent company.
In her current position as Schering’s Director, Oncology Business Unit, she oversees 18 sales and marketing team members. The company has seen its oncology business sales increase with a strong double-digit growth year after year, and the business has doubled since 2002. For Landry, however, corporate success isn’t measured merely by numbers: “To me my work is not just work—it’s my passion.”

Over the last 18 years in oncology, Landry feels proud that she has had an opportunity to help save lives and points to the “flowers, letters, and testimonials from patients and families that tell me I made a difference.” She admits that recently witnessing the cancer experience with a close family member has reinforced her dedication and commitment to what she does.

Believing strongly in “enhancing life and advancing treatment”–an excerpt from Schering Oncology’s mission statement—Landry maintains, “I really live my job.” Accomplished from a professional standpoint, Landry is an individual with boundless energy. She’s a key motivator when it comes to fund-raising activities for cancer, and is well known for her participation in the annual 5 km Canadian Cancer Society’s Run for the Cure which she “walks not runs” with her seven-year-old-daughter and her two dogs, and for raising money for Breast Cancer Research at the Schering Canada Head Office in Pointe-Claire, Qué.
Her motto is: “Living each day to the fullest and when they ask me where I see myself in five years… easy! Doing exactly what I am doing now, working hard toward patient care.”

En francais

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