Meridian Catalyst Meridian Catalyst Science. Strategy. Direction. Work With Me
Science. Strategy. Direction.

Turning complex science into clear medical direction.

Meridian Catalyst partners with pharmaceutical and life sciences organizations, and with the agencies that serve them, to turn complex clinical data into clear, executable medical strategy. I fuse a decade of Canadian medical affairs leadership with advanced, secure AI workflows to systematically compress data triage timelines. What you get is out-of-the-box strategy with a strict promise of flawless, on-time execution.

How I Work

Three things a good medical strategy partner has to get right

Scientific credibility, strategic translation, and the willingness to work inside your team rather than alongside it.

Deep scientific acumen

A licensed pharmacist reading raw clinical evidence, not a generalist summarizing a macro template. I bring deep commercialized depth in complex cardiometabolic and incretin assets, and the pharmacology training to get to depth quickly in an unfamiliar one.

Direct strategic translation

Converting complex trial data into bulletproof scientific platforms, sharp HCP engagement roadmaps, and aligned medical direction. Specific enough that medical, marketing and field all read it the same way.

Integrated senior partnership

Operating as an embedded tactical asset within your cross-functional team. Fully integrated across Medical, Marketing, Regulatory and Market Access divisions, entirely comfortable serving as the veteran medical voice to defend strategic choices.

Reena Lavji, BSc, MPharm, R.Ph., Founder of Meridian Catalyst
Reena Lavji, BSc, MPharm, R.Ph. · Founder
About the Founder

A decade at the forefront of Canadian cardiometabolic medical strategy

I'm a licensed pharmacist and former Associate Medical Director, Cardiometabolic at Novo Nordisk Canada, where I spent over a decade in medical strategy across the obesity, type 2 diabetes and insulin portfolios. I worked on both sides of launch, on new indications and label expansions, and on pipeline assets that had not yet reached market. That's the phase where medical plans stop being documents and start being decisions.

Over a decade at the forefront of Canadian medical strategy means my relationships with national and regional Key Opinion Leaders are already deeply established. These networks are built on years of shared scientific exchange, clinical trial collaboration, and data integrity, which lets me bring immediate stakeholder trust and strategic access to your therapeutic area from day one. Crucially, my experience extends far beyond the academic tier; I specialize in designing medical affairs strategies that seamlessly expand from top-tier specialists down into the primary care and allied healthcare provider (HCP) ecosystem to drive true clinical data dissemination. I work from Milton, Ontario, with clients in Canada and internationally.

Launch, lifecycle and label expansion
Saxenda®Victoza®Tresiba®Ozempic®Rybelsus®Wegovy® + pre-launch pipeline assets
Published and presented

Two peer-reviewed publications, in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism and Clinical Obesity, plus five congress abstracts across ObesityWeek, the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions, the International Congress on Obesity and the Canadian Journal of Diabetes.

  • Perspectives on Obesity Management: A Survey of Adolescents with Obesity and Caregivers in Canada. Published abstract and poster presentation Obesity 2025;33(suppl 2):71-439. ObesityWeek, November 2025.
  • Obesity Management of Adolescents: A Survey of Canadian Physicians. Published abstract and poster presentation Obesity 2025;33(suppl 2):71-439. ObesityWeek, November 2025.
  • Therapeutic inertia in obesity management among people living with obesity from the perspective of general/family practitioners in Canada: A mixed-methods study. Full publication and poster presentation Clinical Obesity 2025;15(1):e12701. Presented at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions, June 2022.
  • Obesity management from the perspectives of people living with obesity in Canada: A mixed-methods study. Full publication Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism 2024;26(4):1529-1539.
  • Survey of Physicians' Experiences and Treatment Satisfaction Prescribing Semaglutide for Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in Canada. Congress abstract and poster presentation Canadian Journal of Diabetes, 2019.
  • Semaglutide in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: Real-World Analysis in the Canadian LMC Diabetes Registry (SPARE). Congress abstract and poster presentation American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions, June 2019.
  • Obesity Management in Canada in 2015: Current Practices, Trends and Needs. Congress abstract and poster presentation International Congress on Obesity, Vancouver, May 2016.
Start a conversation
Services

Five focused capabilities, built for Medical Affairs Directors and medical launch leads

Each engagement is scoped to a specific clinical problem, not sold as a retainer looking for a use.

01 · Launch Operations

Medical affairs & launch strategy

Bespoke, stress-tested launch roadmaps, scientific platform development, launch milestone playbooks, and field medical strategy, written to be executed against rather than filed. This covers new indications and label expansions, not only first launches.

How the work dividesI own the strategy, the platform and the playbook. Tactical execution runs through your agency, media and congress partners.

02 · Regulatory & Access

Regulatory & market access support

High-tier medical input into Health Canada submissions, product monograph and labelling positions, and the clinical narrative inside reimbursement and HTA dossiers for CDA-AMC, INESSS and private payers.

How the work dividesI provide the medical and clinical content, working alongside your regulatory affairs team or vendor, who handle filing and eCTD publishing, and your market access lead on payer negotiation.

03 · KEE Matrix

Precision KEE & KOL mapping

Canadian key external experts and rising digital investigators, scored against a weighted framework with explicit gates and a documented evidence layer so every rank can be defended internally. I don't just build static maps: in CVRM my Canadian network is my own, which lets me compliantly bridge the gap between identifying a stakeholder and actually engaging them, across both specialist and primary care networks. Outside Canada I build the map to the same standard, without claiming the relationships.

How the work dividesI deliver the map, the scoring methodology and the engagement plan, and I can make warm introductions. Contracting and honoraria run through your compliance and procurement processes.

04 · Interactive Scientific Exchange

Advisory boards / consultancy meetings & insight generation

I design and chair the scientific content: the objectives, the narrative arc, the steering questions that expose your clinical data gaps, faculty recommendations, and the participant pre-read. I facilitate the session as a scientific peer, then deliver a decision-ready insight report rather than a transcript.

How the work dividesI work alongside your agency or meeting-logistics partner, who handle contracting, honoraria, transfer-of-value reporting and logistics. I can recommend one.

05 · Fractional Direction

Fractional medical leadership

Interim senior medical cover for a defined period, providing veteran medical direction through a parental leave, a structural vacancy, or a high-intensity launch window that needs a second senior head.

How the work dividesI carry defined medical director responsibilities within an agreed decision-rights boundary, with signatory authority, people management and budget ownership remaining in your organization.

Therapeutically generalist by design. Cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease (CVRM), including obesity and diabetes, is where I trained. That is a depth, not a boundary. The transferable asset is a rigorous medical strategy method, and it applies wherever the science is.
Canadian network, international reach. I work with clients in Canada and internationally. In CVRM, my Canadian KOL network is my own, built over a decade, and global teams engage me specifically for the Canada piece of a wider plan.
For agencies

Medical communications and healthcare agencies

I complement your team rather than compete with it. Agencies bring me in as contract senior medical support: scientific depth on a pitch, a licensed pharmacist to stand behind the science, the medical strategy your team builds the program around, or senior overflow when a launch lands on top of everything else.

I work under your agreement, to your process, and white-label where the client needs a single front. I don't hold the client relationship, I don't approach your clients directly, and I won't take work that puts me opposite you on the same account.

ScopeI work as a subcontractor under your agreement and bill hourly. Happy to be named on a proposal where that helps, and I'll sign your NDA and non-solicit.

For clinicians

Physicians and KOLs building something of their own

If you're a clinician moving a venture forward, whether that's an education program, an advisory role, a digital health product, a research collaboration or a company, the medical affairs and pharma side of that world runs on rules and incentives nobody ever explains to you. I translate them.

ScopeI advise on strategy and navigation. I don't broker introductions to pharmaceutical companies on your behalf, and where I hold an industry engagement in the same therapeutic area, I disclose it before we begin.

AI-Enabled Delivery

Augmented where it accelerates. Human where it counts.

I use AI in the mechanical, heavy-lifting parts of medical strategy: literature triage, stakeholder network data, initial insight aggregation. I keep it strictly out of human-judgement and compliance elements. My Harvard AI in Healthcare certification informs how I draw that line, and the work happens in secure environments that accelerate conventional consulting timelines without compromising scientific rigour.

The Meridian Augmented Architecture

Mechanical acceleration Secure enterprise AI
Clinical governance 100% human pharmacist review

AI drafts and synthesizes. It does not sign off.

No client data enters consumer AI tools

Confidential material stays in controlled environments with no training on your inputs. Your pipeline does not become someone's dataset.

Every scored output is auditable

Methodology, weightings and sources are handed over with the deliverable, so your team can defend the conclusions internally.

You're told where AI was used

On every deliverable, in writing. No ambiguity about what was machine-assisted and what was human judgement.

Try It

Describe your launch hurdle in one sentence

Rather than make you read five capability descriptions, state the actual clinical or launch problem. This matches it to the right capability and names where the work would start.

Meridian capability match

Start with a sentence about your situation

The match runs across all five capability areas, returns the closest fit, and tells you where that work would actually start.

Areas of Expertise

Depth where I trained. Method that travels.

Cardiovascular, Renal, and Metabolic diseases GLP-1 & incretin assets Obesity medicine Type 2 diabetes Pre-launch & launch medical strategy Scientific platform development Clinical data gap analysis Real-world evidence narrative Precision KEE mapping Advisory board design & facilitation Launch milestone playbooks Field medical strategy MSL toolkits & field enablement Market access & HTA narrative AI in health care
Contact

Ready to work together?

Let's skip the bloated discovery process. You already know your hurdle. Use the capability match engine above to find your exact alignment, or drop your therapeutic area and timeline metrics below for an immediate, direct response.

Emailinfo@meridiancatalyst.ca
Based inMilton, Ontario · Canada and international
Response timeSame business day
Expert call

One paid conversation rather than a project: a read on the Canadian cardiometabolic landscape, a launch or access question, a due diligence or investor question, or a second opinion on a position your team has already taken. Send me the question and we will agree the length and the rate before anything is booked.

Working with procurement Meridian Catalyst is an Ontario corporation with a business number and HST registration, and professional liability insurance in place. Vendor onboarding is straightforward, and I invoice through the corporation. Rates are discussed on the call, once scope is clear.