JAMAICAN Josh Allen has been awarded the top Regional Business Manager in the United States for 2014 by California-based Raptor Pharmaceuticals, a major player for rare disease drugs.

Allen, younger brother of veteran journalist Desmond Allen and Rev Vernon Allen, pastor of the Buff Bay Group of Baptist Churches, Portland, was promply promoted to Senior Regional Business Manager by the company, following his outstanding achievement in the South-east region which covers Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Before leaving Jamaica in 1986 on a track scholarship to Long Island University, CW Post Campus where he was twice named All-American in track and field, Allen played DaCosta Cup football for Cornwall College, Montego Bay, and later competed in the 1980s for UTech forerunner, the College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST) as a member of the exciting 100-metre sprint team nicknamed “Bolts of Lightning”.

He completed a Bachelor of Science degree in 1990 at Long Island University and an MBA at the New York Institute of Technology. He has also pursued high-level training in Strategic Selling and Consultative Selling.

Allen began his career as a salesman in 1990 at major food distributor General Mills, Inc of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He took over the lowest-ranked territory in New York and steered it to the number two position in the district by gaining a 9.6 per cent share point increase in his territory in four years.

He moved to

Milwaukee-based Schwarz Pharmaceuticals in 1995, again rising to top salesman in Univasc (an ace inhibitor) sales in his district; number one in Levbid/Levsin SL; ranking 15th in the nation out of 202 representatives and number two in market shares in Levsin. A year later he joined Hoechst Marion Roussel Pharmaceuticals as a professional medical sales representative, continuing the trend of being number one in ALLEGRA (Antihistamine -new) out of 32 representatives in the area; selection as a candidate for its NOVA Award for Rookie of the Year; winning the “Account Team Award” and the MVP Award.

Allen continued his climb at New Jersey-based Ortho Biotech, Raritan as an institutional product specialist (oncology) where he grew the market for the drug Epoetin Alfa by 127 per cent, before moving on two years later to Celgene Corporation, a new biotech start-up in Warren, New Jersey, as immunology specialist (oncology).

At Celgene his accomplishments included: President Club award winner for ranking number one in the United States; number one in percentage increase for first semester in the nation; growing sales of the drug Thalomid by 138.5 per cent of quota; interviewing and training new specialists; winning the regional contest for percentage of goals achieved multiple times and placing first in the region, chosen by his peers, as having the “Best Business Plan”.

Allen’s next stop was Biogen Idec Inc of Cambridge, MA, which he joined as Area Business Manager in 2002 where he stood out for making its coveted Leadership Circle; moving its Avonex market share at Medical College of Georgia (Augusta MS Center) from 0 per cent to six per cent within eight months; ranking number one in his region and third in the United States for Avonex unit growth; growing new patient starts by 60 per cent over last year; winning Leadership Circle (President Club Award) in a territory that had never achieved that before; programme leader for the South-east Region, and serving on various

advisory boards, including representing the region on the marketing board, among other accomplishments.

After eight years at Biogen, Allen was recruited as executive MS specialist at Novartis Pharmaceuticals of East Hanover, New Jersey and assigned two overlapping territories – Atlanta North and South where he worked with all the company’s large volume customers promoting the first oral MS drug on the market; became a member of the first MS advisory board; and developed important “Thought Leaders” in the Atlanta area.

In 2012, he became the regional business manager at Raptor Pharmaceuticals, taking the Circle of Excellence Award winner (President Club) for 2013 and 2014 on the way to grabbing the award for Regional Business Manager of the year 2014, all in only two years.

Allen has strong rare disease experience; experience with biotech start- ups and excellent relationship with key opinion leaders in the Rare Disease space, eg, Emory, MUSC, University of Florida, UAB, University of Miami, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital, UNC, Duke.