CASSS honored Robert Sitrin, Ph.D. with its prestigious William S. Hancock Award for Outstanding Achievements in CMC Regulatory Science during last month’s WCBP 2022: Symposium on the Interface of Regulatory and Analytical Sciences for Biotechnology Health Products. This annual award recognizes outstanding and sustained contributions in the field of regulatory science.
Presenting the award, Past President Nadine Ritter reminded the audience, “Our 10th Hancock awardee is being honored for his decades-long contributions to the field in both product development and in the development of CASSS. He has long been a passionate champion of meaningful, productive, informative interactions in biologics CMC issues, and was one of the Founders of CASSS WCBP meetings 25 years ago.” She summed up the selection, “Bob’s contributions to the development and licensure of vaccines at Merck, and now at Path, have benefited the lives of millions of people. And his contributions to CASSS have assured continued scientific and regulatory interactions that will bring even more biological products to even more patients around the world.”
Ritter continued, “It did not take a pandemic that triggered an unprecedented effort to develop vaccines to emphasize his steadfast goal of maintaining vaccine products as part of our CASSS WCBP meeting topics. But it is a fitting exclamation point to his decades of work developing vaccines and assuring they remain an active part of the dialog we have in advances in CMC science and regulations”.
Ritter spoke to a few of his colleagues about what it was like to work with Sitrin at Merck, and heard variations of this sort of comment, “Bob was the manifestation of controlled chaos – but he was so charming and funny that everyone wanted to be a part of HIS chaos!”.
Sitrin, who seemed genuinely surprised and thrilled when learning of his selection, said “I am honored.” And continued, “As I look back, I realize, how little I did except to hire the best people and give them space and enthusiasm to work.” A typically understated response from one whom others describe as a whirlwind of ideas and observations, having a sharp wit, and is warmly engaging to everyone at all levels.