Alexander Schacht

Senior Director, Real World Evidence

Alexander Schacht, PhD, brings over 25 years of experience in academia, pharmaceutical companies, and CRO/consulting to his current role as Senior Director within Evidence, Value, and Access (EVA) at Cytel. He has extensive research experience in observational studies and has been applying bias control methods and quantitative bias analysis approaches for more than two decades to ensure robust and credible evidence for decision-making. At Cytel, Alexander works across EVA with a focus on real-world evidence (RWE), helping pharma and biotech clients close evidence gaps for regulatory agencies, HTA bodies, and internal stakeholders. His vision is a world where every stakeholder — from pre-clinical researchers and internal decision makers to treating physicians and their patients — has the right evidence at the right time in the right format to make the best possible decisions for patients.

Before joining Cytel, Alexander founded and led his own consulting company, providing biostatistics services and training quantitative scientists in leadership and communication skills. He previously held senior leadership roles across CROs and industry, including Executive Vice President at Veramed (a biometrics-focused CRO), Leader of the Biostatistics Launch Team at UCB, Research Adviser and Team Leader in Biostatistics at Lilly, and Statistician at Boehringer Ingelheim.

Alexander has also been an active contributor to the statistical community, having founded two and chaired three European special interest groups on benefit–risk, data visualization, and launch and lifecycle. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts and frequently speaks at international conferences. His weekly podcast, The Effective Statistician, has surpassed 400 episodes with around 4,000 monthly downloads, and he is the author of How to Be an Effective Statistician.

He holds a diploma in mathematics and a Dr. rer. nat. (PhD) in biostatistics from Georg-August University of Göttingen.