Michael Polster, Ph.D.

As a Senior Vice President, Michael designs and oversees commercial and regulatory strategy assignments in the Health & Life Sciences and Regulatory & Litigation Support practices at NAXION. Michael is a neuropsychologist by training whose methodological skill set gives him exceptional breadth and flexibility in the techniques he uses and the marketing yield he can extract from research. A skilled qualitative moderator who has conducted thousands of in-depth interviews with physicians, consumers, and other healthcare stakeholders, Michael is equally adept at designing and analyzing complex, large-scale quantitative surveys.

His assignments typically support new product development by gauging size and scope of market opportunities and ways to optimize the commercial value of assets from development to launch and market maturity. Many of his projects help clients chart a path for innovative IP or reconceive a market landscape undergoing change in response to new technologies and evolving standards of care. In those settings, his role has been to devise segmentation strategy and clarify drivers of adoption and usage as well as help to devise access strategies. He has extensive experience across a broad range of therapeutic categories, with particular expertise in neurological and psychiatric disorders, pain management, immune and inflammatory disorders, metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory conditions.

Michael also provides intellectual leadership on a diverse set of topics including health economics and regulatory compliance. His articles have appeared in peer-reviewed publications like the “Journal of Medical Economics,” “Marketing Bulletin,” “Therapeutic Innovation & Regulatory Science,” and “Journal of Addictive Diseases.”

Prior to joining NAXION, Michael was a Professor of neuropsychology at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. His extensive portfolio of academic research has focused on several aspects of human neuropsychology, including the effects of pharmacological agents on memory and the effects of stroke on language and attention. Michael’s neuropsychology research has been published in refereed medical, psychology, and general science journals.

Michael earned a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Cambridge University after completing a B.A. with honors in psychology at Emory University.