Medicine’s future is being rewritten in the most unlikely of places. In Riyadh’s shiny corridors of world-class research institutes, in virtual terrain that stretches across continents, and in those silent moments of reflection when a physician finally realizes an illness never before seen now has a name, a remedy, and potential; that is where transformation occurs. Saudi Arabia’s health environment is being revolutionized by as wide a scientific feat as our times have witnessed. The Kingdom that used to rely on foreign innovation now has manufacturing facilities producing biologics, runs Phase 3 clinical trials, and sets regulatory standards that gain global headlines. This is not policy change or infrastructure creation. This is complete rethinking of what healthcare leadership in the 21st century looks like- where local potential shapes global excellence and where the patient experience begins with possibility, not limitation. At the forefront of this seismic shift are a band of leaders who understand that real change involves having guts to be different, compassion to remember that statistics are people, and grit to keep going when the winning line is out of sight. These are the visionaries of a new model of medicine-people who bridge boundaries and borders, people who transform childhood daydreams into life odysseys, and who demonstrate that the most revolutionary advances come when science meets compassion.
A Calling That Refused to Be Silenced
Nadia Hergli’s story begins where many physicians’ stories do- with a child playing doctor, tending to dolls with the seriousness of someone who already understood that healing is a sacred calling. That childhood fascination with medicine never faded. It carried her into medical school where she obtained her medical degree and began a degree in Preventive Medicine and Public Health.
Then life intervened with the beautiful complexity of young motherhood. Personal obligations required what she thought would be a brief pause- a temporary step into pharmaceuticals before returning to academia. But that detour became a revelation. The industry opened her eyes to a dimension of medicine she had never imagined; a space where individual patient care scales into population health, where scientific innovation translates into global access, and where collaboration across borders transforms outcomes for thousands. Nadia Hergli wasn’t stepping away from medicine. She was amplifying its reach and addressing unmet needs on a scale she couldn’t have achieved in a clinic alone.
More than two decades later, that calling has evolved into something far more expansive. As VP Medical Affairs International at Chiesi Global Rare Diseases (GRD), she now operates at the nexus of science, strategy, and human impact. Her role transcends traditional boundaries. Nadia Hergli translates complex clinical evidence into actionable insights, orchestrates collaboration across global markets, and ensures that every decision serves the organizational mission of patient well-being and the wider Health Care Ecosystem. For 15 years in Medical Affairs, she has positioned herself at the organizational heart, where evidence meets execution and where partnerships turn possibility into reality.
Witnessing a Nation’s Healthcare Awakening
Nadia Hergli’s connection to Saudi Arabia runs deeper than professional obligation. It began in 2007 with her first visit to the Kingdom, and by 2013, she had assumed medical affairs responsibilities for the region. This 18-year relationship has given her something rare- a longitudinal perspective on one of the most extraordinary healthcare transformations in modern history.
What she has witnessed defies easy categorization. The Kingdom hasn’t simply improved its healthcare system; it has fundamentally reimagined what that system can be. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority has evolved from a regulatory gatekeeper into an agile, transparent organization that harmonizes with FDA and EMA standards while accelerating access to life-saving therapies. World-class research infrastructure now supports clinical trials from early phases through commercialization, creating an ecosystem where academia, industry, and regulators collaborate seamlessly.
But infrastructure tells only part of the story. What truly excites Nadia Hergli is the cultural shift beneath these tangible achievements. Physicians are being empowered with cutting-edge tools and knowledge. Patients are accessing therapies that were unimaginable a decade ago. The entire healthcare delivery model is being reimagined with radical patient centricity.
Her role in this evolution has been deeply personal, contributing through scientific collaboration, building local capabilities, and creating access pathways for rare disease patients who previously had nowhere to turn. Being part of this movement feels like participating in healthcare history as it unfolds.
The Delicate Dance of Leadership
This kind of transformation requires a specific leadership approach- one that balances competing demands without losing sight of core purpose. Her intercultural background gives her a distinct advantage. Grounded in her cultural roots and enriched by her journey across diverse cultures, she has come to believe that truly effective leadership is born from harmony and compassion. It means understanding not just what the data says but what it means to the people it will affect.
She is widely recognized as one of the leaders who champion the evolution of Medical Affairs as one of the most powerful and value-driving functions in the pharmaceutical industry—a true strategic pillar and partner, standing on equal footing with R&D and Commercial. She advocates for Medical Affairs to be at the very center of the organization, bridging science, strategy, and patient impact through continuous engagement with the entire healthcare ecosystem. Known for her forward-thinking perspective, she is regularly invited to speak and share her insights on how Medical Affairs can shape innovation, access, and evidence generation in today’s dynamic healthcare landscape.
When Head and Heart Lead Together
Nadia Hergli’s leadership philosophy rests on two foundations: empathy and resilience. These aren’t abstract values; they’re practical necessities in rare disease medicine, where every data point represents a patient, a family, and a story of courage in the face of devastating odds.
She leads with both head and heart, bringing scientific rigor and strategic clarity while never losing sight of the compassion required to serve patients authentically. Mentors throughout her career have demonstrated that true leadership isn’t about wielding authority but about service- listening deeply, empowering others generously, and creating environments where people can contribute their best thinking to a shared mission.
Nadia Hergli challenges the status quo and shakes the system to ensure things move forward. In rare diseases, progress unfolds over years through countless obstacles. When the path forward is uncertain, when regulatory hurdles seem insurmountable, perseverance becomes non-negotiable. This mindset has proven essential when pioneering new approaches in markets where rare diseases have historically been invisible.
Breaking the Cycle of Invisibility
One initiative embodies everything she believes about transformative leadership. Her team had to defy every convention to raise awareness and produce empirical evidence for a rare illness that had long suffered from invisibility in Saudi Arabia.
The challenge was systemic. Limited awareness meant delayed diagnoses or none at all. The absence of local data created a vicious cycle. She and her team decided to break that cycle through an ambitious, multi-stakeholder approach.
They united physicians, regulators, and research partners to co-create knowledge and generate evidence. They launched awareness campaigns, helped establish registries to capture disease burden, and highlighted the condition’s higher prevalence in Saudi Arabia due to consanguinity patterns.
The initiative didn’t just generate data; it created systemic change. Saudi Arabia developed national expertise in this condition, becoming a regional reference center. The team even conducted a Phase 3 clinical trial locally, which the SFDA later recognized as an exemplary model for how innovation and evidence generation can enable patient access.
This experience validated Nadia Hergli’s core beliefs. When perseverance, scientific rigor, and shared purpose align, unmet needs transform into sustainable progress. Countries like Saudi Arabia establish themselves as leaders in specialized care and clinical innovation. This is the impact that keeps her committed to the work.
Building Tomorrow’s Healthcare Ecosystem
That commitment extends to envisioning what comes next. Saudi Arabia stands at an inflexion point in pharmaceutical and life sciences evolution. The Kingdom has emerged as a regional catalyst for innovation, biotechnology advancement, and sophisticated manufacturing. It’s a transformation aligned with Vision 2030’s ambitious goals.
The progress is impressive. Advanced manufacturing sites now produce biologics and vaccines, with plans to double capacity by decade’s end. The National Biotechnology Strategy positions Saudi Arabia as a regional leader in genomics and advanced therapies. The SFDA continues evolving with accelerated review pathways. Digital health infrastructure creates interoperability, enabling AI integration and data-driven decision-making at unprecedented scales.
Nadia Hergli envisions the next phase through interconnected strategies: Scaling local manufacturing to enhance resilience and export capacity. Accelerating biotechnology innovation through translational research. Embedding digital health throughout the value chain for AI-driven discovery and precision medicine. Expanding real-world evidence generation for value-based access. Continuing regulatory modernization to attract global clinical trials.
This vision is actionable. Saudi Arabia possesses the leadership commitment and resources to realize it. She sees her role as translating this vision into patient impact through medical affairs excellence and cross-border collaboration that ensures innovation flows in both directions. She has led several high-level engagements with the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA), achieving consistently positive outcomes and establishing a strong track record in complex regulatory, pricing interactions — through her medical expertise, contextual understanding, and proactive strategic leadership and vision. These achievements mirror the SFDA’s rapid evolution into a globally recognized authority, now capable of granting first-in-world approvals ahead of the US and EU — a transformative milestone that strengthens national regulatory sovereignty, enhances the country’s capacity to shape global policy, and accelerates equitable, evidence-based access to transformative therapies for patients.
She stands at the forefront of several value-based and risk-sharing agreements, pioneering a contemporary model that links patient outcomes to healthcare investment. This approach reflects a forward-thinking vision of market access and sustainability, ensuring that innovation reaches those who need it most while fostering shared accountability between industry and healthcare systems. She has been among the few leaders to successfully implement such agreements in complex markets, demonstrating both strategic acumen and unwavering commitment to equitable patient access.
She has also contributed as an author to regional publications that called for action, captured the natural history of rare diseases, generated real-world evidence and associated outcomes and paradigm shifts, advocating for the generation and use of local data to enable better-informed decisions and policies. Through this work, she helped amplify the region’s scientific voice, feeding valuable insights into the global understanding of rare diseases that appear to be more prevalent in this part of the world, where, naturally, greater expertise and valuable lessons should also emerge to guide the global community.
Empowering a New Generation
The transformation Nadia Hergli is building extends beyond her own career. In Saudi Arabia, one of the most inspiring dimensions is the dramatic rise of women in medicine, science, and leadership. As an emancipated woman who has navigated her own journey, she feels genuine pride watching Saudi women claim their rightful place in shaping healthcare’s future.
Her approach rests on trust, inclusion, and purpose. She creates environments where women thrive, where their voices are amplified and their potential transformed into impact. She views empowering women as both a moral imperative and a strategic advantage that brings empathy, innovation, and resilience to the field. She takes great pride in her team and in the many women she has mentored and empowered, encouraging them to step into leadership, challenge boundaries, and make decisions they once thought they couldn’t, guided by the belief that when the world asks you to shrink, you expand.
Aligning Vision with National Ambition
Every initiative Nadia Hergli leads connects to Vision 2030’s transformation agenda. Her strategy aligns with its core pillars: early diagnosis, local expertise development, access to innovative therapies, real-world evidence generation, and connecting KSA healthcare professionals to the world.
Her rare disease work for the last decade exemplifies this alignment. Through awareness-building, local data generation, and establishing Saudi Arabia as a recognized center for clinical excellence, her team accelerated patient access while contributing to global regulatory submissions. Saudi patients participated in worldwide clinical programs, their data helping shape approvals benefiting patients globally. This positioned the Kingdom as a reference center for disease knowledge and clinical management excellence.
International collaboration remains central. Partnerships with global experts, regulators, and academic institutions enable bidirectional knowledge transfer and capacity building. These partnerships empower Saudi talent, reinforce the Kingdom’s self-reliance, and advance Vision 2030’s ambition: establishing Saudi Arabia as a regional hub for scientific and medical excellence, influencing healthcare outcomes far beyond its borders.
Anchored in Purpose, Guided by Values
Amid complexity and change, Nadia Hergli remains grounded through deep purpose- the conviction that science, guided by empathy and integrity, transforms lives. In rare diseases, the “why” is tangible. Every regulatory submission represents a patient waiting. Every clinical trial offers hope to a family that had none.
She views leadership as service, empowering others to bring science to life in ways that impact patients. She has been shaped by mentors who led with authenticity and courage, including her son, whose example taught her perseverance, determination, and wholehearted engagement.
Nadia Hergli creates environments where curiosity and compassion coexist with accountability and agility. She encourages teams to challenge the status quo and believes that better outcomes are always possible. It is just a matter of time, degree of patience and level of commitment. She continues where others stop with heart and passion
Her enduring conviction- her work contributes to something larger than any individual achievement. It keeps her grounded through every challenge and drives her forward through every triumph. This is leadership as she understands it: Because for her, it always begins and ends with the patient — guided by a simple belief that every individual deserves not only treatment, but also understanding, dignity, and hope.
