Integrated Public Relations, Marketing & Scientific Communications

Amplifying Scientific Innovation

Headquartered in New York City, The Sophia Consulting Firm is an integrated public relations, strategic marketing and scientific communications consultancy.

We partner with US and non-US development-stage life science companies to amplify scientific innovation, increase corporate visibility and attract investors.

Diverse therapeutic areas of expertise include: oncology, stem cell and regenerative medicine, aesthetic medicine, pain management and infectious diseases.

The Sophia Consulting Firm specializes in four main service offerings, which can be provided virtually or on-site:

Strategic Planning: Partner with C-suite executives to develop actionable, pressure-tested business strategies that balance near-term market development of high-value therapeutic assets with the right scientific decisions about long-term projects based on primary and secondary research, benchmarking and trend analysis.

Alliance Management: Collaborate with Commercial and Medical Affairs teams to develop relationships with US and/or global thought leaders, medical experts and investors at leading medical and investor conferences with the goal of increasing scientific credibility and advocacy.

Scientific Communications: Partner with Medical Affairs and Commercial teams to build and showcase credible scientific content such as scientific communications platforms, mechanism of action videos, disease state education websites, promotional and scientific brand slide decks.

Corporate Communications: Liaise with C-level Executives to increase corporate awareness, executive visibility, message reach and cadence via public relations activities and sustained traditional, online and social media education/engagement.

Illuminating Core Purpose

The Sophia Consulting Firm is committed to building relationships with clients and stakeholders that transcend individual projects. The firm focuses on providing pressure-tested insights that illuminate the core purpose of a company and/or product to multiple stakeholders: patients, caregivers, providers, scientists, media, investors, analysts and global communities.

Curating Value-Focused Solutions

The Sophia Consulting Firm maximizes clinical and economic value for clients by providing insightful, curated solutions from pre-clinical studies to post marketing surveillance. The firm's innovative solutions interconnect macro and micro trend analysis with actionable strategies that deliver short-term and long-term value to healthcare partners.

About Dr. Sophia Ononye

Professional Summary

Dr. Sophia Ononye is an integrated marketing and communications professional with a core in scientific strategy. She recently founded The Sophia Consulting Firm where she leverages her multidisciplinary education, broad therapeutic area experience and passion for amplifying scientific innovation to lead the provision of fully integrated communication services for clients in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device space.

A Yale and UCONN alumna and former Pfizer Scientist, Sophia's niche for fostering partnerships has resulted in a diverse range of experiences where she has supported emerging and established biopharmaceutical and medical device companies with market access, personalized marketing, launch preparedness, strategic alliance management, corporate strategy, scientific communications, corporate communications, public relations and investor relations. She is trained in hematology and oncology with demonstrated experience in epigenetics, targeted therapies, combination therapies, checkpoint inhibitors, CAR T cell therapies and other cancer immunotherapies. Sophia also has broad therapeutic experience in rare diseases, women's health, pain management, and infectious diseases.

Sophia is a Yale Entrepreneur-in-Residence and an active member of BIO CT and the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA).

Multidisciplinary Background

BS Honors, Biochemistry, BGSU
MPH, Public Health Administration, UTOLEDO

MBA, Healthcare Administration, UCONN

PhD, Medicinal Chemistry, UCONN

Advanced Business Certificate, Healthcare Finance, UCONN

Predoctoral Fellow, Pharmaceutical Science, AFPE

Postdoctoral Fellow, Medical Oncology, YALE

Entrepreneur-in-Residence, YALE

Member, BIO CT

Member, HBA
9 peer-reviewed scientific publications

1 patent on epigenetic agents (WO2013192554A1)

Recipient of the Face2Face Africa "30 Black Stars Transformational Business Leader" award

Operational Excellence

Passionate about science

Dedicated to the pursuit of excellence

Focused on the things that matter

Advisory Team

James G. Boyle, Ph.D.

Dr. James (Jim) Boyle is a co-founder and the Managing Director of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI), a business/educational unit within Yale University that was formed with the mission of mentoring students with new venture ideas and that has expanded to include the development of faculty ventures. Prior to forming YEI, Jim was responsible within the Office of Cooperative Research (OCR) for the licensing and venture startup of a number of engineering-based technologies. Before joining OCR, he developed and actively managed the University’s largest corporate research alliance, managing a large array of both Yale and external scientists in bioimaging-based collaborations. Earlier, Jim co-founded and grew a predictive analytics consulting practice, providing both technical and pricing guidance on new product development to a wide array of Fortune 1000 companies in the scientific equipment industry. Jim began his entrepreneurial career while still a Yale graduate student, developing novel instruments for characterizing trace biomolecules with the support of the National Institutes of Health, and later commercializing these devices through a wide array of OEM partnerships as part of a Yale startup.

Loraine V. Upham, M.B.A.

Loraine V. Upham. Image courtesy of Loraine V. Upham

Ms. Loraine Upham received a B.A. in Biology from University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A from Arizona State University. Her 30-year career in Biotechnology and Business ranges from basic research in the Molecular Genetics Research Laboratories at Eli Lilly and Company, to design and marketing of nuclear and fluorescence detection instrumentation at Packard BioScience (now Perkin Elmer), to process and business development at a proteomic start up, Prolexys. In 2005, she co-founded CureDM, Inc. together with two endocrinologists, to develop a novel diabetes treatment which she co-invented; as founding CEO of CureDM, she successfully obtained over $5M in financing and engineered partnerships to conduct basic research and establish the proof of concept for the diabetes drug which is now Phase II ready. Loraine was recognized in 2014 by Women In Technology and deemed an Albuquerque Business First Woman of Influence in 2015. She was appointed by Governor Martinez in 2016 to be a member of the State of New Mexico Technology Research Collaborative. In 2018, she was honored as a Business Woman of the Year by CEO Today Magazine for her innovation and strategic vision. She is a board member of numerous biotech companies and participates on the Investment Committee of the ABQid/CNM Ingenuity venture fund.

Munachimso N. Onyia

Mr. Munachimso (Muna) Onyia is the Chief Operating Officer of The Sophia Consulting Firm. With education and training in Business Administration and Management from Purdue University, Muna draws from his diverse experiences across multiple industries in the private and public sectors to lead strategic operations management, financial management, HR and recruiting for the firm. Most recently, Muna worked as an Assistant to the Financial Attaché at the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations (Nigerian House) in New York City where he fostered international relations and diplomacy between the US and Nigerian governments through diligent operations and hospitality management. Muna is also a volunteer for the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA)