Michael Tortora
Associate Director, Environmental Health & Safety MannKind Corporation
Seminars
Tuesday 24th March 2026
Workshop D: Beyond Compliance: Building Sustainable Safety Cultures Across All Sites from Top-Down Leadership
1:00 pm
This interactive session explores how biopharma organisations can evolve beyond compliance-driven EHS systems to embed sustainable, human-centred safety cultures across global operations. Through real-world examples and group discussion, delegates will examine the interplay between compliance, behaviour, and cultural context. Participants will walk away with actionable insights on engaging leadership, strengthening psychological safety, and integrating softer
skillsets and wellbeing practices into rigorous EHS frameworks to ensure that safety is lived, not just logged.
Key Questions to Be Addressed
- How can biopharma organisations shift from compliance to a culture integrating human performance, soft skills, and behavioural insight?
- How can EHS leaders adapt global safety culture to local norms while maintaining consistent standards?
- How can management become active champions of EHS, fostering both top-down and bottom-up engagement?
- What role do wellbeing, stress management, and open dialogue play in sustaining trust and participation?
- How can we challenge legacy mindsets to nurture curiosity, psychological safety, and innovation in EHS culture?
Thursday 26th March 2026
Roundtable Discussion: The New Frontiers of Risk: Potency, Toxicology, & Occupational Safety in Emerging Biopharma Modalities
2:15 pm
- How can we modernise risk assessment frameworks to manage uncertainty in potency and toxicology for novel compounds, where data are sparse or still evolving?
- What methodologies, from flexible banding systems to pre-approved dynamic risk assessments, best support safe, agile decision-making in R&D environments?
- How can toxicologists, EHS professionals, and process scientists collaborate to close data gaps and translate incomplete toxicology findings into practical workplace safeguards?
Wednesday 25th March 2026
Roundtable Discussion: Embedding Behaviour-Based Safety in Biopharma Culture
11:15 am
- Explore how to translate EHS training into consistent, observable safety behaviours that reduce human error and strengthen trust across teams
- Share practical techniques for constructive communication, peer coaching, and intervening on unsafe acts without confrontation or blame
- Discuss how to measure and sustain behavioural engagement over time, ensuring safety habits persist across shifting teams and evolving operations
