Q&A with Udim Damachi: Assessing the Effectiveness of Blood Pressure Drugs for Preventing Heart Failure in Breast Cancer Patients 

Growing up with a doctor for a father, Udim Damachi determined early in life that she wanted to work in health care, too. She realized, however, that a career as a medical doctor wasn’t the path for her. She decided to go to pharmacy school and started working at a pharmaceutical company.

In her role, pharmacists and doctors frequently asked her questions about the efficacy and safety of different medications, so she spent a lot of time reading medical research and discovered she really enjoyed it. “I became really curious to learn more about how this research was being conducted, and then I decided to apply for a master’s degree in health outcomes research, and I can tell you the rest is history,” Damachi said.

Now a PhD student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Damachi received a 2024 PhRMA Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship in Value Assessment and Health Outcomes Research for her work using real-world data to investigate whether blood pressure medications are effective in preventing heart failure in breast cancer patients.

Women with breast cancer are often treated with chemotherapy drugs called anthracyclines. These drugs can improve survival for women with breast cancer, but they can also cause severe short- and long-term heart failure. To protect the heart, blood pressure medications are recommended for individuals taking anthracyclines, even though there’s limited evidence supporting their use for this purpose. Damachi aims to use real-world data to determine the effectiveness of these medications in protecting women from heart failure caused by anthracyclines.

Watch this video to learn about Damachi and her research.