Interview Lutz Hegemann
Three good reasons have emerged to continue investing in healthcare systems, particularly in LMICs. Firstly, the pandemic has exacerbated and shone a light on health inequities, not only in LMICs, but also in higher income countries. Secondly, we have lost some of the progress we have made against other diseases, particularly neglected tropical diseases. And thirdly, we lack resilience in our health systems, particularly in LMICs. In a global pandemic, where no one is safe until everyone is safe, these developments have given a big uplift to global health topics and priorities.
We’ve also seen a willingness to collaborate between academia, government, healthcare providers, foundations, professional societies and regulatory authorities, and it is a willingness that I have not seen before. This experience was highly motivating, and I hope we can retain some of that spirit and carry that over from COVID-19 to other global health priorities. At Novartis, we are trying to maintain the positive practices we developed during the pandemic, and apply these to other global health priorities. Of course, it requires every stakeholder to look at it this way. We need deeply committed partners that motivate other stakeholders to come on board.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had seen this for instance in our sickle cell disease programme that we launched in Ghana as a pilot four years ago. We created momentum by being highly committed and willing to provide catalytic funding, and this motivated other essential partners to join. It was very rewarding that by moving first, we inspired and encouraged other organisations to join in.
It is in this spirit that Novartis and EDCTP have a shared purpose and passion, and we can contribute to progress in global health through our unique propositions. I wish to express my strong support for the work that EDCTP is doing. We are very happy and proud to be a partner, and will continue exploring opportunities for collaboration for the betterment of society.
In your view, how has the COVID-19 pandemic informed the way organisations such as EDCTP collaborate with industry partners - what can be done differently?
This boils down to strengthening health systems, and that starts with the individuals who work in those systems. We see a huge disconnect in sub-Saharan Africa, which carries 25 percent of the world’s disease burden, but hosts only 3 percent of clinical trials globally. Our goal to bring medicines to everyone who needs them relies on well-functioning health systems. Therefore, we need to address barriers such as a scarcity of healthcare professionals to run those trials and treat patients. We see a clear role for ourselves to build more of these clinical trial capabilities, and the EDCTP framework is particularly well-suited to do this. In addition to our Next Generation Scientist programme, which focuses on the science, the Novartis/EDCTP career development fellowships focus on the medical-clinical environment. By training these professionals, we hope to achieve a higher level of maturity and have more people available who can run clinical trials, treat special medical needs, and ultimately create resilient health systems.
Novartis is co-funding EDCTP fellowships that aim at retention of those researchers in sub-Saharan Africa. What has been Novartis’ motivation for engaging with EDCTP and Fondation Botnar in this space, and in what way do you think this approach will benefit global health, both from Novartis’ perspective and from a societal perspective?
Innovation and access form the backbone to all our operations at Novartis – not just in global health – and our Access Principles guide us. We don’t have all the answers, but we use our creativity to find new models to develop medical innovations and get them to those who need them.
One example is how we operate in sub-Saharan Africa, where a few years ago we fundamentally changed our classical, profit-driven model to an impact-driven model. It is working extremely well, as we are reaching more patients, and are still able to sustain our operations with minimum profit, which we reinvest. Focusing on impact also helps us find and reduce barriers in health systems. If, for instance, a condition is not being diagnosed, and therefore not properly treated, we work with partners to overcome the barriers to diagnosis so patients can receive the treatment they need. It is not philanthropy, but rather a business that maximises the impact that our innovations have on patients, and I think we are the first company to have done this at scale for an entire portfolio in an entire continent. And we have seen it work, too. Focusing on impact rather than profit helps unlock potential and creativity in the organisation. On one of my visits to sub-Saharan Africa for instance, a member of our sales force told me: “I’m so much more motivated, working toward the betterment of my community”.
Novartis Global Health has a special focus on innovation and access. How can we accelerate innovation while at the same time making sure that these innovations are accessible to the populations that need them the most?
At Novartis, we consider global health to be an integral part of our mandate. We apply our full organisational capability to address major, unresolved global health challenges. That’s also what society expects from us as a pharmaceutical company.
Firstly, this means that diseases whose potential treatments are anticipated to be ‘market failures’ still require our unconstrained dedication to develop new medicines and make them available. This applies to neglected diseases and malaria. That is why at the recent Kigali Summit, we pledged to invest USD 250 M over the next five years into R&D for those disease areas.
Secondly, we have a moral obligation to make medical innovations accessible to all patients who need them, particularly underserved patients who may not be able to access medicines due to a variety of different barriers, and people in countries with sub-optimal health systems. This has been part of our core business mandate for many years, and embedded in our operations company-wide since 2017 when we created the Novartis Access Principles, committing ourselves to keep the needs of underserved populations in focus throughout our entire value chain. This starts with R&D, where we ensure the medicines we develop are fit for purpose in very different settings, including both resource-rich and resource-constrained environments. The second part is pricing and affordability, which we address for example through emerging market brands that allow us to set different price points in different economic environments. And then thirdly, we examine how we can support health system strengthening, which aims to ensure health systems can actually derive the benefits from medical innovation by having the right processes in place for diagnosis, first line treatments, and ensuring patients are appropriately followed-up and monitored – ultimately covering the entire continuum of care.
Lastly, we have been on a decades-long journey to find ways to achieve the impact that society expects from us. Like many other companies, we began by donating products. Donations are still an important part of the pharmaceutical industry’s contribution to global health, but they ultimately do not help us advance the standard of care, and opportunities exist for us in the private sector to play a greater role. We are very happy that through our partnership with EDCTP, among others, we have been able achieve real impact in improving health in Africa.
Novartis has contributed towards EDCTP-funded activities in many ways: from developing antimalarials, to developing the patient data management capacities of African research centres, supporting the enabling ethics and regulatory environment in Africa and supporting African researchers’ careers. How do you view Novartis’ role and position – and perhaps even that of pharmaceutical industry - in the global health field?
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The Novartis Global Health unit focuses on transforming health in low- and middle-income countries with programs targeting malaria, neglected tropical diseases, and non-communicable diseases such as sickle cell disease. It also represents the company’s business in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Interview Lutz Hegemann
Three good reasons have emerged to continue investing in healthcare systems, particularly in LMICs. Firstly, the pandemic has exacerbated and shone a light on health inequities, not only in LMICs, but also in higher income countries. Secondly, we have lost some of the progress we have made against other diseases, particularly neglected tropical diseases. And thirdly, we lack resilience in our health systems, particularly in LMICs. In a global pandemic, where no one is safe until everyone is safe, these developments have given a big uplift to global health topics and priorities.
We’ve also seen a willingness to collaborate between academia, government, healthcare providers, foundations, professional societies and regulatory authorities, and it is a willingness that I have not seen before. This experience was highly motivating, and I hope we can retain some of that spirit and carry that over from COVID-19 to other global health priorities. At Novartis, we are trying to maintain the positive practices we developed during the pandemic, and apply these to other global health priorities. Of course, it requires every stakeholder to look at it this way. We need deeply committed partners that motivate other stakeholders to come on board.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had seen this for instance in our sickle cell disease programme that we launched in Ghana as a pilot four years ago. We created momentum by being highly committed and willing to provide catalytic funding, and this motivated other essential partners to join. It was very rewarding that by moving first, we inspired and encouraged other organisations to join in.
It is in this spirit that Novartis and EDCTP have a shared purpose and passion, and we can contribute to progress in global health through our unique propositions. I wish to express my strong support for the work that EDCTP is doing. We are very happy and proud to be a partner, and will continue exploring opportunities for collaboration for the betterment of society.
In your view, how has the COVID-19 pandemic informed the way organisations such as EDCTP collaborate with industry partners - what can be done differently?
This boils down to strengthening health systems, and that starts with the individuals who work in those systems. We see a huge disconnect in sub-Saharan Africa, which carries 25 percent of the world’s disease burden, but hosts only 3 percent of clinical trials globally. Our goal to bring medicines to everyone who needs them relies on well-functioning health systems. Therefore, we need to address barriers such as a scarcity of healthcare professionals to run those trials and treat patients. We see a clear role for ourselves to build more of these clinical trial capabilities, and the EDCTP framework is particularly well-suited to do this. In addition to our Next Generation Scientist programme, which focuses on the science, the Novartis/EDCTP career development fellowships focus on the medical-clinical environment. By training these professionals, we hope to achieve a higher level of maturity and have more people available who can run clinical trials, treat special medical needs, and ultimately create resilient health systems.
Novartis is co-funding EDCTP fellowships that aim at retention of those researchers in sub-Saharan Africa. What has been Novartis’ motivation for engaging with EDCTP and Fondation Botnar in this space, and in what way do you think this approach will benefit global health, both from Novartis’ perspective and from a societal perspective?
Innovation and access form the backbone to all our operations at Novartis – not just in global health – and our Access Principles guide us. We don’t have all the answers, but we use our creativity to find new models to develop medical innovations and get them to those who need them.
One example is how we operate in sub-Saharan Africa, where a few years ago we fundamentally changed our classical, profit-driven model to an impact-driven model. It is working extremely well, as we are reaching more patients, and are still able to sustain our operations with minimum profit, which we reinvest. Focusing on impact also helps us find and reduce barriers in health systems. If, for instance, a condition is not being diagnosed, and therefore not properly treated, we work with partners to overcome the barriers to diagnosis so patients can receive the treatment they need. It is not philanthropy, but rather a business that maximises the impact that our innovations have on patients, and I think we are the first company to have done this at scale for an entire portfolio in an entire continent. And we have seen it work, too. Focusing on impact rather than profit helps unlock potential and creativity in the organisation. On one of my visits to sub-Saharan Africa for instance, a member of our sales force told me: “I’m so much more motivated, working toward the betterment of my community”.
Novartis Global Health has a special focus on innovation and access. How can we accelerate innovation while at the same time making sure that these innovations are accessible to the populations that need them the most?
At Novartis, we consider global health to be an integral part of our mandate. We apply our full organisational capability to address major, unresolved global health challenges. That’s also what society expects from us as a pharmaceutical company.
Firstly, this means that diseases whose potential treatments are anticipated to be ‘market failures’ still require our unconstrained dedication to develop new medicines and make them available. This applies to neglected diseases and malaria. That is why at the recent Kigali Summit, we pledged to invest USD 250 M over the next five years into R&D for those disease areas.
Secondly, we have a moral obligation to make medical innovations accessible to all patients who need them, particularly underserved patients who may not be able to access medicines due to a variety of different barriers, and people in countries with sub-optimal health systems. This has been part of our core business mandate for many years, and embedded in our operations company-wide since 2017 when we created the Novartis Access Principles, committing ourselves to keep the needs of underserved populations in focus throughout our entire value chain. This starts with R&D, where we ensure the medicines we develop are fit for purpose in very different settings, including both resource-rich and resource-constrained environments. The second part is pricing and affordability, which we address for example through emerging market brands that allow us to set different price points in different economic environments. And then thirdly, we examine how we can support health system strengthening, which aims to ensure health systems can actually derive the benefits from medical innovation by having the right processes in place for diagnosis, first line treatments, and ensuring patients are appropriately followed-up and monitored – ultimately covering the entire continuum of care.
Lastly, we have been on a decades-long journey to find ways to achieve the impact that society expects from us. Like many other companies, we began by donating products. Donations are still an important part of the pharmaceutical industry’s contribution to global health, but they ultimately do not help us advance the standard of care, and opportunities exist for us in the private sector to play a greater role. We are very happy that through our partnership with EDCTP, among others, we have been able achieve real impact in improving health in Africa.
Novartis has contributed towards EDCTP-funded activities in many ways: from developing antimalarials, to developing the patient data management capacities of African research centres, supporting the enabling ethics and regulatory environment in Africa and supporting African researchers’ careers. How do you view Novartis’ role and position – and perhaps even that of pharmaceutical industry - in the global health field?
The Novartis Global Health unit focuses on transforming health in low- and middle-income countries with programs targeting malaria, neglected tropical diseases, and non-communicable diseases such as sickle cell disease. It also represents the company’s business in sub-Saharan Africa.