part0011

When asked “what do you do?” I know some colleagues who sheepishly reply, “I work for a big pharma” or “I work in biotech.” Both “big pharma” and “small biotech” have their own perceptions and misperceptions, from the public and even from each other. I lead the biotech division of a big pharma company, so I have the opportunity to experience both and know that the innovation and reach of both will be needed to solve this crisis.

I have worked in the biopharma industry my entire career, and say every day that it is the best industry in the world. Why? We solve problems, which in this industry means that we transform and save lives. We seek out the world’s biggest medical challenges, and we figure them out. And this has never been more obvious to me as we battle the pandemic of COVID-19.

I know what we’re all going through is new to us and feels like it’s never going to end. But we need to take the long view. We’ve had pandemics before, not to mention countless national and global disasters and challenges. We have overcome them every time. We figure it out; we roll the stone up the hill no matter how many times it feels like it’s about to roll back on to us.

Throughout history, we have had to battle similar hardships with contagious viruses. The Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, the deadliest pandemic in human history, killed an estimated twenty to fifty million people worldwide. People were ordered to wear masks and schools, theaters, and businesses were shuttered as the world waited for the virus to run its course. With no known treatment or vaccine, the human race was powerless to stop it.

Through scientific discovery and perseverance, the first influenza vaccine was discovered in an academic lab in the 1940s. However, innovation is successful only if it can be implemented. Innovation alone can’t conduct massive trials nor produce and distribute a vaccine on a large scale. It was the assistance of pharmaceutical companies that helped deliver this innovation to the world.

Recently, I felt an interesting déjà vu with the numerous announcements of biopharma companies’ collaborating with each other and academic institutions to quickly develop and scale the production of promising vaccine candidates for COVID-19. Collaborating and scaling important scientific discoveries has been the backbone of this global industry from the beginning. I am glad to see this situation may be able to benefit from this approach.

We speak about innovation a lot, and we should, as it’s the beating heart of our industry. But innovation alone will not meet this challenge. The spark of innovation hits the reality of scale, distribution, global regulatory issues, and every other complexity that Sanofi manages daily.

Translating ideas to reality needs the ecosystem of innovation. Sanofi has each part of this ecosystem under one roof and in moments like these can quickly call upon the full resources of the company. We can draw upon a rich library of therapeutic areas and over 100 years of history and heritage. Whether it’s looking at older drugs that may have new applications, or looking at our currently marketed biologics in immunology, we have the bandwidth and resources to explore every opportunity.

If you needed surgery, would the doctor come into the operating room with just a stethoscope? No, they bring every tool needed to fix the problem. This is what biopharma is for this pandemic. We don’t have one tool; we don’t focus on one sliver of research, development, or distribution. We can discover, develop, produce, and deliver millions of treatments to every country that needs treatment. We know this because at Sanofi we do this every day.

When I look at the fast and agile action that we at Sanofi have undertaken in a short time, I am gratified by the possibility of what we will be able to achieve. We are the only company in the world working on two vaccines, a self-diagnostic, and two potential treatments for this highly contagious and deadly virus. And, remember, we haven’t ceased any of our other operations. Every patient who counted on us before counts on us today. Their rare disease, their asthma, their multiple sclerosis doesn’t take a break, and neither can we.

This is what makes biopharma our best shot at success. We can try, and fail, dust ourselves off, and try again. We will figure this out. We specialize in innovation, but just as important, we can then deliver innovation at a global scale, from the lab bench to every country, city, village, and family that needs it. This is a global problem that requires global thinking and a global solution.

When this is over, will anyone recognize how much biopharma stepped up to avert disaster? Frankly, I don’t know. But when asked “what do you do?” every one of us who works in this industry should say “I help to transform and save lives.” It’s what we do.

Bill Sibold , executive vice president and head of Sanofi Genzyme, has more than twenty-five years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry since starting his career with Eli Lilly. He has held leadership positions at Biogen and Avanir Pharmaceuticals. Currently, Bill is a member of the Sanofi executive committee.

Bill holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.