Driven by Our Promise: Delivering on Patient-Focused Leadership
Powering his way with a butterfly stroke, Michael Joshua is one of countless CSL patients now able to lead an active life, thanks to the company’s breakthrough hemophilia B therapeutics that were brought to market under Paul Perreault’s helmsmanship.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from: cSL Limited 45 Poplar Road Parkville, Victoria 3052
Australia
Paul Perreault chief Executive Officer 2013–2023
Editor Anthony Farina chief corporate Affairs & communications Officer
Associate Editor Patrick Mairs Senior communications Manager
Author Michele c. Marill
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Bookhouse Group, Inc. covington, Georgia www.bookhouse.net
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Rob Levin
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Rick Korab
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Manufactured in the USA
“His heart is in the right place. He does his job to help the kids who have a bleeding disorder . . . so they understand that they can lead a normal life.”
— Golf Pro and PatientAdvocate Perry Parker
“We have an enviable position in the market, and a lot of that is due to Paul and his vision. We live, breathe, feel, think about and make decisions around what our patients need.”
— Chief Human Resources Officer Elizabeth Walker
“Paul’s always been a real champion for his people. He really believes in the strength of the team around him, and he has a pretty keen eye for picking great people.”
— Group General Counsel Greg Boss
“[When considering an acquisition], he doesn’t necessarily take the shiny objects. He takes the ones that need to be shined.”
— CEO Paul McKenzie
“What I love about the organization is that people come to work and they want to make it better. That is following a tone from the top.”
—John Levy Deputy Chief Financial Officer
“He wants us to make decisions in a way [that] we bring people along the journey and we win the hearts and minds of people along the way. That’s a really important leadership trait that he brings to the table.”
— Mark Hill, Chief Digital Information Officer
“He couldn’t phone it in and he couldn’t write it in. He couldn’t send the check and say, ‘Take care of it.’ He said, ‘I’ll be there.’ He gave us the courage to keep going.”
— Vicki Modell, co-founder of the Jeffrey Modell Foundation
“Most companies in health care will say they have patient focus. With Paul, it’s really genuine. He shows up at patient events for kids with rare diseases and their families because he really cares and he feels it.”
— Andrew Cuthbertson, CSL Director, Former Director of R&D
“He gave the Seqirus team the space and the air to make the decisions that we had to make. He gave us that autonomy, but he held us accountable.”
— Steve Marlow, General Manager of CSL Seqirus
“The way he talks to you, it makes you feel like you’re not talking to the CEO. It’s like you’re just having a chat with someone down at the pub, almost. He’s very kind and thoughtful, really engaging.”
— Executive Assistant Raewynn McIntyre
“One time somebody said, ‘Paul, we really ought to have a chief patient officer in this organization.’ At that time, we were at about 25,000 [employees], and he said, ‘No, we have 25,000 chief patient officers in this organization. And that’s the way I like it.’”
—
Bill Mezzanotte,
Head of R&D and Chief Medical Officer
“Paul is really just one of the true gentlemen. He has the funniest sense of humor, and he is very compassionate towards patients. Everything he does is focused on ‘How do we continue to improve the quality of people’s lives?’”
— Executive Assistant Amy McCullen
“Paul is not someone just following the money. Paul is someone who follows the patients. He wants to make a difference wherever possible.”
— Markus Staempfli, General Manager of Global Commercial Operations
“He really appreciates the employees and the donors because he’s so emotionally attached to the patients. The patients are everything to Paul.”
— Michelle Meyer, Vice President of CSL Plasma Global Operations
“I’m pleased to say that the qualities I saw in him back in Wyeth [about 30 years ago] were the same qualities he exhibited as CEO here at this company. He didn’t lose who he was.”
— Bob Lojewski, General Manager of North America Commercial Operations
“He understands the value of listening to people at all levels of the organization, not just a small circle of advisors around him.”
— Mike Deem, Global Head of Supply Chain
“CSL is more than just the company. What they do matters in saving lives. That’s what drives Paul, and it is contagious to the 32,000-plus employees ‘getting in the game.’”
— Beverly Perreault
“Paul possesses an instinctive ability to ‘look around corners’ on what’s coming next. Very few leaders can do this. A great deal comes from his incredible listening skills. In the end, Paul’s forward-looking capabilities have very well positioned CSL for its next phase of sustainable growth.”
“He will finish every meeting with, ‘This is what we’ve agreed, this is the way forward.’ That just brings amazing clarity to an organization. So, people go out and deliver that.”
—
Joy Linton, Chief Financial Officer
“When he says no, he’s very comfortable with that decision, and he has said no to a couple of big ones.”
— Group General Counsel Greg Boss
CSL’s global headquarters in Melbourne, Australia.
CHAPTER ONE
A FOCUS ON PATIENTS
CHAPTER
CULTURE OF VALUES
CHAPTER THREE
INNOVATION LEADER
CHAPTER
If you take care of the patients, the business should
INTRODUCTION
Paul Perreault defies the widespread stereotype of a biotech cEO. he is humble, not brash; understated, not self-promoting. Within a values-based culture, he trusts his leaders and their people to do the right things and he keeps patients at the forefront not as customers, but as people in need. n Perhaps that low-key style is why, as Paul liked to joke ten years ago, cSL was “the biggest company no one’s ever heard of” even as it became the world’s third-largest biotech company and one of the largest companies in Australia, by market capitalization. But Paul’s ten-year success story couldn’t stay under the radar. In 2019, Harvard Business Review included him on its list of the top 100 best-performing cEOs in the world—alongside Tim cook of Apple and Robert Iger of Disney. cSL has been named among the Best Places to Work in the world by Forbes and highlighted as a leader in Diversity and Inclusion by Thomson Reuters. n Paul’s innate relationship skills, so central to his success, weren’t crafted; they come naturally. As one of eight children, he grew up relying on a knack for negotiation. he honed that awareness of interpersonal dynamics in his study of psychology at the University of central Florida, advanced business management training, and his years in commercial operations at Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories (now part of Pfizer) and in leadership at Aventis Behring (which became part of cSL) and at cSL Behring. n People marvel at his ability to remember names and details of someone he met only briefly. he has a great and unmatched memory, a method for making mental notes, and the desire to connect with people in an authentic way. he has the sort of old-fashioned values that everyone wishes were still the norm: his word is bond. A promise made is a promise kept. n In the early 1990s, Vicki and Fred Modell went to a hematology conference, looking for help launching the jeffrey Modell Foundation in memory of their son jeffrey, who died of complications of primary immunodeficiency, which left him vulnerable to infection. jeffrey took an early version of immunoglobulin, and at an exhibit booth for centeon, a precursor of Aventis Behring, the Modells understood for the first time that the life-saving therapy came from donations of
take care of itself.
—Paul Perreault
plasma. n When Paul began working for centeon in 1997, he visited Vicki and Fred at their diamond jewelry business in New York city. They explained that while treatments for primary immunodeficiency were improving, many children never got them because they weren’t diagnosed. They just were kids who got terribly sick all the time. “We’re going to work on this,”
Paul told them. “We’re going find the patients.” n Today, the foundation funds 150 jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research centers and supports a network of physicians and teaching hospitals in 86 countries. Paul has been with the Modells and other patient advocacy organizations all along their journey, encouraging them and joining them at ribbon-cuttings and other events over the years. Under Paul’s astute leadership, cSL has provided financial support to establish twenty of the centers around the world. n When someone once suggested that cSL should have a chief patient officer, as is common at pharmaceutical companies, Paul retorted, “There’s no chief patient officer because I’m the chief patient officer.” he also often reminded employees that they were all chief patient officers. n So, beyond the strong and sustained growth that led to an almost six-fold rise in share price, global expansions, and innovative products, this is his legacy: cSL has more than 32,000 employees who are dedicated to bringing life-saving therapies—and hope—to patients around the world.
DRIVEN BY OUR PROMISE
DELIVERING ON PATIENT-FOCUSED LEADERSHIP
We will always work every day like someone’s life depends on it, because it does.
—Paul Perreault
Being CEO was never just a job for Paul Perreault. Leading a company that specializes in rare diseases, he undertook a mission to save lives. He listened to patients, frequently scheduling time as he traveled the globe on behalf of CSL, listening to them talk about their challenges to survive and thrive, despite their serious medical conditions. With each decision, he considered the impact on the people who rely on CSL’s products. That focus on patients is the foundation of a successful business dynamic—forging a company-wide passion to do good, not just to do well.
A FOCUS ON PATIENTS
When Paul Perreault became CSL’s second-ever CEO, he took ownership of a promise—to shareholders, to employees, and most importantly, to patients.
A HISTORY OF CARING
That cSL promise is both old and young, delivered through more than a century of public health commitments and just three decades as an innovative biotech. It harkens back to the “serum therapy” that German scientist Emil von Behring (the namesake of cSL Behring) discovered in 1890 to protect against diphtheria and the mission to protect Australians from disease during World War I. In 1916, government-run commonwealth Serum Laboratories began making life-saving serums, anti-toxins, and vaccines for a nation beset with medical shortages.
Brian McNamee, a medical doctor-turned-executive, knew he would need to take bold moves in privatizing cSL in 1994. Naysayers thought it wouldn’t be possible to grow a global biotech company from Australia.
Brian began by revamping research and development. With esteemed virologist Ian Gust as R&D head, cSL supported the work of Ian Frazer at the University of Queensland, who was developing a vaccine against human papilloma virus (hPV). cSL licensed Frazer’s technology and co-developed Gardasil, the world’s first vaccine against cervical cancer. (Pharma giant Merck produces Gardasil through a license with cSL.)
John Shine, world-renowned molecular biologist and former CSL Chair, calls Paul “a consummate CEO.”
That high-impact work, along with key acquisitions, set the trajectory for cSL. When Brian stepped down in 2013, he saw that Paul had the right mix of personal and professional qualities for cSL’s next chapter. “We knew successfully launching differentiated products in the US market, and then globally, was a critical capability. And Paul was our strongest commercial person in the company,” Brian recalls. Frankly, it wasn’t clear whether anyone could replicate Brian’s success. he steered the company from an initial share price of AUD76c (the readjusted base after a three-to-one split in 2007) to $53.24—acquiring ZLB (the blood plasma division of the Swiss Red cross) and Aventis Behring, making cSL a world leader in plasma-derived products. he moved into recombinant therapies, positioning cSL for development of new technologies.
“Paul was just right in that point in time,” with the vision and attention to detail to take cSL to new heights, says renowned Australian molecular biologist john Shine, who served as chair of the cSL board from 2011 to 2018. “he was really the perfect cEO to take a well-established but rapidly growing company to the next level.”
In ten years, Paul grew the share price above AUD$300, annual R&D spending from US$370 million to US$1.15 billion, and grew the market capitalization nearly 5-fold to about AUD$145 billion, as cSL developed and commercialized breakthrough vaccines and therapies for patients with bleeding disorders, immune deficiencies, hereditary angioedema, and other disabling conditions.
Brian McNamee, CSL’s current Chair and its first CEO, is a medical doctor who transformed the government-run Commonwealth Serum Laboratories into a global biotech and set it on a growth trajectory.
Doctors told Perry Parker and his brother Corey that they could never play sports. They both lack a vital blood-clotting factor due to hemophilia, a rare genetic disorder, so even a minor injury could cause them to bleed uncontrollably.
LISTENING TO PATIENTS
Despite the admonishment, they played a variety of sports throughout their school years. Perry became a professional golfer and corey became a professional baseball player. To prevent or treat bleeding episodes, they took infusions of plasma-derived clotting factor—and, since 2016, cSL’s longer-lasting recombinant product Afstyla®
When Paul invited Perry to share his remarkable story of perseverance at the cSL headquarters in Melbourne (Australia), the auditorium was packed. Perry talked about the many times his parents raced him to a hospital emergency room for infusions. how even when his elbow joint was rigid because of a painful bleed and an emergency room doctor warned him against being physically active, his parents supported his choice to continue. And how even today, he travels to golf tournaments around the world with his needles, syringe, and the infusion product that makes his active lifestyle possible.
After the talk, employees swarmed around to tell him how his words affected them. “It made them feel like their job is more important, it has more meaning,” Perry says. “They [typically] never meet anybody that actually uses the product, so it was very impactful for everybody that was there that day.”
Golf pro Perry Parker became an inspiring patient-advocate—and a good friend of Paul’s.
Those personal stories have always mattered to Paul, who first met Perry at a charity golf tournament for the National hemophilia Foundation. And that’s why he built patient story-telling into cSL’s activities internally and its messaging to the public.
cSL Plasma collection centers in the US have “Plasma P.A.L.S.” (Patients and Lifesavers), a program that connects patients and plasma donors. (The program was previously called “Adopt a Patient.”) “If you talk to a donor after they have met a patient, they’ll always say to you, even donation after donation, ‘I’m here to help someone else,’” says Michelle Meyer, Vice President of cSL Plasma Global Operations.
Plasma donors give the gift of life to patients with rare diseases.
Every year, one event was set in advance on Paul’s calendar. Being a global cEO put so many demands on his time, but he wasn’t going to miss the annual Gettin’ in the Game junior National championship (jNc). he’s been to every one since it began in 2002.
GETTIN’ IN THE GAME
The jNc, sponsored by cSL and held in Arizona, is the only national sports competition in America specifically for children and teens with bleeding disorders such as hemophilia and von Willebrand Disease (another inherited clotting disorder). The athletes who volunteer to coach at jNc also have bleeding disorders; co-founders golf pro Perry Parker and his brother, corey, who played professional baseball, have hemophilia A, a deficit of clotting factor VIII.
children from around the country compete in golf, swimming, and baseball—but most importantly, they spend time with other kids who share their life experiences.
Junior National Championship, sponsored by CSL, is the only national sports competition in America specifically for children and teens with bleeding disorders.
At the jNc, Paul participates as just another volunteer, wearing a red cSL Behring cap and caddying for kids. “he’s out helping these young people get through their round of golf,” says Bill campbell, Executive Vice President and chief commercial Officer at cSL Behring. “he’s raking the bunker for them. he’s helping read their putts. he’s doing this when his schedule is massively busy. he would never miss this weekend. And that’s just who he is.”
At the first jNc, Paul was helping Perry’s daughter with her stance but then didn’t move away. She took the swing—and bonked him in the back of the head. “We thought that might be the end of the jNc program,” Perry says with a laugh. “But luckily, he is a good sport and he just laughed it off. And the rest is history.”
In a LinkedIn post, Paul explained how he feels about the jNc: “It’s a privilege to participate in these programs that truly touch the lives of children living (and playing!) with hemophilia. It’s also a bit humbling . . . But most important, it’s a strong reminder of why we do what we do at cSL Behring.”
Gettin’ in the Game
Children practice their drives, with instruction from athletes who also have bleeding disorders.
Jeffrey Modell did his best to live like a regular kid—splashing in the pool, playing squash, sailing with his parents, hamming it up for his friends and family. But along with those moments of joy he had setbacks, when his body was aflame with fever and he needed extended hospital care to overcome an infection.
his condition was called primary immunodeficiency. That is a catch-all term for rare, inherited disorders of the immune system.
‘DO SOMETHING’ FOR JEFFREY
When jeffrey was born in 1970, treatment options were limited. Fractionation of blood plasma began in the 1940s, and doctors started using intramuscular injections of gamma globulin in the 1950s to treat people who weren’t making enough antibodies to fight disease. jeffrey’s disorder was initially called hypogammaglobulinemia—low antibody levels—and he was part of an early trial of infusions of intravenous immune globulin (IVIG).
The treatments gave jeffrey periods in which he seemed robust and healthy, but infections always came back. jeffrey would say, “Mom, Dad, please do something,” his mother Vicki recalls. “Little did he know, we were doing everything we could.”
Paul shaped CSL’s support of the Jeffrey Modell Foundation and the establishment of new diagnostic and research centers for primary immunodeficiency.
After jeffrey died at the age of fifteen of pneumocystis pneumonia, Vicki and Fred Modell started a foundation to spur research, diagnosis, and treatment of immune deficiencies—to help other kids like jeffrey.
Touched and inspired by jeffrey’s story, Paul became part of that mission. From his time as general manager of plasma operations at Aventis Behring and through his tenure as cEO at cSL, Paul sought to increase plasma capacity. cSL is now one of the world’s largest collectors of plasma. In 2010, cSL received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for an immunoglobulin called hizentra that is injected under the skin, enabling it to be administered with an infusion device at home.
Paul also shaped cSL’s support of the jeffrey Modell Foundation, helping establish new diagnostic and research centers around the world. For example, in 2017 cSL sponsored the jeffrey Modell North African Network, the first entity to help primary immunodeficiency patients in Africa.
“In every city we went to with him for these dedications [of new facilities], there were patients and their families, and he made a point to speak to every single one of them,” says Vicki. “he cares so deeply about the patient.”
Vicki and Fred Modell launched a foundation to “do something” to help children like their son Jeffrey, who died at age fifteen from pneumonia related to his primary immunodeficiency.
By the end of January 2020, the entire city of Wuhan, china, was in lockdown, the first cases of a novel coronavirus had been detected in the US, and the world was on high alert. At cSL, Paul and his leadership team were thinking about how they might be of help.
RISING TO THE COVID CHALLENGE
Bill Mezzanotte, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research and Development, suggested collaborating with global competitors to test a convalescent plasma product against COVID-19.
Bill Mezzanotte, chief Medical Officer and head of Research and Development, tried to reach out to chinese authorities about potential use of hyperimmune therapy derived from the plasma of recovered patients—from cSL Plasma’s fractionation facility in china.
When the chinese government didn’t respond, Bill suggested collaborating with global competitors to test a convalescent plasma product. This project wouldn’t fit the normal business model. “We probably can’t charge for this, and it will cost us a fair amount to do this, but it’s the right thing,” Bill recalls telling Paul. “And his only question to me was, ‘What are you waiting for?’”
In june 2020, Paul presented the concept at a White house roundtable and made a plea for more plasma donations. Donations had plummeted amid the worldwide shutdowns and fears of spread of the coronavirus, but plasma collection remained essential to a multitude of patients.
“I’m here representing all the manufacturers of hyperimmunes, including the cOVID-19 Plasma Alliance, which is really an unprecedented partnership of world-leading plasma companies, which have joined together to help develop a plasma therapy to treat cOVID-19,” he said at the roundtable, announcing a joint clinical trial. “But we need plasma and we need plasma donors.”
Although that clinical trial did not show significant benefit in cOVID patients hospitalized with severe disease, the alliance illustrates cSL’s commitment to work on behalf of patients. Plasma donations slowly recovered, which was critical for patients dependent on plasma-derived products.
Meanwhile, attention turned to emerging cOVID vaccines, which had impressive evidence of effectiveness. In keeping with its longstanding public health mission in Australia, cSL produced fifty million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the Australian government.
CSL provided support for public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it produced fifty million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the Australian government.
DRIVEN BY OUR PROMISE
DELIVERING ON PATIENT-FOCUSED LEADERSHIP
We’re a values-based culture. We really mean it when we tell people they need to adhere to the values of the organization.
—Paul Perreault
I
n every interaction and decision as CEO, Paul modeled CSL’s core values: Patient Focus, Innovation, Integrity, Collaboration, and Superior Performance. His passion was infectious, his sense of humor disarming, his commitment to patients, employees, plasma donors, collaborative partners, and investors unwavering. He built a company that felt like a family—a place where people choose to spend an entire career. That values-based culture became a competitive advantage as CSL grew and achieved new horizons.
A CULTURE OF VALUES
CEOs are typically defined by what they do—their policies, decisions, leadership—but at cSL, people also talk about the way Paul makes them feel. cSL has a culture of transparency and collaboration because Paul models those traits.
THE POWER OF HUMILITY
Mark hill, chief Digital Information Officer, will never forget his job interview with Paul, which took place virtually because of the pandemic. he realized they were reaching the end of the time allotted for their conversation and, wanting to be respectful of Paul’s tight schedule, he pointed that out. Paul responded: “Well, do you have a few more minutes?” In the moment, Mark was Paul’s focus and priority.
Later, on a trip to Bern, Switzerland, Mark asked Paul if he would meet with his team of technicians there. he knew they would find it inspiring. Paul spent forty-five minutes answering their questions thoughtfully. “You’d have thought that they were the most important people in the company to talk to,” recalls Mark. “And they walked away just energized from that conversation with him.”
Fiona Mead, Company Secretary and Head of Corporate Governance (left), and Executive Assistant Raewynn McIntyre
Paul comes from a modest background and worked a slew of jobs from groundskeeper to dishwasher to help support himself through school. But he always sought to help others, recalls his wife, Beverly Perreault, who first met him at an eighth-grade dance (when he was a high schooler playing in the jazz band). Paul even briefly attended a catholic college seminary before transferring to the University of central Florida. he was working as a sous chef at a restaurant when a job offer in pharmaceutical sales for A.h. Robins company started him on his career trajectory.
Success has not changed him. “he doesn’t think he’s special, he doesn’t let it go to his head,” says Bev. “Being cEO is not who he is. he is just doing his job.” he views his accomplishments as part of a team effort. “he gives the credit to all who work for cSL,” she adds.
When Paul walks down a corridor in a cSL facility, he pauses to chat with employees at all levels. he has no hierarchical sense of status. Fiona Mead, company Secretary and head of corporate Governance, remembers her first day at cSL, overhearing Paul talking with Executive Assistant Raewynn McIntyre about his calendar. he said, no, he didn’t want to change an appointment with a patient-advocate to accommodate a meeting with a shareholder. “Patients are always the most important priority,” Paul remarked.
That’s when she knew cSL is truly a values-driven company. “he’s a really humble guy who never wants us to take what we do for granted,” says Bill campbell, Executive Vice President and chief commercial Officer.
Bill Campbell, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer (left) and Mark Hill, Chief Digital Information Officer
Integrity is doing the right thing instead of doing whatever is easiest or most advantageous in the moment. It is Paul’s bedrock quality, and it is a core value at cSL.
BUILDING A BOND OF TRUST
Paul often tells a story from early in his career about an interaction with patients that made a deep impression on him. In 1997, product recalls and regulatory pressures in the plasma industry led to a temporary shutdown at worked in sales. Patients had difficulty finding the products they needed to fight infection, stop bleeding, and prevent swelling.
“I had mothers calling me. I had congressmen in the US calling me because patients were getting sick, hospitalized, and some were dying,” Paul later told a reporter from the Review. “And I would actually source product from competitors for them and tell them how to get it through the system in order for them to get treatment.
Paul always understood that patients’ lives depend on CSL’s products.
“And then when we came back to the market they remembered. And today, I still get notes and calls and pictures from their graduations and weddings. So, it’s personal, you know. And that’s the passion that you have to have in a business if you’re really going to make a difference.”
With that commitment, Paul earned the trust of patients and their advocacy organizations. But Paul doesn’t just inspire trust. As cEO, he made the strategic decisions and trusted others to carry them out. “Paul’s always been a real champion for his people,” says Group General counsel Greg Boss. “ in the strength of the team around him, and he has a pretty keen eye for picking great people.”
Andrew Goodsall, Senior healthcare Analyst at MST Marquee, the equities research arm of MST Financial in Sydney, recalls hearing about Paul from people who knew him when he was in pharmaceutical sales. “his word was his bond,” they told Andrew. As Andrew met Paul and followed his trajectory as words resonated. “That level of trust is something that I could see at every interaction,” he says.
CHAPTER TWO A CULTURE OF VALUES
Paul “believes in the strength of the team around him,” says Group General Counsel Greg Boss.
Mike Deem was in his third year of college in columbus, Ohio, when he saw a job ad in the local newspaper. he wanted to work for a company that offered tuition reimbursement and he was studying medical technology, so the entry-level position at a plasma collection center seemed like a good fit.
Thirty-four years later, he’s still at cSL as Global head of cSL Behring Operations. Mike’s trajectory is the embodiment of cSL’s Promising FUTURES. “It’s a commitment we make to employees that they all can grow and develop and have a fulfilling career here at cSL,” explains Elizabeth Walker, chief human Resources Officer. “Paul has really been the visionary and the model of that type of culture.”
PROMISING FUTURES
When Mike became a regional manager, he reported directly to Paul, who headed up plasma operations at Aventis Behring at the time. From then on, Paul became a mentor, encouraging Mike to take on new challenges that ultimately shaped his career. “he held himself to an incredibly high standard, but he expected the same of the people around him,” Mike says. “[Because of] what I’ve learned from Paul over the years and the support that I’ve had from Paul . . . I owe a great deal of my success of my career to him.”
cSL has leadership development programs and team-building events. The Promising FUTURES Scholarship Program provides awards to employees and their dependents in the United States and Australia, with an emphasis on helping disadvantaged students and those from diverse backgrounds achieve their higher education goals.
Elizabeth Walker, Chief Human Resources Officer
But the cSL commitment is much broader than any program. It encompasses a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion and support for a collegial workplace. cSL actively listens to its employees; in a 2021-22 survey conducted by an outside vendor, 96 percent of employees said they have “a clear understanding of cSL’s Values.” The Employee Engagement Index reached 77.9 percent, a strong endorsement of how employees feel about the cSL culture. (Only 21 percent of global employees are engaged at work, according to Gallup’s 2022 report, State of the Global Workforce.)
Many cSL careers are rooted in the plasma business. Paul nurtured “that concept of investment in people, connection to people,” says Paul McKenzie, who became cSL’s cEO in March 2023. “We always needed to keep on building [new plasma centers] because that’s the only way patients would benefit. But to do that, you have to invest in the people.”
Developing talent at CSL has been one of Paul’s many legacies.
Shortly after its founding in 1916, commonwealth Serum Laboratories established labs in a scattering of buildings in Parkville, just north of Melbourne. Surrounded by farmland, the campus was still close enough for collaboration with the Walter and Eliza hall Institute of Medical Research. The first director, William Penfold, lived onsite with his family in a weatherboard cottage.
A COMMITMENT TO COLLABORATE
As cSL grew, so did its Melbourne-area footprint, with new manufacturing and research facilities in Broadmeadows and North Melbourne. But collaboration looks very different today than it did a more than a century ago. cSL’s new global headquarters in Melbourne, located in the Biomedical Precinct just north of the city’s central business district, imbues this core value with twenty-first century possibilities.
“Our Poplar Road site is an important part of cSL’s history and has served the company well,” Paul said in the 2019 project announcement. “As we plan for future growth however, moving geographically closer to our key stakeholders ensures we are well-placed to strengthen our partnerships and deepen the valuable relationships we have with the local biomedical community.”
The new flagship sixteen-story building brings together eight hundred cSL employees from four campuses while also supporting early-stage Australian biotech companies. The building, which received a five-star rating from the Green Building council of Australia, houses nine floors of laboratories and research and clinical-phase production suites.
A start-up incubator will provide affordable access to wet-labs, equipment, and office space, and it aims to accelerate the commercialization of promising medical discoveries. The incubator is the first in Australia to be imbedded within a biopharmaceutical company.
Importantly, the new headquarters connects people across cSL’s business units. “he was constantly saying, ‘We’re one business. We need to operate as one business,’” says Raewynn McIntyre, Paul’s Executive Assistant. “This building is bringing us all together.”
CSL researchers at the University of Melbourne’s Bio21 Institute.
CSL’s new flagship headquarters building in Melbourne’s Biomedical Precinct houses nine floors of laboratories and research and clinical-phase production suites.
At The Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Andrew Zydney’s students are experimenting with cRISPR cas9, a protein used in gene editing. Their work takes place in the state-of-the-art cSL Behring Fermentation Facility, which has advanced bioprocessing equipment used to produce microbial products. It is part of the university’s huck Institutes of Life Sciences, as is the center of Excellence in Industrial Biotechnology, which the chemical engineering professor headed as its first director.
NURTURING THE NEXT GENERATION
If the students find a more cost-effective way to purify the cas9 molecule, they could unlock a more affordable way to create next-generation biotherapeutics. That is just one of dozens of commercially relevant projects taking place at the cSL Behring Fermentation Facility, but it exemplifies Paul’s vision to link industry with academia to develop the future biotech workforce and conduct innovative research.
cSL’s US$5 million gift to Penn State in 2017 supported the center of Excellence, construction of the fermentation facility, and undergraduate scholarships for biotech students. “These facilities are key to developing our students and preparing them for biotech careers across our nation and globally,” says Dr. Lora Weiss, Penn State’s Senior Vice President for Research. Penn State named cSL its corporate Partner of the Year in 2019.
cSL has a long history of partnership with academic institutions. The company began a partnership with the University of Melbourne’s Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute in 2007; some ten years later, cSL expanded its capabilities with a new cSL Global hub for Research and Translational Medicine, where more than 150 cSL research scientists explore potential therapeutics and diagnostics.
CSL’s Global Hub for Research and Translational Medicine is part of the Bio21 Institute on the campus of the University of Melbourne.
In another partnership, in 2019 cSL scientists relocated to a new cSL Biologics Research center at the Swiss Institute of Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, which is affiliated with the University of Bern.
In these ventures, Paul is thinking about how the investments ultimately benefit patients. At the ribbon-cutting of the fermentation facility he said: “This [partnership] represents an opportunity for us to support our talent pipeline that will bring some of Penn State’s brightest minds to our efforts in developing life-saving medicines.”
Students and faculty work with advanced bioprocessing equipment at the state-of-the-art CSL Behring Fermentation Facility at The Pennsylvania State University.
A MODEL OF LEADERSHIP
In 2016, the year of CSL’s centenary, Paul gathered 216 executives at the annual Executive Leadership Summit. They came from different cSL divisions and locales, they had different skills and backgrounds, but he knew together they would shape the company’s future. One hundred years after its founding, cSL was thriving. To sustain that success, its leaders would need a laser-like focus on the company’s values and strategic goals. “For companies to be truly great, there needs to be alignment from the bottom all the way to the top in terms of a consistent message, behavior, and culture,” Paul told them. They would be the models of Patient Focus, Innovation, Integrity, collaboration, and Superior Performance. And they would inspire people who would rise into future leadership. “You have a key role in what happens in this organization,” Paul told them. “People look to you, they watch you. They listen to you. They behave like you.”
Paul himself is the consummate role model of how to foster the cSL culture and nurture the next generation of leaders. he always favored promoting from within, to “give people opportunities to stretch themselves and take on new positions” even if the new responsibilities didn’t seem like a natural fit, says chief human Resources Officer Elizabeth Walker. “Any time there’s an opportunity available within the company, Paul’s first comment is—‘Before we go outside, is there anyone within our organization?’”
Steve Marlow, General Manager of CSL Seqirus
Steve Marlow, General Manager of cSL Seqirus, first met Paul at a cSL program for global leadership development in 2007. Steve worked in a division known as cSL Biotherapies, which was involved in the early efforts to commercialize flu vaccine internationally; Paul was cSL Executive Vice President of Worldwide commercial Operations. Paul spent time socializing with the up-andcoming leaders and asked Steve about the flu business—showing that he had taken the time to learn about the attendees on a personal level. “I thought to myself, ‘That’s the type of leader I would want to be.’”
Paul wants cSL executives to likewise take a people-oriented approach, with an eye on how their teams can improve and grow, says chief corporate Affairs & communications Officer Anthony Farina. “I’m expected, as the leader of corporate affairs and communications, to be innovating what we do and how we do it, and developing my team,” he says. “That’s a good challenge because then we’re always on the leading edge.”
Anthony Farina, Chief Corporate Affairs & Communications Officer (left), interviews Paul about his leadership at CSL.
DRIVEN BY OUR PROMISE
DELIVERING ON PATIENT-FOCUSED LEADERSHIP
Innovation is at the heart of what we do.
Not just innovation in science—it’s innovation in how we work, how we bring people together.
—Paul Perreault
Paul always stressed that CSL innovates to address the unmet needs of patients. In the last five years, CSL spent US$5 billion on research and development in better vaccines and therapies. Long-acting recombinant proteins, gene therapies, cell-based influenza vaccines, and new capabilities in plasma processing offer patients a better future. CSL has become a global leader in next-generation technologies—producing the first-ever gene therapy for hemophilia B and developing a next-generation mRNA platform to enable the development of highly effective vaccines.
LEADER
For Paul, innovation doesn’t just mean discovering breakthrough products. It also means embracing change in pursuit of a better way to work.
When Mark hill, chief Digital Information Officer, came to cSL, he had a mission to upgrade and rethink the company’s information technology. When Mark accepted the job in 2020, Paul told him: “Don’t let me be an old guy with old ideas.” Taken aback by Paul’s humility, he appreciated the invitation to modernize technology at cSL.
REIMAGINING WORK
Mark soon honed in on the mobile app used by plasma donors. The app ostensibly had about 300,000 users, but an analysis showed that they rarely used it for engagement, to make appointments, or connect with plasma centers.
“We literally blew it up and reimagined the app,” Mark says. The app, branded as “Do the Amazing,” enables donors to fill out health questionnaires, schedule appointments, and track iGive Rewards— loyalty points that can be redeemed for cash. More than two million people have downloaded the app, and more than three hundred-thousand active users engage with it each month.
More than two million people have downloaded CSL Plasma’s new app, which has improved engagement with plasma donors.
The pandemic tested cSL’s capacity to adapt. Global travel links cSL operations, but suddenly the world shut down. When employees began working from home, the company created new avenues for personal connections, such as through virtual networking events. When global ports became clogged with shipping containers, cSL flew supplies of albumin into china to provide the life-saving product.
But the pandemic also illustrated the sense of dedication that underlies cSL’s work, however it is configured. Most cSL employees are “essential workers,” producing vital therapeutics or vaccines at manufacturing and fractionation facilities and keeping plasma centers running. Overall in the US, about 125,000 people rely on plasma-derived products. To show their support for cSL’s resilient employees, Paul Perreault and Paul McKenzie visited manufacturing facilities even in the pandemic’s early phase.
“You can’t expect people to work in those situations if you’re not out beating the streets, as well,” says Paul McKenzie, who was chief Operating Officer before becoming Paul’s successor. “There were certain places we just weren’t allowed by law to go. We couldn’t get into china, we couldn’t get into Australia, but anywhere we could get in, we went.”
Paul McKenzie was Chief Operating Officer before becoming Paul’s successor as CEO.
A Pennsylvania radio journalist once asked Paul about a cSL product used by just three hundred patients in the US. “how do you balance the costs of R&D with the impact?” she wondered. “If we didn’t make these products, these patients wouldn’t have access,” Paul replied.
FROM PATIENT TO PRODUCT
Some biopharma companies avoid targeting rare diseases because, well, they’re rare. These therapeutics have historically been so neglected by the pharmaceutical industry that the FDA calls them “orphan drugs.” But patients with rare diseases are often in dire need—and filling that need motivates Paul and cSL. (And of course, cSL’s portfolio is balanced with products that have a much broader market.)
“Paul doesn’t start with ‘how much does it cost and what’s it going to make us?’” says Bob Lojewski, General Manager of North American commercial Operations. “he asks, ‘Why would people want this?’”
Paul firmly believed that business success would flow from the focus on patients, says Anthony Farina, chief corporate Affairs & communications Officer. “That’s the magic of what Paul has brought to cSL—it’s all about the patients.”
Patients with rare diseases often endure a harrowing journey just to get a diagnosis. They become experts in their disease, and along the way, they develop a special relationship with cSL.
chief Medical Officer and head of R&D Bill Mezzanotte invited three patients with rare diseases to a senior leadership meeting, as well as separate meetings of the finance, legal, and manufacturing teams. “People in the audience found it very powerful to hear from the patient as to what it means to have the disease, how it impacts their lives, and what their hopes are for treatments,” he says.
At the senior leadership meeting, Bill recalls a patient who remarked that “she had switched from one of our therapies to a competitor’s for convenience. Paul’s response was, ‘Good for her for telling us the truth and forcing us to be better.’”
hearing that a product helps patients is gratifying. But learning about unmet needs pushes the company to search for new product solutions.
“Paul was very sure that the company needed to be driven by innovation—and that innovation needed to be informed by the patient’s needs,” says john Shine, former Board chair.
Bob Lojewski, General Manager of North American Commercial Operations
Paul focused on making products that address patients’ needs.
CSL’s Idelvion® changed the lives of people with hemophilia B. To prevent bleeding episodes, they needed infusions of a plasma-derived factor IX product every day or three times a week, but Idelvion® enables patients to go as long as fourteen days between treatments. (In Europe and japan, the dosing regimen can extend to twenty-one days.)
WHY CSL DISRUPTED ITSELF
The recombinant product, a blood-clotting protein fused with albumin, was a game-changer for the company, as well. While cSL continues to process clotting factors from plasma, as it has for much of its history, it now offers a range of new biotech products to treat bleeding disorders.
In patient testimonials, a college freshman talked about gaining confidence to start a new life on campus and a hockey coach described how he pursues his passion while managing his condition. Idelvion®, which prevents or reduces the frequency of painful breakthrough bleeding, received US FDA approval in March 2016.
But just five years later, cSL entered into a licensing arrangement with uniQure, a gene therapy company, to disrupt its own market. cSL launched the first-ever gene therapy for hemophilia B, gaining FDA approval in November 2022. hemgenix® contains a modified virus that delivers a functional copy of the F9 gene to liver cells, triggering the production of the clotting factor. hemgenix® requires just a single infusion—lasting years, or perhaps even decades.
CSL has a range of biotech products to enable people with hemophilia and other bleeding disorders to live full lives.
So why did cSL develop a gene-therapy product when it had more than $1 billion in sales revenue from successful recombinant and plasma products to treat hemophilia B?
“In R&D, we disrupt ourselves in service of the patient,” says Bill Mezzanotte, head of R&D.
Further disruption is on the way in other diseases. cSL is working on other recombinant, cell, vaccine, and gene therapies that could soon replace current products. As Paul said after the FDA’s landmark hemgenix® decision: “We believe this approval is just the beginning of our next century of discovery.”
Paul wtih Bill Campbell at CSL Behring’s Hemgenix launch event.
Unlike many biopharmaceutical companies, cSL doesn’t constantly chase high-risk, high-return ventures in a rollercoaster search for a blockbuster drug—and doesn’t need to because of the “safety net” of continued plasma protein sales. cSL innovates in a way that creates synergies and adjacencies with its existing portfolio. To understand that approach, consider the story of cSL112.
ON THE PATH TO A WONDER MEDICINE
Even with the advent of transformative new technologies, plasma remains a bedrock of cSL’s business. Over a decade ago, cSL began supporting research into a component of plasma that is discarded in the fractionation process. Dubbed cSL112, the formulation of Apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA-1)—which is a component of high-density lipoprotein (hDL), or “good” cholesterol—was found to rapidly remove cholesterol from atherosclerotic plaque.
That mechanism could prevent second heart attacks, a serious risk for people who have unstable plaque in their arteries. A 2020 study published in the New England journal of Medicine found that 40 percent of heart attack patients had that high-risk plaque. “cSL112 is a medicine that we believe may save lives of patients who suffer heart attacks, but we currently discard it,” says Andrew cuthbertson, a cSL Board member and former R&D Director and chief Scientific Officer.
Heart attack patients who have unstable plaque in their arteries are at serious risk of a second heart attack.
After years of research, cSL112 is now nearing the end of a Phase 3 clinical trial, which enrolled more than 18,000 people at 920 research sites around the world. The participants all had evidence of multivessel coronary artery disease and cardiovascular risk factors, and they were randomly assigned to receive cSL112 or a placebo.
The Phase 3 results are due in late 2023. If it shows protection against a second heart attack, cSL112 would be a paradigm-shifting product for a company that specializes in rare diseases. About 10 to 12 percent of heart attack patients have another serious cardiovascular event within the year.
“As cEO, Paul supported it because even though it’s high risk and we’d never done anything on that scale before, the benefits both to patients and to the economics of our business were compelling,” Andrew says. “Paul has been a strong supporter of the program all the way through.”
Through its R&D, CSL seeks to develop new life-saving products.
Paul led CSL through an amazing era of innovation and acquisition, capped by global recognition for producing one of the first FDA-approved gene therapies. That felt like a pinnacle of success. One headline put it bluntly: “hemgenix® now approved, Paul Perreault plans his exit.”
But Paul has positioned cSL for an even more exciting future. The R&D pipeline includes a roster of impressive products that succeeded in Phase 3 trials and others with promising earlier results. “It’s probably the most active three- to five-year launch outlook in their history,” says Senior healthcare Analyst Andrew Goodsall, who follows cSL for MST Marquee in Sydney.
PIPELINE TO A BETTER FUTURE
“The very short-term legacy is that [cEO] Paul McKenzie’s got a very busy few years ahead of him putting these products into the marketplace.”
Under Paul’s leadership, cSL’s annual investment in R&D tripled, from US$370 million to US$1.15 billion. Paul kept a focused approach and looked for acquisitions and collaborations that would build on cSL’s platforms—plasma fractionation, recombinant protein technology, cell and gene therapy, and vaccine technology.
The pipeline includes garadacimab, a monoclonal antibody that blocks the protein that triggers swelling in people with hereditary angioedema (hAE). A Phase 3 trial showed garadacimab prevents hAE swelling episodes with just monthly injections—which complements cSL’s recent innovation, haegarda®, which prevents attacks but requires injection every three to four days. The two therapies address specific patient medical needs.
CSL is developing a new monoclonal antibody to treat hereditary angioedema, which would benefit patients like Linda Bodie.
clazakizumab, still under study, shows promise in preventing rejection of kidney transplants and reducing inflammation that leads to cardiovascular events in people on dialysis. Ferinject, an iron-replacement therapy, shows benefit for patients with heart failure and iron deficiency. There are drugs to treat end-stage kidney disease, cOVID-19, and sickle cell disease—and, spurred by a 2017 acquisition of the biotech calimmune, cSL is developing a gene therapy treatment for sickle cell.
In the vaccine space, cSL is working on a new influenza vaccine that brings triple benefits of cell-based therapy—with higher antigen dose and the increased immunogenicity of its adjuvant MF-59, it promises to be the most effective flu vaccine for patients over the age of fifty, says R&D head Bill Mezzanotte.
“It’s a continuing evolution,” says Board chair Brian McNamee says, a robust product pipeline that is “a credit to Paul.”
Under Paul’s leadership, CSL created a robust product pipeline to meet specific patient medical needs.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, put scientific ingenuity to the test—and science triumphed. Yes, the pandemic was devastating, causing almost seven million deaths worldwide. But effective vaccines and therapies emerged with astonishing speed. And the innovations continue in a quest to prevent further death and disability.
NEXT-GENERATION VACCINES
cSL Seqirus has been a part of that story, and it is bringing those advances into the future. “Now’s the right time to think, ‘could we do more help more in terms of public health?’” says Steve Marlow, General Manager of cSL Seqirus. “We don’t want to bring another cOVID-19 vaccine to market that’s exactly the same as everyone else. We want to bring something new and innovative into the space because that goes back to our values.”
Pre-pandemic, Seqirus researchers were already working on next-generation vaccines for influenza. That work ramped up during the pandemic and, in November 2022, cSL reached a collaborative agreement with california-based biotech Arcturus Therapeutics holdings on an exciting new vaccine technology.
CSL ramped up its work on next-generation vaccines during the pandemic.
Arcturus had successful clinical trial results of a cOVID-19 vaccine that uses self-amplifying mRNA. It is similar to the technology in the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which use a piece of genetic material to trigger cells to make a protein found in the surface of the virus. That primes the immune system to fight the actual virus. Self-amplifying mRNA also causes cells to make more copies of the mRNA itself—so a vaccine can be more effective at a lower dose.
cSL has the exclusive license to develop and commercialize this next-generation technology for influenza, cOVID-19, and other respiratory viral diseases.
CSL’s new R&D hub in Waltham, Massachusetts, will support the company’s growing R&D portfolio, including the next generation of mRNA vaccine technology.
DRIVEN BY OUR PROMISE DELIVERING ON PATIENT-FOCUSED LEADERSHIP
Although CSL Behring has grown significantly, I never want us to lose connection with the people who rely on our medicines.
—Paul Perreault
Under Paul’s leadership, CSL remains competitive in an ever-changing world while staying true to its core values and its focus on patient needs. Each acquisition or licensing arrangement maximizes CSL’s strengths and supports development of next-generation products, creating a pipeline of promising new therapies and vaccines. A diverse and engaged workforce and environmentally responsible practices also are central to Paul’s long-term strategy. The clarity of his vision has been the secret to CSL’s success and the wellspring of sustainable growth.
SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
In December 2022, the Australian Financial Review reflected on Paul’s announcement of retirement in an article titled: “A considered risk-taker, cSL’s Perreault leaves big shoes to fill.” It recounts how Paul, as a “level-headed leader,” steadily grew cSL through strategic acquisitions, licensing deals, and expansion of the network of plasma collection centers.
‘A CONSIDERED RISK-TAKER’
The biggest, riskiest ventures get the most attention: the licensing deal with uniQure and development of the first gene therapy for hemophilia B, the US$11.7 billion acquisition of Swiss pharmaceutical company Vifor Pharma, the US$275 million acquisition of Novartis’ influenza vaccine division. But the goal never was just to go big. Each deal fits within a long-term strategy.
“he doesn’t necessarily take the shiny objects. he takes the ones that need to be shined,” says current cEO Paul McKenzie, reflecting on the Novartis deal—a business losing more than US$100 million a year that cSL turned into a driver of profit and innovation.
When he makes decisions, Paul begins by gathering information and posing detailed questions. “he’s got a strong questioning mind,” says chief Financial Officer joy Linton. “It’s the way he gets to the answer.”
Chief Financial Officer
Joy Linton (left) and Deputy Chief Financial Officer John Levy
Paul brought the Vifor deal before the Global Leadership Group of senior leaders who advise him, and he went around the room so each person could give an opinion, recalls Deputy chief Financial Officer john Levy. “he wants to operate in a consultative, collaborative way, and people on the GLG embrace that,” he says.
Ultimately, of course, the decision was Paul’s. While cSL’s growth fuels the capacity for acquisitions, he was always selective.
“For every acquisition or license we’ve done, there are probably ten that we didn’t do,” says Group General counsel Greg Boss.
“When he says no, he’s very comfortable with that decision, and he has said no to a couple of big ones,” Greg says. “And then the most recent one, [Vifor], he was very confident and it just seems to fit the business.”
Mike Deem, Global Head of CSL Behring Operations (left), and current CSL CEO Paul McKenzie.
“I think everyone in the audience would agree that cSL is not a habitual acquirer of companies,” Paul said in the opening of the first cSL Vifor investor briefing, ten months after reaching the deal with the Swiss pharma company. “We take our time. We look at companies where there are capabilities, competencies, and adjacencies to what we do.”
The acquisition of Vifor Pharma exemplifies Paul’s long-term vision, driven by a focus on patients. cSL already had products in its portfolio and in development to improve outcomes for patients with renal disease and blood disorders. cSL Vifor is a global leader in iron deficiency and an innovator in products for patients with renal disease, especially those who are on dialysis.
CHOOSING WELL
Paul and his leadership team saw a powerful synergy in the mission to improve lives: About three billion people worldwide have iron deficiency, but many of them remain undiagnosed. Iron deficiency contributes to poor outcomes in other disorders, such as heart failure. The burden of renal disease is increasing as populations age, and dialysis-dependent patients continue to have high rates of mortality and poor quality of life. For example, cSL Vifor’s SNF472 is an intravenous therapy given to patients on dialysis to treat a disorder called calcific uremic arteriolopathy—a rare condition that affects approximately 5 percent of patients receiving hemodialysis and has a nearly 50 percent mortality rate within one year after diagnosis.
cSL brought its patient focus to the newly acquired division. For example, cSL Vifor invited the president of the European Kidney Patients’ Federation to an internal leadership summit in October 2022, about a week after the investor presentation.
Investors typically focus on short-term results from publicly traded companies, but in this case, they displayed patience while awaiting the explanation of the cSL Vifor strategy. “People are willing to give the company that benefit of doubt just because of their track record,” says healthcare analyst Andrew Goodsall.
Paul summed up his approach in his presentation to investors: “Perfect companies typically aren’t for sale. In fact, I’d say that no company you would acquire will be perfect . . . but the right strategic fit, the right people, the right focus, will inevitably deliver sustainable profitable growth and value for cSL and our cSL shareholders. It is about that long-term, sustainable growth.”
The Vifor Pharma acquisition helped set the stage for future growth at CSL.
The acquisition of Vifor Pharma, which had products in renal disease and blood disorders, fit Paul’s long-term vision, which is driven by a focus on patients.
While time proved the wisdom of CSL’s acquisition of the Novartis influenza vaccine business, the deal initially seemed like an uncharacteristic gamble.
A TURNAROUND STORY
There was nothing wrong with the fit: biocSL, the company’s vaccine subsidiary, gained new capabilities. It certainly was a good price: cSL paid US$275 million in a deal that included a $1 billion plant in holly Springs, North carolina, the only cell-based vaccine facility in the United States, funded in part by the US government and opened with much fanfare in 2009.
But Novartis lost big money on its vaccine division—US$165 million of operating losses in 2013 and $250 million in 2012. When cSL announced the acquisition in October 2014, it projected synergies with its existing vaccine business would generate US$75 million annually by 2020.
“They had good assets, and we had the capabilities to turn around the assets. And Paul saw that,” says Steve Marlow, General Manager of cSL Seqirus, the division formed by the integrated operations of the Novartis acquisition and biocSL. “That was a really courageous decision, in my view.”
The influenza vaccine plant in Holly Springs, North Carolina, is the only cell-based vaccine facility in the United States.
When the Novartis deal came together, Steve was running cSL Behring’s manufacturing plant in Kankakee, south of chicago. In 2009, Marlow had helped negotiate a biocSL deal to sell nearly US$200 million of pandemic influenza vaccine to the US government. Paul tapped him to lead the Global Operations turnaround.
Paul saw that the former Novartis plants were under-producing, and he believed that the cSL team could do better. “he gave the cSL Seqirus team the space and the air to make the decisions that we had to make,” Steve says. “he gave us that autonomy, but he held us accountable.”
In 2016, Seqirus posted a net loss of US$350 million in the first full year of operations. The vaccine division broke even two years later. In 2022, it posted a profit of more than US$700 million. Novartis produced only about 4 million vaccine doses at the holly Springs plant in 2014; cSL produced about 50 million doses there in 2022.
Overall, cSL Seqirus produced 135 million doses of influenza vaccine in 2022, including its Fluad product, made through the traditional egg-based method. cSL Seqirus is the world’s second-largest influenza vaccine manufacturer.
“Every year, he gives us an enormous amount of credit [for the success]. he doesn’t take it himself,” Steve says. “he made the decision. he backed the business. That was transformative.”
The Novartis influenza division lost money and under-performed, but Paul saw the potential synergies with CSL’s existing vaccine business. In a turnaround, CSL produced about 50 million doses of influenza vaccine in 2022 at the former Novartis plant in Holly Springs, North Carolina.
In 2022, CSL Plasma opened twenty-seven new plasma centers in the US, completed an AUD$900 million fractionation plant in the Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows, increased the yield of immune globulin from plasma, and improved the experience of plasma donors.
clearly, the cSL commitment to plasma remains as strong as ever, even as the company develops successful biotech products. “We’re a plasma-based biotech. We’re the only company that can use those words together in that order,” Paul says. “We very much still have a heritage of plasma.”
BOOSTING THE BASICS
The need is great. Products from plasma, the liquid portion of blood, are a lifeline for patients with blood clotting and immune disorders, certain infectious diseases, blood or fluid loss, and many rare diseases, such as alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency. They cannot be fully replaced by current biotech therapies.
Yet while demand for plasma products is rising, global collection has been variable—and particularly affected by pandemic disruptions. Patients face health risks due to shortages of immune globulin (antibodies that fight infection), albumin (to replace blood volume), and proteins that treat a range of rare and serious diseases.
The new CSL Plasma Center in Kankakee, Illinois, is the first location at a CSL manufacturing site.
cSL Plasma continues to innovate to improve plasma collection and gain efficiency in plasma processing. The company now has about 340 centers globally, including Europe, china, and hungary. The Broadmeadows facility will process up to 9.2 million plasma equivalent liters a year, a nine-fold increase from current production capacity.
While the technology to collect and fractionate plasma is state-of-the-art, the plasma business itself is more than a century old. Paul’s leadership reflected a deep appreciation for that history. “The plasma business continues to be sustainable and critically important because there are certain terrible human afflictions that can only be treated with plasma products,” explains cSL Board member Andrew cuthbertson, who is former R&D Director and chief Scientific Officer.
Paul, who managed plasma operations earlier in his career, understands what it takes to run plasma centers—and why they are so important. “he really appreciates the employees and the donors because he’s so emotionally attached to the patients,” says Michelle Meyer, Vice President of cSL Plasma Global Operations. “The patients are everything to Paul.”
To meet the growing global demand for plasma-based medicines, in December 2022 CSL opened a AUS$900 million, state-of-the-art fractionation facility in the Melbourne, Australia, suburb of Broadmeadows.
CSL is committed not just to the health of its patients, but to the health of the planet, too. It backs up that commitment with a detailed action plan. cSL formed its Sustainability Strategy around three pillars: environment, social, and sustainable workforce. Ten focus areas describe the company’s priorities, and each have a set of goals and accomplishments. They include reducing waste, increasing efficiency in the supply chain, and engaging employees to give and volunteer in their communities.
“As we grow our business, we aim to do so without expanding our environmental footprint,” Paul explained at cSL’s 2022 annual meeting.
SUSTAINING THE PLANET
Sustainability is embedded in the design of new facilities. For example, the new cell-based influenza vaccine manufacturing facility in the Melbourne suburb of Tullamarine was built to use renewable energy that is generated onsite. That means less reliance on fossil fuels. The facility also will recover heat from waste management processes and reclaim and recycle water.
cSL Behring manufacturing sites reclaim the ethanol that is used as a solvent in processing plasma into medicines; for example, about 77 percent of the ethanol used at the Bern, Switzerland, site is recycled. The Bern buildings are heated using waste heat from the manufacturing process and cooling systems—saving one thousand tons of carbon emissions every year. cSL Behring in Bern is a partner company in the Bern Economy climate Platform, a network of private and public institutions committed to sustainable development.
As CEO, Paul Perreault was known for creating robust growth. He did it with a commitment to sustainable practices.
cSL aims to reduce its overall energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and water usage. Its 2030 goal is to reduce Scope 1 (onsite burning of fossil fuels) and Scope 2 (purchased electricity) greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent, compared to a baseline of average annual emissions in Fiscal Years 2019 to 2021. It also aims to work with suppliers that account for two-thirds of Scope 3 (indirect) emissions to set Scope 1 and Scope 2 targets that are aligned with best practices.
cSL’s Sustainability Strategy also encompasses global humanitarian and community improvement efforts and the company’s focus on creating an engaged and diverse workforce.
The sustainability goals are ambitious but achievable, says chief Financial Officer joy Linton, who chairs the Sustainability Executive committee. “We didn’t come out with our targets until we had a clear roadmap of how we were going to get there,” she says.
CSL Behring in Bern, Switzerland, uses energy-efficient boilers and heats buildings using waste heat from the manufacturing process and cooling systems—saving one thousand tons of carbon emissions every year.
Paul’s vision for CSL extends far beyond his tenure. The focus on patients is the driving force behind the company’s sustainable, profitable growth, and the company’s values are imbedded in its business strategy. cSL employees will continue to be “chief patient officers.”
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Strategy 2030 gives shape to that future. It puts patients and public health at the center with a product focus on seven areas: immunology, hematology, transplant, respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic, influenza/viral disease, and nephrology/dialysis.
“We have this beautiful strategy,” says Bill campbell, chief commercial Officer. “We’ve got alignment between the Board and the Executive committee and, by definition, the broad organization.”
Paul also steered cSL away from pharma trends that don’t fit within the company’s core platforms. For example, when cSL identified a monoclonal antibody that showed promise in preventing relapse of acute myeloid leukemia in high-risk patients, the company licensed it to janssen Biotech. Oncology isn’t in the cSL wheelhouse, and focusing on its strengths has been one of cSL’s secrets of success.
After the acquisition, there was a smooth transition from Vifor Pharma to CSL
The Vifor Pharma acquisition, by contrast, complements cSL’s industry-leading work in blood disorders and rare diseases. The new entity, cSL Vifor, is a world leader in iron replacement and renal therapies and Vifor Fresenius Medical care Renal Pharma (a joint venture with Fresenius Medical care) has a global network of more than 4,000 dialysis clinics providing care to 340,000 patients.
Paul has often described cSL strategy in the context of the company’s roots. “The future is still dependent on many of the basics that we started with cSL, and that is research and development, bringing these products translationally to patients who need them across the world,” he said at the celebration of cSL’s centenary in 2016.
The work requires patience. Many medicines of the future are still in early stages of development, innovation that is shaped by the company’s culture and commitment.
“I am absolutely certain that the fundamentals of our business are strong and the diversity of our pipeline is rich,” Paul told investors in 2022. “This really sets up cSL to build on our track record of sustainable growth for years to come.”
Vifor.
CSL’s products focus on seven areas: immunology, hematology, transplant, respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic, influenza/viral disease, and nephrology/dialysis.
DRIVEN BY OUR PROMISE
DELIVERING ON PATIENT-FOCUSED LEADERSHIP
Going global is satisfying, but that’s not the goal. The goal is to take care of patients around the globe.
—Paul Perreault
Paul often explains that CSL is global because that’s where you’ll find patients in need. CSL’s global footprint expanded during his tenure as CEO, as he traveled tirelessly to meet patients and visit CSL operations. Research and development take place in nine countries. Manufacturing occurs in Australia, the US, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and China. But CSL serves customers—patients—in more than 100 countries and counting. It isn’t just about growing the business. Through its humanitarian access program, CSL donates life-saving products to patients in developing countries.
A GLOBAL FOOTPRINT
On one of his many trips, Paul tours the vaccine manufacturing plant in Holly Springs, North Carolina, and talks to Board members and the leadership team.
Paul likes to say that many other biopharma companies operate internationally, but cSL works globally. cSL operations in 40-plus countries—serving patients in more than 100 countries—are all part of an integrated whole.
Different time zones pose just one challenge. Paul believes in the importance of personal connections, and he was on the road more than two hundred days a year to make good on that commitment— much of it in Australia, but also to visit cSL locations, partners, or customers on every continent except Antarctica.
It was challenging to keep up that travel pace and still be present for his family, but Paul made a point of calling home every day and putting family events—including the significant activities of his son and daughter—on his calendar, says his wife, Bev. “No matter how busy he is, he will stop whatever he is doing and give you his full attention, being fully present for you,” she says.
From the cSL Behring business unit’s headquarters office in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, Executive Assistant Amy Mccullen managed his logistics to make the travel as smooth as possible. She kept a tight rein on his calendar. (cheryl Raniszewski became Paul’s Executive Assistant in Pennsylvania when Amy retired in 2021.)
“his schedule was booked out for at least a year, all the time,” Amy says. “Some appointments were made more than two years in advance.”
In cSL’s Melbourne headquarters, Executive Assistant Raewynn McIntyre marveled at how Paul could soldier through the jet lag—with his good humor intact. “he may arrive on a Sunday, he’s in the office on Monday, doing everything that he would have as if he had been here forever,” she says.
The travel wasn’t just for top-level meetings. Amy recalls often ordering lunch for the employees of plasma centers because Paul wanted to drop by for an informal visit. “That was important to him,” she says. “he felt that they’re the ones who keep our company going.”
he mingled with sales representatives at product launches and attended circle of Excellence trips awarded to top performers.
Regular morning workouts helped him keep his stamina, but of course the travel was grueling. Being cEO wasn’t a job he was willing to do from a desk chair. he told Bev, “I have to be there for the patients.”
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
“No matter how busy he is, he will stop whatever he is doing and give you his full attention, being fully present for you,” says Paul’s wife, Bev.
With half-timbered houses, cobblestone streets, and a castle on a hill, Marburg, Germany, seems suspended in time. But beyond the picturesque town center, this city north of Frankfurt is a center of research—and part of cSL’s historic commitment to public health and its spirit of innovation.
R&D AROUND THE GLOBE
The new R&D hub in Marburg, Germany, is a centerpiece of CSL’s global investment in transformative research.
German bacteriologist Emil von Behring, a professor at the University of Marburg, received the first Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1901 for his discovery that serum from infected animals could confer protection against diphtheria. Prior to his discovery, thousands of children died every year of diphtheria. More than a century later, in 2022, cSL inaugurated its €150 million R&D hub in Marburg, a centerpiece of cSL’s global investment in transformative research that features open co-working spaces to foster collaboration.
That same year, cSL opened a new research facility in Waltham, Massachusetts, that focuses on next-generation sa-mRNA vaccine technology. cSL scientists work on early-stage research at the Bio21 Institute in Melbourne and the new cSL global headquarters nearby will bring together product development teams in state-of-the-art laboratories and accommodate external collaboration.
In all, two thousand-plus cSL employees work on research and development in Australia, china, Germany, japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States.
Why is R&D spread across different continents? It stems from cSL’s truly global approach. “I firmly believe that diversity of thought is the most important diversity in research and development,” says Bill Mezzanotte, head of R&D and chief Medical Officer. People working in different geographic locations—with different academic partners—share their unique perspectives.
Ultimately, the global scope benefits patients, says Markus Staempfli, Vice President and General Manager of Global commercial Operations. “The most important mission we have at cSL is to deliver on our promise to patients,” he says.
“And as these patients are global, and not only in the US or Europe, we need to have a global footprint.”
CSL takes a truly global approach to research and development. Two thousand-plus CSL employees work on research and development in Australia, China, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States.
CSL is committed to meeting patient needs wherever they are, and no nation has greater demand for plasma-derived products than china. It is the fast-growing market for immunoglobulin and is second only to the United States in volume use.
cSL has supplied albumin for decades; it opened an office in china in 2009 to support the albumin sales. But plasma products other than albumin can’t be imported to china.
In 2017, Paul brought a proposal to the cSL Board to purchase an 80 percent stake in the chinese plasma fractionator Wuhan Zhong Yuan Rui De Biological Products. The deal would cost US$352 million, but the potential was huge: cSL estimated the plasma products market in china reached US$3.3 billion in 2016 and was growing at 15 percent a year. The chinese also had much to gain, as cSL’s plasma expertise could improve their ability to provide these life-saving products.
The discussion about this opportunity was robust, recalls former Board chair john Shine. cSL would have full operational control of the Ruide facility and four plasma collection stations in central china, with the potential to achieve 100 percent ownership. But political and cultural differences would be challenging to navigate.
competitors have entered the chinese market, as well, but the Ruide deal provided a strong foothold. cSL was able to launch new plasma products in china and saw continued growth in albumin sales, even during the pandemic.
In fiscal year 2022, cSL’s business in china generated US$745 million in revenue.
“I imagine in the long run that will be one of the many legacies that Paul will have left because he has a great ability to look to the future,” john says.
WHY CSL WENT TO CHINA
Wuhan, China, is home to a CSL manufacturing hub.
In 2017, CSL purchased an 80 percent stake in the Chinese plasma fractionator Wuhan Zhong Yuan Rui De Biological Products.
People with hemophilia in developing countries often remain undertreated; they lack access to the vital clotting factors that prevent painful and disabling bleeds. Even when the World Federation of hemophilia launched a humanitarian aid program in 1996, there was a sizeable gap between the availability of product donations and the significant patient need.
ENSURING ‘TREATMENT FOR ALL’
Alain Baumann, CEO of the World Federation of Hemophilia, lauds Paul’s “commitment to the global hemophilia cause.”
Paul changed that by arranging a multi-year commitment for cSL to provide two million international units (IU) of Factor VIII per year. having a stable source of donations enabled the federation to plan timely treatments in its global network, which now encompasses 147 countries. cSL’s prominent humanitarian commitment also encouraged other corporations to make donations.
Over the years, cSL’s donations grew. From 2009 to 2022, cSL donated about 88 million IUs. Beginning in 2023, cSL will supply 100 million IUs per year for 5 years, for a total of 500 million IUs. cSL is also supporting training and logistics costs to improve diagnosis of bleeding disorders in developing countries.
“All of this would not have been possible without Paul’s commitment to the global hemophilia cause and his personal intervention to move things forward,” says Alain Baumann, cEO of the World Federation of hemophilia.
cSL has provided financial support to the American Red cross and makes other donations of plasma-derived products—for example, in response to natural disasters.
This reflects cSL’s values, says Markus Staempfli, Vice President and General Manager of Global commercial Operations. “Paul is not someone just following the money. Paul is someone who follows the patients,” Markus says. “he wants to make a difference wherever possible.”
CSL product donations to the World Federation of Hemophilia support access to life-saving medicines.
By the numbers, Paul Perreault’s achievements at CSL are powerful. In fiscal year 2022 alone, cSL produced 135 million doses of influenza vaccine, opened 27 new plasma centers, invested US$1.15 billion in research and development, and gained 24 new product registrations or indications around the globe. cSL products improve the lives of millions of people.
DELIVERING ON THE PROMISE
And yet an important part of Paul’s legacy is what he kept the same. In the words of Mike Deem, who worked his way from a donor room assistant in a plasma center to Global head of cSL Behring Operations and stayed at cSL his entire career: “The only constant within cSL is change— the business continues to change, evolve, and grow. But the one thing that I would say over my 34 years that really hasn’t changed is our overall values and culture. And that’s probably one of the biggest reasons I’m still here.”
Paul deftly steered cSL into the future while staying true to its long-standing commitments. “This company has transformed so dramatically under Paul’s leadership, and it was done in a thoughtful, strategic way,” says chief corporate Affairs & communications Officer Anthony Farina.
As CEO, Paul delivered on his promise to patients, employees, collaborative partners, and shareholders.
Paul consistently modeled collaboration, innovation, patient focus, integrity, and superior performance. “Paul is really just one of the true gentlemen,” says Amy Mccullen, his former Executive Assistant in the King of Prussia office. “he has the funniest sense of humor, and he is very compassionate towards patients. Everything he does is focused on ‘how do we continue to improve the quality of people’s lives?’”
While leading a company that grew from about 11,000 employees in 2013 to more than 32,000 in 2023, he remained engaging, passionate, and down to earth. “I’m pleased to say that the qualities I saw in him back in Wyeth [about 30 years ago] were the same qualities he exhibited as cEO here at this company,” says Bob Lojewski, General Manager of North America commercial Operations. “he didn’t lose who he was.”
Paul’s mission was always clear: “My motivation is to get up every day, get out to work, and make sure the patients are going to have access to our therapies.” In his decade as cEO, Paul delivered on that promise.
“Everything [Paul] does is focused on ‘How do we continue to improve the quality of people’s lives?’” says former Executive Assistant Amy McCullen.
