6 minute read
Editorial Board
help patients adhere to their medicines. She frequently speaks at leading industry and business conferences, including The Wall Street Journal’s Women in the Economy: An Executive Task Force conference, and has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal. She is a member of the C200—the preeminent organization of women business leaders—the National Association of Female Executives, and the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. Adele is especially proud of receiving the 2012 C200 Luminary Award for Corporate Entrepreneurship.
WHAT CHALLENGES ARE LEFT? PLENTY Adele Gulfo is far from finished. In fact, she has barely taken a breath. At Mylan, she is examining not just basic treatment, but the broader area of assisting patients in improving their health and wellness. Adele is helping COPD patients to manage their condition. She tells us that “One way is by developing phone apps that monitor breathing daily, ask how patients are feeling, and provide feedback to their HCPs.” Another area of focus is diabetes. “Healthcare systems need to make sure these patients stay healthy by adhering to their course of therapy,” she notes. “It’s also in the best interests of the industry, which has had to pay $500 million in penalties for hospital readmissions within 30 days. Patients respond to positive reinforcement, and there are apps that do that, as well.” She points out that the American Heart Association looks for companies that measure clinical data, and have metrics to prove the value of their apps. “Venture capitalists have invested $3 billion in first half of 2017 in digital health, so you know something is working there. We can’t keep blaming cost of medications for non-adherence. There’s a lot more to the equation.”
Advertisement
One of the things that drew her to Mylan was its focus on people. She refers to Mylan’s corporate culture as “wonderfully unconventional” in its dedication to patients. “Mylan is a cause, not just a company.” Evidence of this is that “more 40% of people globally living with HIV/AIDS who are receiving treatment depend on a Mylan product.” Mylan is also active with public policy, advocacy organizations and government, helping to provide access to treatment.
SUPPORTING STEM Not surprisingly, she is also a passionate advocate for women getting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) educational opportunities and going on to work in pharma. Although women are 46% of the U.S. labor force, they comprise only 26% of the STEM workforce, and of course even fewer in the executive ranks. “To address this problem, intervention is required at the grade and high school levels,” Adele says. “Hands-on experience that excites and entices must spark initial interest and make a STEM education a desired pathway for female students. Having obtained their undergraduate and graduate degrees in STEM, we need young women to see female role models who have leveraged their STEM training to secure vital, powerful and influential C-suite roles. If you can’t envision it, you can’t pursue it. I know from firsthand experience, sharing my personal story with female science majors, the dramatic eye-opening impact we can offer.” The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that STEM occupations, on average, earn higher salaries and have higher employment rates than non-STEM jobs. What Adele finds more exciting is that “STEM education and job experience can be leveraged to secure corporate leadership positions and boardroom spots, where we also see a significant shortage of women.” Adele sees this effort as having wide-ranging implications for all of society, not just female STEM students or the healthcare industry. “For example, until women researchers became involved, mastectomies, not lumpectomies, were the mainstay of breast cancer treatment. Without women researchers, we would not know HIV to be the virus that causes
AIDS. Before women scientists engaged in cardiovascular research, it was not considered a major health threat to women. We now know that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women, but drugs were developed for men— animal models used to select and advance drug candidates were not tested in female mice. Yet, pathophysiologically, there are significant differences between men and women that only recently are being explored, again, because of the involvement of women scientists.”
IT BEGAN EARLY How did she become inspired to achieve all this? “When my father, who was a mechanical engineer, observed my interest and aptitude in math and science he quickly became my biggest champion,” she says. “His support of my achievements and positive reinforcement throughout elementary, middle and high school provided the initial catalyst for me to pursue STEM education. This combined with growing up in New Jersey, the ‘nation’s medicine chest,’ made a career in STEM not only attainable, but also, desirable. Again, if you can’t see it, you can’t pursue it.”
She started out at academic institutions and research labs in serious scientific roles, but also saw the importance of understanding the business side of medicine. “My foundation in science gave me the discipline, problem-solving skills and intellectual curiosity to pursue a career in the pharmaceutical industry.” But she got a lot of pushback from people who felt a scientist was not qualified, didn’t understand marketing or sales, and had the wrong skills for corporate leadership. Fortunately, she didn’t take that seriously. She saw how to commercialize products, and, more important, how to expand therapies to larger populations of patients. Going back to school for her MBA, she emerged fully prepared to helm launches of some of the most famous brands we know today. She found her voice in corporate meetings, realizing what skills she could bring to the table—understanding the science and connecting with opinion leaders. Launching Lipitor gave her the insights into how to bring a product to market and assume a strategic role. “It was a heady experience, to influence the life of millions,” she says. That experience motivated Gulfo when she decided to make the jump to Mylan, She was inspired by the company’s mission to deliver better health for a better world. “From my current perspective, I now see the inflection points where intervention can be critical for other women,” she says. “These include advocating for yourself, taking risks, working outside your comfort zone, making personal sacrifices, and most important, seeking the stretch assignments and special projects that get you noticed by a broad range of people in the company.” She has noticed that women frequently don’t ask for what they want or can accomplish in corporate America. Adele believes that this will change with the emerging coterie of role models for STEMinclined women. One of those is Mylan CEO, Heather Bresch, who has inspired Adele. “At Mylan we have a bold mission: to provide the world’s 7 billion people access to high quality medicine. We know this is possible if we continue to encourage half the talent pool not to sit on the sidelines, but to be captains on the field.”
THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY Adele Gulfo has a multi-faceted vi sion for how we must go forward. Just a few of her key observations: • The blockbuster model is not sustainable, and the industry faces heightened regulatory hurdles, pricing pressures, and challenges to its reputation • We are finally moving to more value-based care, which will be supported and enhanced by technology and innovative thinking • Women empowering and supporting one another is more important than ever, and their advancement in all industries will help everyone • She wants to make people inspired to come to work every day. She describes the work they do at Mylan as “personal” and “meaningful” and considers it an honor to be part of a company so aligned with her own values She says of her outlook, “You have to want to save lives around the world. It is not just about your product. You need the powerful culture of a purpose-driven company. That’s the true beauty of Mylan. Making a positive impact around the world really is personal to everyone who works here.” •
