Getting to know Merck Canada’s new hired gun

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Q&A: GeTTInG To knoW CHI MerCk Canada’s neW rf HI I GuIndo, red Gun

Chirfi Guindo has only been the president and managing director for Merck Canada Inc. for nine months and already he has big plans for Merck’s Canadian outfit. Biotechnology Focus goes oneon-one with Mr. Guindo to discuss what’s in store for the Pharma giant’s Canadian subsidiary.

Q: How familiar were you with Canada before taking on the role of president and general manager of Merck Canada Inc. and how have you enjoyed your transition to the role?

I had visited Canada as a tourist before taking the job, but to be honest I can’t say that I knew much about Canada. It is my first real business engagement with the country, but I’m enjoying it. It’s a great country that is much more diverse than I expected. When you’re sitting in Europe, where I spent most of my adult years or New Jersey, you see Canada as a single country. What I’ve discovered is Canada based on the geography and the fact that the provinces are very distinct and have a lot of autonomy, particularly in our field of healthcare; it is very similar to Europe in a regional sense. What has been surprising is the magnitude of great innovation and science taking place across the country.

Q: Takes us through your responsibilities as president and managing director of Merck Canada Inc.?

My job here as head of the Canadian organization of Merck is really about being an ambassador for Canada, vis-à-vis our head office in New Jersey. This is a big part of my job. In other words, as many multinationals, you’re dealing with a competition model. Canada competes with Germany, France, Italy, and markets in Asia and elsewhere. My job as the head of the Canadian Merck subsidiary is to defend the business case for continued development in Canada. Equally important obviously is to help create an environment in Canada which will help Merck further grow our business interests, all the way from research to the commercialization of products. The third component is my role as leader of the team at Merck Canada. This is very much like cheerleading, the guy who makes sure we’re all working towards one common goal and that we inspire our teams to achieve more, and we remember that we’re all doing it for Canadian patients.

Q: Merck has long history in Canada, but its business model and commitment here has also changed over the years. How would you say Merck in Canada stacks up with other subsidiaries within the greater company?

Even though our headquarters in Canada are based in Québec, our activities really are nationwide. In fact, roughly half of our research money spent in terms of our ongoing clinical research that we do in Canada, is spent in Ontario. We have approximately 975 employees nationwide. Moreover we are highly invested across Canada in various sponsorships and partnerships in both a business and science sense. I might also add that Canada within the global network of Merck subsidiaries is one of highest recipients of research money in our company and also one of the most productive. In terms of research money spent, it ranks right up there with what is spent in Germany. I think the most important reason why is the fact that Canada does deliver in terms of return on investment. It has a great concentration of knowledge workers, scientists and researchers in our field and a tradition of excellence. You find that in Québec, Ontario, on the west coast in British Columbia and all over the country really.

Q: What is your vision for Merck Canada Inc.?

A: I’m still relatively new to Canada, and I realize that people tend to associate Merck in Canada as being a Québec-focused company. I can’t stress enough that our focus and interests in fact stretch across the country. As an example, we are always looking for new innovative science and technology opportunities, and that take us all over Canada. In fact, we have scouts on the ground like Steven Xanthoudakis who spends as much time in Ontario and British Columbia as he does in Québec and New Jersey. We’re also looking for new ways to work together with industry and government, taking a collaborative approach in finding sustainable ways to expand access to innovation in healthcare. This is what I’ve tried to do in my time with Merck, forging stronger partnerships between the government and industry as I have done in the past as managing director for South Africa and the Netherlands and I believe we can accomplish this here.

Q: What lessons have you learned elsewhere in your other roles around the world that you want to bring to this position?

I have learned that if we as an industry are not able to look at long-range challenges that payors are facing, if we’re not able to really sit down and work collaboratively on encouraging or promoting access in a way that also assures sustainability objectives like budgets that these payors have, then we’re not going to be successful. What I have learned in other markets is exactly that: put yourself in the shoes of the payors, the regulators, and try to understand their issues, and then come up with, proposals and potential solutions, co-create those solutions in fact. That, to me is the only way forward.

Q: What are some challenges that you’re facing as a pharma company operating globally and are they different than the ones you now face here in Canada?

Globally, the number one challenge is to continue to discover new molecules and technologies that are truly differentiated. Our business model needs that in order to be sustainable. The second one is to get those new discoveries to patients as quickly as possible. This is where you get into some of the challenges with regards

to access to new drugs, with getting priority reviews where needed by the regulators and getting reimbursement agencies to work more rapidly. In areas like cancer for instance, some patients have very limited options as there are important unmet medical needs. Likewise, the challenge for us is to work with regulators and provincial governments to get these new discoveries assessed more rapidly and made available in a sustainable fashion. We understand the challenges of budgets that governments are dealing with in all countries, not just in Canada, and so I think our challenge as an industry is to think outside of the box and to sit at the table with these decision-makers and fi nd ways to get these discoveries to patients. Those are the two that come to mind as being the greatest challenges globally.

Regarding Canada, as I’ve mentioned, its diversity is very good in a sense but this diversity comes with its own set of challenges. For example, the fact that provinces have a lot of autonomy can also slow down processes. As such, in regards to access or the adoption of new therapies or technologies, there are signifi cant differences across provinces and it makes the Canadian market very fragmented. If you’re looking at the country from the outside in, and this is very much how our CEO’s at the global level look at countries, comparing Canada to Germany, France or other big markets, typically you fi nd that if you’re launching new technologies in Canada, your adoption rates tend to be much lower than what you would see in those comparable countries. That’s a unique challenge to doing business in Canada and I think to successfully overcome this challenge, we must work collaboratively with regulators, as well as the provincial and federal governments in Canada.

Q: Conversely, what are the opportunities of doing business in Canada?

If you look at the global ranking in terms of scientifi c excellence, Canada is right up there. The opportunity really would be for greater collaboration across provinces in order to put Canada in an even stronger position globally as a hub of research. Other opportunities really have to do with innovation in other areas. For example, having lived for many years in the Netherlands, France, in the U.S., I have been very impressed at how receptive decision makers here are in comparison, from the poli-

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ticians down, to sitting around the table and trying to collaboratively address issues in Canada. So that’s an opportunity. What I would like to see more of are approaches where we as an industry would experiment different models of pricing, different models of access to new technologies and new drugs. I have a sense that Canada could be an ideal place that links the U.S. and Europe. If you wanted to start something in the U.S., you would do it in Canada fi rst. If you wanted to do something in Europe, Canada would be a great proxy for that as well. I’ve talked to my team about ways of thinking outside of the box and piloting ideas around sustainable pricing, around sustainable access models, and so in addition to the great science here, I see the potential for innovation in several other areas.

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/ qa-getting-to-know-chirfi -guindomerck-canadas-new-hired-gun

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