Seizing career opportunities during the pandemic
Sandra Heller talks about professional growth (400 words, 2.5 min)
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“The reality of small organizations is there’s this constant evolution that we need to go through,” said Sandra Heller, General Manager of Seagen Canada, speaking on the National Pharmaceutical Congress podcast.
Heller (photo below) shared her perspective on both seizing career opportunities and running a small company during the pandemic.
Seagen was formerly known as Seattle Genetics. “In 2020, when we decided to change the name of the company,” Heller said, “the impetus was to shift focus to the international scale. It was no longer just a Seattle-based organization or a US-based one.”
“The company is over twenty years old and has really focused on biotechnology, with ADCs [antibody drug conjugates] being in the foreground—very exciting technology that was developed by the Seattle Genetics team,” she explained. “A number of companies are now actually using that technology, so it’s gone beyond just Seattle Genetics. We’ve moved from being a one-product company to having multiple products now commercialized, including here in Canada.”
“When I took on this role [in June 2020], not only were we going through the pandemic, believe it or not, we were launching our second product,” she said. “I think what ended up happening is that it provided an opportunity to be very laser-focused and to think about the things we really have to do, and to do those right, and honestly let go of the other things.”
It made the company take a strict approach,” she said, “and I think we fared quite well as an organization during this ongoing pandemic.”
Heller described these challenges as a learning opportunity. “On some levels,” she said, “when you’re a small organization, you don’t have much of a choice [but to learn].”
“With our Canadian leadership team, we could all tell you we learned something new in the last two years, and we’ve all been in the industry fifteen-plus years,” she said.
At small companies like Seagen Canada, Heller said it can be hard to find opportunities for upward promotion in the traditional sense, but instead there are many ways to learn and grow in breadth of experience. “You can learn a lot by integrating yourself with other departments within the organization,” she said.
Looking ahead, “we’re going to continue to have an evolution that’s going to happen [in healthcare],” Heller said, “and we’re going to find ways of perhaps all being better about things like work-life balance.”
THIS WEEK 05/10/22
Najah Sampson has been named President of Pfizer Canada, effective May 16, 2022. Sampson will be succeeding Cole Pinnow, who held the position since January 2020. Prior to this role, Sampson was Vice President, Global Genitourinary Franchise Lead for Pfizer Oncology. She is the first woman to be appointed as President of Pfizer Canada.
Knight Therapeutics announced that they have entered an exclusive license, distribution and supply agreement with Helsinn Healthcare for AKYNZEO oralIV (netupitantpalonosetron fosnetupitantpalonosetron) in Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, and ALOXI oralIV (palonosetron) in Canada.
Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Canada announced that Health Canada accepted the filing of a Supplement to a New Drug Submission (SNDS) for an investigational oral formulation of edaravone (MT-1186) for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Health Canada has also granted a Priority Review, which is expected to speed up the review process.
Gedeon Richter and Searchlight Pharma announced that Searchlight has assumed all Canadian distribution and promotional activities for Evra, a transdermal contraceptive patch. Richter acquired the ex-US rights to the Evra brand from Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, in December 2020.
A new report revealed that Canadians have spent over $669 per person on prescription drugs since 2019, which is the fourth highest in the world. The research, conducted by NiceRx, also revealed the countries spending the most and least on prescription drugs, as well as how prescription drug spending has changed over time.
LISTEN NOW
In Season Seven of the NPC Podcast, Angelique Berg, President and CEO of the Canadian Association for Pharmacy Distribution Management, talks about advancing technology, sharing data among stakeholder groups and managing supply chain disruptions. Hear her in conversation with podcast co-hosts Mitch Shannon, Jim Shea and Mark McElwain.
CANADIAN HEALTHCARE MARKETING HALL OF FAME
The Canadian Healthcare Marketing Hall of Fame awards were established in 2002 to honour healthcare marketers who have contributed to our vocation and inspire others.
More than 100 honourees have been selected during the past 18 years. In the selection committee’s view, they stand for a representative cross-section of the qualities that make our business unique and fulfilling. NPC Healthbiz Weekly will acknowledge one past Hall of Fame Honouree each week.
2006 Inductee
Philip Blake
Toronto
Editor’s Note: Philip retired in 2020.
Philip Blake demonstrates his passion for the pharmaceutical industry in everything he says and does. In fact, his devotion to the advancement of healthcare in Canada is equalled only by his respect for the people who work in
it. Despite a dizzying travel schedule, Blake nevertheless ensures he connects with staff and customers as much as possible. Being the “face” of the company is extremely important, says Blake, who asserts, “You don’t do business by sitting in head office counting invoices and developing strategies. You do business by really being out there and working with policymakers, understanding their issues, talking with our patients/customers, physicians, and being as close as possible to the people within Bayer.”
Blake, who brings 20 years of experience to his post as President and CEO of Bayer Inc.'s Canadian operation, is a die-hard company man, having spent his entire pharma career with the company. In his first job at Bayer in the UK, where he was born, Blake says he spent 10 years doing “every job there is on the commercial side,” before pursuing progressive appointments in Germany, Japan, and the US, where he focused on drug development, marketing, and brand strategy developments.
He concedes, however, that pharma wasn’t his first career choice, having studied medical microbiology at university in the UK, and working in clinical research for several years. With no aspirations to go into medicine, his interest turned to pharma when he realized “the real benefits we could bring to people would be by improving the way treatments are delivered and providing physicians with better choice.”
That continues to be a mandate for Blake who, over the last six years in Canada, has overseen the Consumer Care Division, Diabetes Care Division, Animal Health Division, and Bayer Material Science Division in Canada. Two “exciting” developments are keeping him ultra-busy these days- the separation of the chemical and agricultural divisions from the healthcare side and the recent acquisition of Berlex’s business which Blake says will strengthen Bayer’s healthcare presence significantly. Moreover, the combined pipeline of Bayer and Schering is “certainly one of the strongest in the industry with a large number of Phase I and Phase II products in major areas.”
Blake says he is proud to have been able to build Bayer into one of the top five healthcare companies in Canada, adding, “Sticking to your focus of having strong Rx&D is what’s going to build this industry now and into the future.” Canada, he says, is a country with the greatest opportunities. “It’s nice to see that policymakers and politicians remain very open to working with our industry. Many other countries haven’t developed such a sophisticated relationship,” he observes.
Blake, who is slated to be chairman of Rx&D (now Innovative Medicines Canada) in 2007, is optimistic about building on the work that’s been done by his Rx&D predecessors who he credits with maintaining a cohesive industry approach to working with government and provincial providers. He has “great respect” for the integrated healthcare systems in Canada, adding “We have to help the integrated system provide better access to Canadians for the huge advantages they can now gain from using modern pharmaceuticals. That's the job of our industry.”
NEXT WEEK
In the 05/24 edition of the NPC Healthbiz Weekly, Michel Lavoie, President of Dermtek Pharma, talks about growing up and into the family business, the pandemic’s effect on therapeutic skincare products, and keeping up with clients in an increasingly virtual world. It’s easy to get your no-charge subscription and have the issue sent to your phone or inbox each Tuesday at 6:00 a.m. sharp.
Stay safe, stay sure, and stay on your game. We’ll see you again next week.