Takeda will lead industry with focus on Oncology

Looking inside the head of BUDs at multinational pharmaceutical companies- Sun Jin Lee, Head of Oncology BU at Takeda Pharmaceuticals Korea

Understanding patients is of utmost priority in marketing anticancer drugs...identifying data comprehensively also important

Launched Exkivity...provided an oral treatment option for patients with Exon20 insertion mutation

A company has achieved evolution through aggressive investment in line with the current trend.

 

Through such evolution, Takeda Pharmaceuticals has become renowned as a 'Big Pharma' rather than a 'Japanese company' from some point.

 

The company had previously focused on OTCs and chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.

 

However, through various small and large M&As, the company quickly secured pipelines for anticancer drugs and rare diseases.

 

Until now, the company conducted four M&As, starting with Millennium Pharmaceutical in 2008, Nycomed in 2012, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals in 2017, then Shire in 2018.

 

As a result, the company has been actively releasing advanced anticancer drugs in the oncology market, including the PARP inhibitor ‘Zejula and the’ EGFR Exon 20 insertion mutation targeting ‘Exkivity.’ Also, the company has made constant progress in treating hematologic cancers with products such as ‘Ninlaro,’ and ‘Adcetris.’ Dailypharm met with Sun Jin Lee, Head of the Oncology Business Unit at Takeda Pharmaceuticals Korea to seek insight into the company’s vision and future.

 

Sun Jin Lee, Head of Oncology BU at Takeda Pharmaceuticals Korea

-Could you give us a brief introduction of yourself? I first started my career in the industry as a peritoneal dialysis Product Manager at Baxter.

 

Since then, I also was in charge of high blood pressure treatment products for 3 years and then served as a marketing manager for the circulatory system division for 3 years at Boehringer Ingelheim.

 

After joining Takeda Pharmaceuticals in 2017, I first worked for over 3 years in the hemophilia BU and was involved in the domestic launch of ‘Adynovate,’ etc.

 

After that, I was assigned to Takeda’s Asia-Pacific office and worked in Singapore for 1 year.

 

Last year, I returned to Korea after being appointed the head of Oncology BU at Takeda Pharmaceuticals Korea.

 

In other words, I have worked in marketing throughout my entire career in the pharmaceutical industry.

 

- Takeda has been known to have undergone many changes.

 

In the Oncology BU, the role of its head would have increased significantly with the reimbursement listing and prescriptions of the company’s oncology products.

 

What area did you focus most greatly on last year? I have been with the Oncology BU for about 7 months now.

 

As the head of the BU, I feel the greatest responsibility in performance delivery.

 

This is the basic goal for all business units.

 

Takeda’s fiscal year begins in April, therefore we are in our last quarter right now.

 

Currently, we are focusing on achieving the performance target we set for the last year.

 

My next area of focus was in strengthening the organization.

 

After being assigned to the unit, I had a certain observation period, then focused on strengthening the internal capability of our unit.

 

So I am focusing externally on performance, and internally on our human resources.

 

In particular, only one manager had been assigned to manage all our oncology products despite our increasing portfolio.

 

So we appointed additional managers and divided the work by disease area to increase efficiency.

 

- What do you think is the most important competency required to be a marketer in the Oncology BU? Brand managers (BMs) in each unit have their own strengths and weaknesses as well as various abilities.

 

Having experienced Primary Care and rare diseases firsthand, I believe anticancer drug brand managers should basically have an underlying respect for the patients and their life.

 

In the Oncology BU, we consider various activities such as patient programs and directions to improve access to treatments.

 

Many of these programs cannot be carried out if we are profit-focused or sales-focused.

 

Therefore, I thought it would be difficult for our managers to understand how we carry out our activities if they do not have experience and patient-centricity at heart.

 

Also, our managers need to have the ability to quickly acquire, examine widely, and draw out the essence of the flood of information.

 

There is always a lot of up-to-date data on anticancer drugs.

 

So you have to be able to read out the trend of the entire therapeutic area, including those about competing drugs.

 

Otherwise, you will not be able to communicate with healthcare professionals.

 

sb-The word all-comer is mentioned often during discussions on the reimbursement of anticancer drugs in Korea.

 

Zejula was one representative example of such a drug last year, and more are expected to come this year.

 

However, Korea has been conservative in reviewing these drugs for being less effective and having lower-level results. That is a very difficult issue.

 

Our primary consideration is what will benefit the patient the most.

 

This is also true on the doctors’ part.

 

Pharmaceutical companies obtain permission based on clinical data and then promote drugs based on approved indications.

 

And this will continue to be the same in the future.

 

Doctors as clinicians will use the drug when they feel that the drug is beneficial and needed by the patient.

 

The decision is entirely at the discretion of the doctor.

 

- Exkivity was released this month and is receiving much attention from academic societies.

 

The company would also have rising expectations for the product. Exkivity was approved in Korea last July and released on the 1st of this month.

 

One significant aspect of the release is that we released the drug for the first time in Asia in Korea.

 

Also, Korea is the 5th country in the world to obtain marketing authorization for Exkivity.

 

Being the first oral anticancer drug that targets the EGFR exon 20 insertion mutation, we expect eligible patients to benefit greatly from our release.