“Novartis will lead the provision of innovative medicines”

based on its innovative organizational structure

Byungjae Yoo, General Manager of Novartis Korea

“Will create a purpose-driven company rather than goal-oriented company”

“Improving access to ultra-high-priced new drugs is an issue that needs to be resolved through dialogue”

Byungjae Yoo, General Manager of Novartis Korea

The Korean subsidiary of Novartis underwent a period of turmoil last year.

 

The company integrated its Pharmaceuticals and Oncology business units in line with the reorganization policy set by its global headquarters.

 

Before then, the company had been operating 2 separate business units independently under one name.

 

The two units had separate support departments including marketing·sales departments as well as drug pricing·government relations·approval departments.

 

Through the integration process, all of these departments were merged into single departments with one head.

 

As a result, layoffs were made and the head of the integrated subsidiary was appointed for the first time since the company’s establishment.

 

The fact that a Korean representative was appointed to head this first-ever integrated Novartis Korea was also a big change.

 

Since its establishment in 1997 and the first president Frans Hompe, the company had mostly appointed foreign heads to lead the Korean subsidiary, including Jean-Luc Scalabre in 1998, Peter Maag in 2003, Andrin Oswald in 2006, Peter Jager in 2008, Brian Galdsden in 2014, and most recently, Joshi Venugopal.

 

The only Korean national that had been appointed until now was Hak-sun Moon in 2015.

 

Dailypharm met with Byungjae Yoo, General Manager of Novartis Korea, who first-handly lead the company through this momentous change.

 

- You were appointed General Manager of Novartis Korea’s Pharmaceutical division in 2021, and then the General Manager of the integrated Novartis Korea last year.

 

What have you been focusing on in the company amid the various changes that had been made last year? My prime focus was on finding the role and direction for Novartis Korea in the changing global pharmaceutical industry.

 

For this, I reviewed much research and consulting reports on the global pharmaceutical industry over the past year.

 

Also, I discussed Novartis’s strategic priorities and Korea's role with our global head office and region managers.

 

Secondly, I tried to connect with our employees and find out what the employees wanted and how to satisfy such desires.

 

After various discussions, I came to the conclusion that Novartis Korea as a company excelled in being ‘goal-oriented,’ but needed to make more effort in being ’purpose-driven.’ Ultimately, I want Novartis Korea to become a purpose-driven company rather than a goal-oriented company.

 

-The Pharmaceuticals and Oncology business units were integrated last year.

 

What was the purpose of the integration and what is your future direction? The biggest purpose of integrating the business units was to ‘do what we do best.’ As so many companies exist in the pharmaceutical industry, each company needs to find its areas of specialty, such as generic drugs or specialty drugs.

 

Also, the needs of each society or patient are also different.

 

Therefore, Novartis decided to integrate its business units to do what it does best – ‘ to overcome diseases’ – and focus on its 5 core therapeutic areas (cardiovascular, immunology, neuroscience, solid tumors, and hematology) to bring synergistic effects.

 

-What is Novartis Korea’s business goal for this year? From 2018 to 2022, Novartis has had one of the most extensive and innovative pipelines among global pharmaceutical companies.

 

Therefore, the company’s priority this year is to increase patient access to its innovative treatments.

 

We plan to discuss how to increase patient access to such innovative treatments within the limited National Health Insurance budget with experts and reach a social consensus on the measures derived.

 

Also, we plan to continue working with domestic companies and startups.

 

We plan to actively support Korean companies that wish to enter the global market through discussions with our head office.

 

-When setting the 1-year business plan, what products have you set as a priority? Among the newly launched products, therapies that are not yet sufficiently supplied to patients in need will likely be given priority.

 

These include Entresto, Cosentyx, Kisqali, Scemblix, Zolgensma, and Kymriah.

 

-The company received much attention, both good and bad, for successfully listing ultra-high-priced drugs such as Zolgensma, and Kymriah for reimbursement in Korea last year.

 

I heard you have other formidable new drugs awaiting release in your pipeline.

 

Could you share your plans for the future? Novartis is not afraid to take risks in developing new drugs for incurable diseases.

 

This is why the company has a higher probability of developing new drugs as well as a high R&D cost.

 

therefore, we will also need to make efforts to reduce such costs while developing new drugs.

 

Patients talk of how a ray of hope shone through in their desperate situation with the introduction of a new drug.

 

I think access to innovative treatments that address existing unmet needs has been strengthened in general in Korea.

 

However, a lot of discussions are still needed on how to address the resulting increase in social cost.

 

The issue cannot be resolved by just strengthening one part while sacrificing others.

 

Therefore, I plan to continue discussions with relevant parties to devise measures that fit the situation.

 

-Do you have plans in place to improve access to ultra-high-priced drugs in Korea? I think making dialogues will be the answer to finding ways to improve treatment access to such drugs.

 

In the past, when Korea’s health expenditure amount of the total GDP had not been as high as other advanced countries and NHI finances were not in deficit, the patient's medical needs were a decisive factor in determining reimbursement.

 

However, that time has passed, and much discussion is now required for any reimbursement.

 

If experts provide opinions on how to finance the national health insurance and the pros and cons, including whether to finance the NHI through funds, private insurance, or bring in other sources of finances other than the NHI, we could provide opinions from the pharmaceutical company’s perspective and seek out solutions together.