Pharmaceuticals and life sciences
Dr Marijn Dekkers shares his views on innovation, local market differences, and the experience gap in the emerging markets.
Pharma and life sciences CEOs are pinning their hopes for growth on innovation. They’re looking to new technologies and alliances with other organisations to help them innovate, and they’re targeting the emerging markets of China and Brazil, in particular. What else did they tell us?
Pharma and life sciences CEOs are focusing on innovationQuotes
Dr Marijn Dekkers
Chairman, Bayer AG View profile
The business case for innovation is increasing, but as I often say, the easy stuff has been done. For innovations to be meaningfully better requires more insight into the fundamentals of science.
Dr Marijn Dekkers
Chairman, Bayer AG View profile
[...] what’s most important is that you really come up with great innovations that truly benefit your customers - whether they are for patients, farmers, or automotive manufacturers.
Dr Marijn Dekkers
Chairman, Bayer AG View profile
In countries that have particular medical requirements, one must find innovations that are customised for those countries. For example, in China and India, you have, respectively, two hundred million and one hundred million farmers cultivating small plots. By way of contrast, in Brazil, farms, on average, are more than a thousand times larger than those in China. The product requirements of a small farmer versus a large farmer are very different, so we have to customise our product development to meet the needs of each. The lesson here is that in order to bring products to market that meet the exacting needs of the consumer. One must be very close to the consumer.
Dr Marijn Dekkers
Chairman, Bayer AG View profile
We are very focused on sustainability, not just with our products in order to ensure that they are safe and have no negative effect on the environment or on patients’ health - but also in terms of our own production capability.
Dr Marijn Dekkers
Chairman, Bayer AG View profile
[...] what is interesting and what is changing is that among Western companies, the ability to hire, develop, and retain talent in the developing economies has become a major point of competitive differentiation. There are years when we hire more than 1,500 people in China. Where can we find them? How do to train them? They are all very young and inexperienced. In terms of competitiveness, the capacity to recruit in developing economies wasn’t significant 10 – 20 years ago. But it is now.
- Simon Friend
- Global Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences Industry Leader
- Tel: +44 20 7213 4875
- Sara Solomon
- Global Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences Business Development & Marketing
- Tel: +44 20 7804 1014
