India's Covid vaccination programme stunning: Roche's Hoffmann, Duschmale

'They (the next 125 years) look more challenging than the past 125 years. The world has changed. We have to make quicker decisions'

Members of the founding family of Roche are in India to celebrate 125 years of the global pharmaceutical major. André Hoffmann, vice-chairman of the board of directors at Roche and great grandson of founder Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, along with Jörg Duschmalé, a board member, spoke to Sohini Das & Nivedita Mookerji about innovations at the Swiss multinational, ownership and control, future of medicine, competition, profitability, private jets, and India’s role during the Covid-19 pandemic. Edited excerpts:  

How would you describe the 125-year journey of Roche in terms of learnings and mistakes? 

Hoffmann: If we are talking about the journey, our company is one of the oldest in the world to be working on the issues of health, with patients, and we made more goods than mistakes. We have done this for the past 125 years, and hope to do so in the next 125 years, at least.

What do the next 125 years look like?

Hoffmann: They look more challenging than the past 125 years. The world has changed. We have to make quicker decisions. The front winds are stronger than they were in the past.

Duschmalé: We can look back at 125 years and see how the company has been able to reinvent itself through innovation to stay relevant, while the world around it changed dramatically.

Innovation is key to all pharma companies. How is Roche focused on innovation differently?

Hoffmann: There is a difference in the intentions. At some stage, some companies manage defeat and address issues differently. We are innovating to address unmet needs.

How do you think you are able to separate ownership and executing business efficiently?

Hoffmann: We are the fifth generation in the business. The idea that ownership is an active role needs to be put into practice. One should plan for the long term and allocate roles and responsibilities as clearly as possible. The role of an owner is not the same thing as that of a manager. The manager needs to go into the details of the presentation of strategy; an owner needs to be able to dispose and organise things in the long run.

What kind of strategic changes have you initiated after the pandemic, and what do they mean for India?

Hoffmann: Our strategy has not changed just because the outside conditions have changed. We have been working on a strategy on one side on diagnostics, and on the other side on pharmaceuticals. Diagnostics has demonstrated its value in dealing with public health. We need to go the science way as much as possible. Strategic vision is important, but at times we need to do a reality check.

What are your thoughts on the role of India during Covid19?

Duschmalé: The vaccination programme that India has managed to put together is stunning.

Hoffmann: We are celebrating 125 years of Roche and we also want to see what the world is doing. So, we want to see what a country of 1.4 billion people is doing. Kudos to India for the vaccination programme.

Going forward, what are the plans on anti-virals?

Hoffmann: We want to listen to what the market is telling us, and if we can do anything today that is the need of the patient tomorrow, we would like to do that, for India and for the world.

How are we preparing for the next pandemic?

Hoffmann: Long-term strategic thinking in a company has got to do with two very important things -- one is asset allocation (where do I invest my talents, my know-how, my money, my energy), and second is, once I have taken that decision, how do I de-risk that investment. Before the pandemic, we all knew that there was going to be some kind of pathogen – we had Ebola, SARS etc. We have to prepare for the next pandemic by trying to understand what the next pathogen is going to be, and giving it to the scientific community.

Duschmalé: We have learnt a lot from the previous pandemic – we have learnt the importance of diagnostics.

Hoffmann: American politician Donald Rumsfeld once said there are two things – one is known-unknown and another is unknown-unknown. For the known-unknown we have the capacities, the flexibilities etc. But, for the unknown-unknown, I don’t know who is prepared for that.

How do you look at competition?

Hoffmann: From a distance (laughs)…Be open to new ideas. If people do it differently, be receptive to that. I don’t think competition should dictate our behaviour. At a personal level, if I am constantly looking at how other people are doing, then I am creating frustration, which I am not keen to do.

Duschmalé: At a company level, being headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, which is also the headquarters of Novartis, it’s important to be used to dialogue with competition. Competition is an important part of striving for excellence.

Capitalism and philanthropy – how do they go together?

Hoffmann: For a long time, it was like you do what you have to do to make money, and when you make money, you give a little bit to philanthropy. I completely disagree with that. If I want to be efficient, a well-managed and socially responsible company is a much more stable enterprise than some company which is trying to make the money first and then give it back to philanthropy. I work under the motto that it’s not how you spend the money that matters, it's how you make it.

Duschmalé: It’s the long-term thinking that makes the whole difference, especially for companies. We have spent so much time maximising shareholder value. But if you see family-owned companies, you will see ‘transgenerationalism’. We are always thinking about the next generation. I recently took over from my uncle and my goal is to hand it over 20-25 years down the line to the representatives of my children.

Yours is one of the most profitable pharma companies. So profit-making is important. Isn’t it?

Hoffmann: There are certain activities like donation where it is the only way to go forward. Philanthropy is also a way forward, but it is not enough, as the scale of the problem is too huge. Sustainability includes a positive capital. If we want to build a sustainable, innovative business, we have to have profits; otherwise we cannot invest into innovation, into our assets.

China and India form part of any narrative in so many ways. What’s your view of these two markets?

Hoffmann: These two pools of patients of 2.5 billion people are not something we can ignore. We have to bring innovation not just in products, but also in the ways we work, so that we can help as many patients as possible.

What is the biggest challenge right now in the pharma industry?

Hoffmann: Our real challenge is innovation: how can we cure a disease; how can we innovate to cure any disease we face with technologies that are not here yet. The biggest challenge is to identify the right people to navigate this innovation.

Did you miss out being the vaccine star during the pandemic?

Hoffmann: We are a complex system, society – we need collaborations. In health care, we need to work together, we need active PPPs, collaborations with universities, start-ups etc.

Duschmalé: The times when one single player could solve one of the global problems are definitely over.

Hoffmann: The cholera pandemic, when Roche started out, was about a particular medicine that could solve the problem. When Roche forefathers worked on that, they were focused on an industry-ready, standard product. Now we have new tech, artificial intelligence, and now we can tailor solutions for individuals.

As an environmentalist, animal lover, how is it like to be surrounded by drugs?

Hoffmann: Nature lover is not just one who loves forests or tigers; it’s much more complex. If we destroy nature, the impact would be severe on the planet. The degradation of natural resources is directly linked to damage done to social and human capital. We need to look at things in a holistic manner.

You are calling 125 years of Roche ‘Celebration of Life’. How do you celebrate life personally?

Duschmalé: Celebration for me is to go out, see the world, and have a good glass of wine, for example. I love hiking and the speed of hiking. It allows you to have a deep and good conversation, you can introspect.

Hoffmann: If every day you wake reasonably healthy, it’s a wonderful celebration in itself.

No yachts and private jets in your lives?

Hoffmann: Wrong address (laughs)…. One should not look at materialism if one is looking to be really happy. A new sports car or something like that won’t bring me closer to happiness.