Latest / Vanguards of Healthcare by Bloomberg Intelligence / Teva a Generic Giant With Biotech Bite

Transcript

Teva a Generic Giant With Biotech Bite · Vanguards of Healthcare by Bloomberg Intelligence

• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Bloomberg Intelligence's Vanguards of Healthcare podcast,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: where we speak with leaders at the forefront of change
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: in the healthcare sector. I'm and Hunter van Kirk, Senior
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: by a pharmaceutical analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, which is the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: in house equity research division of Bloomberg. I'm very pleased
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to be welcome to welcome today's guest, Eric Hughes, Executive
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: vice president of Global R and D and Chief Medical
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Officer at Teva Pharmaceuticals. Eric, you joined Teva just over
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: three years ago. Can we start by walking through your
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: background and what let you led you to the company?
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Sure, thank you for having me today, Anne, Hunter. It
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: is great talking with you, and it's great to be
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: able to talk about you know, Ted's pivot to growth
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: over the last three year has been quite exciting. But
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: you know a little bit about me first, I need
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: to say that I come from a family of geeks.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: We're a bunch of scientists, a long line of chemists.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: But you know, for me, you know, in my training
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: becoming an infectious disease physician and I did an mvphd
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: a Yale. The thing that I loved the most about
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: the last twenty five years is my You know, I
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: fell in love with drug development. I started at Bristol
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Myers squib doing some first and human work and phase
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: one work and did some great things and hepatitis C.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: But then progressed on through a number of big form
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: of companies over the years, including Sharing, Plow, Merk, Novartes, Vertex,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: and now finally at Teva. It's been a great journey.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: I love what I do. Using science to change the
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: practice of medicine is probably the best thing I could
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: ever have done with my career.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Fantastic And coming from that background, how did you build
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: this R and D engine at what was traditionally associated
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: as as a large generic company?
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean one of the things that I've
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: discovered over the years, you know, I first fell in
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: love with drug development, and you know, learned the process
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: of going from first in human all the way through
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: registration and launch, and I learned a little bit about leadership,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: and then I really got interested in organizational structure. To
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: my surprise, over the years, I've done you know, a
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: number of different efforts a number of companies along the way.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: So when I came to Teva, that prepared me quite
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: a bit for you know, what I see as my
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: ultimate dream job of coming into a company with a
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: great culture but in need of change and organization. And
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: it was, you know, it was like amount of clay
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: that we were able to, you know, form into this
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: modern drug development matrix that we have here. And let's let's.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Dig down into that a little bit. What did the
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: R and D structure look like when you arrived and
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: how have you shaped it now?
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so when I got here, you know, it was
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: really siloed. It wasn't really organized as a modern drug
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: development matrix as I always like to say. You know,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: drug development, I like to say, is a very complex process.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: It requires multiple different disciplines and expertise. So it's not
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: a top down structure. It's a team of scientists who
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: have to work together in a matrix. So to capitalize
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: on that, the first thing I did was just, you know,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: do the organizational chart have business units of generics, biosimilars
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: and innovative medicines and have all the common functions driving
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: that drug development across all of them. So that was
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: simply a way of facilitating some of the great things
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: that have all the expertise we have across the disciplines,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: but then break down those silas and get that culture
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: of mindset of working together and collaboration and learning from
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: one another to really accelerate what we have.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: And you talk about this culture, how can the company
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: leverage its culture as it transforms itself into an innovative powerhouse.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, culture is everything. You know. One of the great
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: things about TeV is its basic culture is fantastic. It's
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: a group of very compassionate people who are in it
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: for helping patients. But they were at a moment of change.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: They knew they needed to change. So culture only changes
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: when there's a desire to do it. So, you know,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Teva was just coming out of its austere years, you know,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: doing cost cutting. So about four years ago when I
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: came and there was this willingness to change. Having that
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: culture mindset of collaboration, of willing to do great things.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Willing to change their mindset and go from cost cutting
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to acceleration was the real mindset shift, and that was
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: a big focus. You know, just moving names around on
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: an organizational chart is one thing, but to actually have
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: it work, you have to have the culture that drives it.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: So let's dig into that pipeline a bit more. Just
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: this morning, you announced filing an NDA for your extended
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: release injectible suspension for schizophrenia. Would you walk us through
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: development of this and some other key assets in your pipeline.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So today was a great day to have this
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: conversation because we just had our announcement that we're very
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: proud of. This is our Alonza pine Lai long acting
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: injectible for schizophrenia. This builds on our franchise that we're
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: developing on top of Uzetti, which is a respiradown long
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: acting injectable, and you know, we're very excited about this.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: This is one of the first of our long line
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: now of compounds in late development that we're very excited about.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: And I'd just like to say that, you know, for schizophrenia,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: you know, the great thing is that we can treat
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: this disease. The challenges is a very difficult and impactful disease.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: But the challenge for these patients are their ability to
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: hear to the medications that work. So taking a pill
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: every day is hard for patients with schidzophreny. Of it's
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: hard for all of us. These long acting injectables though,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: make it very simple to get the right exposure to
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: a drug and you know you have it for the
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: next month. So we're excited by alonzop and LAI is
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: a very convenient formulation where it's subcutaneous, no oral supplementation,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: no titrations. It's really an easy way to get the
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: proper treatment in an area where there are no really
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: strong options for LAI. So I think we're just going
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: to build on the success of our long acting respirit
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: on new zetti and now with this new option for alanzapine,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: where we're really excited about it, and it's a great
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: day to have the submission go down to the FDA.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: And let's keep going there. Tell us about some of
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the other there's maybe five highlighted assets that we look
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: at a lot. Would you walk us through all of them?
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I'm happy to because one of the great
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: things when I first got here was not the opportunity
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: not to the opportunity to really build and organize and
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: drive the culture at tet R and D, but also
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: there was a great pipeline here that no one talked
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: about much before on the innovative space. You know, Teva
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: is known historically as a generics and biosimilar as company,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: which is an incredibly strong foundation. But we have a
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: great late stage pipeline. So you know, we talked about
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: alonzopine lai. The phase three data was right where we
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: expected to be both on efficacy and safety. But the
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: next thing is duvakey took, which is a homegrown antibody
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: for anti til one A, which is a rand new
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: class of biologic that you know, is very exciting because
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: this is a potential, you know, multiple indication molecule that
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: we brought forward in ul sort of clitus and crones
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: and we had very strong data at the end of
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: last year. And what's exciting about this is it's not
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: a biologic that's hitting just one particular cytokind pathway. It's
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: really blocking a cidikind that amplifies many different pathways and
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: potentially has a direct effect on fibrosis. So we're excited
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: by the possibilities of multiple different inflammatory indications in the future,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: maybe even anti true fibrotic indications. But this is a
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: great drug that's now in phase three for all sort
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: of clients and Chrohn's disease with our partner Santa Fe.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: So that's one great program. In addition to lines of being,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: our third Phase three program is our DARI program. That's
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: our dual action rescue inhaler program. This is an inhaler.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: It's a dry powder inhaler that's for the treatment of asthma.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: And I think that it's important for people to now
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: know that the guidelines indicate that for an asthma exacerbation,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: you shouldn't just be taking out beuterol, you should actually
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: be taking a steroid as a component of your rescue inhaler.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: And we're really excited to be bringing forward what we
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: think is a differentiated product. It's a dry powder inhaler.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: It's really easy to use for for kids. You don't
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: have to coordinate your inhalation and and your dose metering.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: But it also will have pediatrics in our Phase RE study,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: not only pediatrics but also adolescents. And that's important because
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: this is going to be the first dual action rescue
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: inhaler that will have the pediatrics in its indication and
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: we will probably have one of the largest pediatric and
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: adolescents sampling in our Phase RE study of any of
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the programs before us. So we're very excited about treating
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: you know, the eleven million people out there who have
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: asthma exacerbations every year, you know. So those are three
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: great Phase three programs. If you look at our Phase
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: two programs, I'm equally excited about our anti aisle fifteen program.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: We're bringing that forward in two proof of concepts, one
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: for coeliac disease, which is a real unmet medical need
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: for people who have to, you know, avoid gluten all
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: day long, and viteligo, which is another impactful disease on
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: the you know, the the social ice and the depression
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: you might get just from the appearance of your skin,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: which we had no systemic therapies for. So that's a
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: great program. You know. Aisle fifteen is thought to be
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: a key CIDO kind in both of those diseases, and
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: there's more indications we can bring antio fifteen foward. And last,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: but not least, one of the greatest unmet medical needs
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: we're working on in Phase two right now is our
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: m Rousselman program. This is a small molecule that's brain
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: penetrant and gets into the cells and attacks a protein
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: called alphas nucleon And that's important because the disease we're
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: studying it in right now is called multiple system atrophy
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: or MSA, and this is a devastating disease. Ten years
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: after diagnosis, most of these folks have unfortunately passed away
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: and it's just a relentless neurologic degenerative disease. And we
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: are hoping to attack that. The cause of the disease
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: alphas nucleon at its very beginning when it starts to
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: aggregate and sell brain cells and kill those cells. And
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: we're blocking not only hopefully the generation of the intracellular
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: but the memorane bound and that alphasniculan that gets out
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: of the cells and attacks other cells in the brain.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: So we think we have a differentiated product and we're
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: really excited the studies enrolling as quickly as it is.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: That is an exciting lineup. Let's dig into the asset selection.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: That can be a turkey art, you know, particularly in
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: the neurospace. How did you select these assets and how
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: do you work towards the best probability of success there?
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, the strategy is super important here
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: at Tevin R and D Group. You know, we focus
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: on neuroscience, which is our heritage is very strong in
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: this area. You know, copacsone is one of our great
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: molecules in our innovative past. We've built on that with
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: osteto for tart of dyscnesia and Huntington's disease. We also
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: have a program if a jovie for migraine and we are,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: as I mentioned before, usetti in the marketplace for schizophrenia.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: So we have a strong in market portfolio in neuroscience
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: and we're building upon that. You know, we collaborated to
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: in licensed Emersolman years ago, which is another thing that
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: we do a lot of nowadays, is partnerships with partners
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: for development as well as funding. But I also mentioned
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: that we focus on immunoscience as well. We have a
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: fantastic laboratory down in Sydney, Australia. They have real expertise
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: on antibody development and protein engineering and you can see
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: it throughout these our pipeline where duviki took is probably
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: a potential best in class, first in class molecule, just
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: like Antiisle fifteen is a homegrown molecule that's the most potent,
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: probably the best PK out there for antiil fifteen, and
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: we have many other molecules that are in development in
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: our antibody capability, is it not to mention another program
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: for PD one, OL two and oncology. So you know
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: what that does is drive how we think about our
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: development and our focus. So neuroscience is a great area
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: that we can build upon. We will probably do mostly
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: BD for small molecules because we don't do the development,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: but we'll rapidly partner and in licensed molecules in neuroscience,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: while our immunoscience group is really something that's mostly home grown,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: but we also look for bad opportunities there as well.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: So you've talked about these partnerships and licensing opportunities. Do
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: you see this as a path forward really for the
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: market overall?
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, So for me, you know, one of the
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: greatest accomplishments we've done over the last three years is
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: the number of partnerships and deals that we've done to
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: really accelerate our pipeline. You know, I think at Teva
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: it was a strategy of necessity, but I think it's
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: a paradigm which how we will be moving forward and
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: how many other companies will probably do their development. So
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: I'll just run through some of those partnerships, you know,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: one of the big ones we did when I first
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: got here was the one with Santa Fie, great partner.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: You know, what it's doing with our duvakey Took program
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: is really expanding our bandwidth in the development because it's
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: a multi indication potential in the future, and it's also
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: a great partnership on the costs as well, so we
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: do a fifty to fifty on the cost and the revenue.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: So that's a great partner. The really worked hand in
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: hand from the beginning because what they facilitated was the
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: fastest phase two to phase three transition of everyone in
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: that class right now. So we're very happy about the
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: ability to accelerate and really you know, capitalize on the
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: best of both companies. After that, you know, we've done
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: a number of funding deals where you know, abbing Worth
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: and Launch Therapeutics collaborated with us on our DARI program.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: They brought not only funding but also bandwidth and expertise
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: on the execution of you know, asthma studies, which is
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: you know, a great example of collaboration, you know, with
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: a Wantope and Lai. We did a deal with with
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Royalty Pharma where they were able to give us the
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: funding where we could really accelerate that program, and that
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: that we pulled that program in six months faster than
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: we thought. So these partnerships have really been driving our speed,
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: and you know, we'll do more of those partnerships. I
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: think that's an important paradigm for you know, guys like
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: me in R and D who have to balance the
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: budget while actually moving the things forward as quickly as possible.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: It's it's important for the funding as well. Absolutely, so
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: it's everyone's favorite topic right now. But how does AI
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: fit into your drug development process?
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah? So, you know, and when I think about AI,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: think about how we behave at TEPA when one of
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: the things that Richard Francis and I talked about a
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: lot with the investors were ruthless in our capital allocase.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: So you know, budget's super important, but accelerating the programs
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: is equally as important. So you know, balancing those two
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: things very very key to our success. When it comes
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: to AI. I always say AI is fantastic, is going
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: to change the world, but we have to focus what
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: we use AI for because the goal is to speed
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: the drug development and make the development faster and better
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: for patients. So I don't care what the AI is,
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: but it's got to help me do what I do
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: all day long to serve the patients that we're trying
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: to help. We have a lot of examples of things
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: that we do. You know, there's some really low hanging
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: fruit that's you know, something we've already started on, like
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: medical writing, you know, compiling a dossiers like we sent
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: down today to FDA pharmacovigilance, you know, processing the large,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: large amount of safety data that's coming in every day
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: around the globe. You know, big data to me is
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: a very important part about you know AI. When you're
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: generating loads and loads of data, you know you need
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: to be able to look at it and learn from it.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: You know. The terrible secret and firm pharmaceutical development is
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: a lot of the data we never get around to
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: looking at. We end up filing it away but not
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: having the capabilities really interrogate it and analyze it. So
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: that's another good thing. And the last thing I to
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: add that we're doing is, you know, we've used AI
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: in speeding the way in which we developed drugs, and
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: I have a great example of that. We have an
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: anti TSLP aisle thirteen bispecific antibody, and it's a really
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: fascinating antibody because each tip of the antibody binds either
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: TSLP or AISLE thirteen and that's really remarkable. I didn't
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: even know you could do that, and you can't certainly
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: make that in a mouse. A mouse wouldn't make a
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: drug like that if you if you immunize them. What
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: was what we did do was partner with biologic design
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: and created an antibody in a computer from known science.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: So that's one of our our mantra us here too,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: is we we're going to use known science to advance
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: and make things better and potentially in combinations. And this
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: is a perfect example of that where you cut you know,
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: six months to twelve months out of the development timeline
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: by creating this in the computer and making better antibodies
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: that you couldn't otherwise make. So we use AI in
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: many different ways at TETA.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: That's fascinating and so kind of putting that into numbers,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: kind of what percentage of processes do you think are
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: are AI appropriate right now? And how do you see
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: that growing in five ten years?
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: So it's just going to keep growing. So I would say,
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: you know, I can't even give you a number, but
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: it's a it's not a majority at TETA yet, but
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: we all see anywhere where you have lots of data
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: or a clear process. So I talked a lot about
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: what we do in R and D, but in manufacturing
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: and commercialization there's many different examples where wherever you have
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: a lot of data and you need to process it,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: and even in the financial group, that will make everything
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: much more efficient and rapid in the future. So as
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: systems and off the shelf technology is available, that will
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: continue to infiltrate every aspect of the drug development process,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: not only in the R and D but beyond fantastic.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: So, thinking about kind of across all therapeutic indications, what
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: would you highlight as some of the biggest hurdles in
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: drug success?
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think that the trend over the
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: last couple of years is what we need to battle.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: You know, drug development has become slower and more expensive,
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: despite all the new technology we're bringing to bear. And
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: you know that's caused by many different reasons. You know,
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: increased regulatory scrutiny, more needs for quality, the more needs
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: for you know, real treatment effects. But I think that
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: one of the things that TeV is going to be
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: different and known for is that even though we're a
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: thirty seven one thousand per company approximately and we have
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: like close to sixteen billion dollars worth of revenue, we're
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: in the unique position where we can stay really hyper
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: focused on what we're doing. You know, in my role
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: as the head of R and D here, I am
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: very granular with the teams. I'm on calls every week,
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: driving teams on enrollment and studies, looking at data as
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: quickly as possible, being able to pivot on things that
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: I see that they're bringing to me, and being able
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: to make decisions very rapidly, and you know, drive programs forward.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: You know, I do a lot of traveling too. I
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: go to sites, I find out, you know, what are
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: the investigators saying about our programs and our compounds, and
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: you know, tell me how the patients are doing. I
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: think that that ability to be like a biotech and
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: a very large company is part of the secret sauce
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: of what TeV is doing right now.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: That's fascinating. So from both a technology perspective, you highlighted
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: some things that might make sense to acquire, but also
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: as an overall asset perspective, what goes into your thought
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: process there on sort of a make versus buy a
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: develop internally or acquire decision.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the first thing I would say to that is,
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: you know, drug development is a balance of both make
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: versus buy. In fact, we don't treat them differently. We
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: have a very clear portfolio prioritization process where you know
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: you will get the market potential, the unme medical need,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: the regulatory possibility of success, you know, see the feasibility
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: of the studies, and the regulatory endpoints. You know, we
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: have a very clear vision of how you should develop
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: a drug, what you need to check the box for
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: in each one of those categories. And we apply those
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: same rules to whether it's a homegrown ant a body
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: in our great labs, or whether it's an opportunity that
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: someone's brought to us from the outside. You cannot treat
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: them differently because then you're leaving capital on the table
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: if you choose wrong. But we look at them in
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: an agnostic fashion and either whether it's inside or outside,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: will go as long as it fits our strategy of
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: neuroscience and immunology.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: And you did highlight you know a couple of specific
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: things is there anything else to flag that would be
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: interesting next editions for Teva?
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're I would over emphasize the fact that,
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: you know, the additions that we will do at Teva.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: You know, hopefully when we do those, you'll see that
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: they were smart, they fit our strategy, and we stayed
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: focused on what we do best in both our therapeutic
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: areas of interest. When you stray away from your therapeutic
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: air of intagers, that's when you get in trouble. You know.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: One of the examples that I could contrast that to is,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: you know, we have this wonderful program. It's an anti
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: PD one aisle two. This is a this is a
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: molecule that brings attenuated aisle two to cancer cells that
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: have PD one on that surface. And in a simple
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: way you can look at look at it as a
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: compound that is like k trudan opt devo. But k
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: trudan opt devo are like taking your foot off the
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: break of the immune cells. Our program is bringing a
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: signal that it's like putting your foot on the accelerator
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: to those same cells. And the reason I bring that
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: up in contrast to the focus is, you know, we're
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: not going to be an oncology company in a big way.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: But we're going to bring these great assets forward and
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: partner them because we have great science that we're bringing
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: forward from the telelabs.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, so kind of thinking about that, you know, how
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: does Teva balance sort of this this R and D
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: innovation engine with its its legacy generic business. Are there
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: some specific synergies to highlight there?
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah? So when I first got here, to me, it's
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: all drug development. So you know, when you when you
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: want to capitalize on the synergies there, to me was
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: a natural thing because you know, the formulation work, the
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: device work, the biologics work of generics and biosimilars can
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: help inform and it has great expertise that we can
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: apply to our innovative pipeline. So you know, that modern
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: drug development matrix that I talk about often facilitated those interactions.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: We really kind of erase the silos in R and
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: D and we see the synergies and the fruit of
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: that labor every day. Here. You know, DARI program, which
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: is an innovative program for asthma, uses a homegrown TEVID
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: device for a dry powder and haler elantepine LI is
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: a wonderful partnered formulation injectable that we can do very
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: well from our formulation technology. You know, there's a lot
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: of synergies there, so that that foundation of the Generics
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: and Biosimilars group is not only great for the science
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: and the development of our innovative space, but it's also
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: the foundation of our business right now, and it's super
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: important to cheap that as efficient as possible.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Maybe sort of on of that, how do you think
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: about life cycle extension versus you know, some of these
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: true innovative products that you're that you're highlighting.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, that's that's a great example LCM life
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: cycle management of our programs. I can use a great
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: example of Osteto, which is our you know, our flagship
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: program right now for Tartar diskinesians doing very well. One
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: of the reasons it's doing well is because we have
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: great pecane formulation guys who made once a day molecule
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: with a fantastic titration pack. So that sounds boring, but
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: that was super important for you know, patients and caregivers
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: to make sure that you know, we made it as
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: simple as possible to get through people through the titration
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: and then to the correct dose to really treat their
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: tart of diskinnesia. So that uses the power of our
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: generics group on a innovative program and penetration into the
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: market fantastic.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: There's of course some very large exclusivity losses coming up
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: in the generic market over the next decade. How does
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Teva really really on both sides, both the generic and
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: the innovative side. How does Teva fit into that?
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: So the you know, we are masters of the loss
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: of exclusivity. You know, I've learned a lot about you know,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: generics and biosimilar since I came here about three and
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: a half years ago, and it's it's an incredible machine
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: of experts that really look at compounds. From the day
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: a compound succeeds in phase three, they're already looking at
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: how to develop it as a generic or a biosimilar.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: It's really quite an amazing education you can get at Teva.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: And I bring that up because that's such a huge
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: effort that we do here. So when we talk about
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: loees in the Generics and Biosimilars group, we pretty much
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: cover all the value chain throughout. You know, I always
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: like to bring up some numbers for the generics group,
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: because you know, ninety percent of all prescriptions in the
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: US are a generics drug. You know, one in fourteen
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: is a Teva generic, and we take out about four
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty billion dollars worth of savings in generics
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: from the system in twenty twenty four, so you know,
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: it's a massive undertaking. So that knowledge, our understanding of
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: IP and you know, really bringing value and access to
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: patients is something we take with great pride here. That
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: also helps us on our innovative space actually as well.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: So when we when we review bad deals and we
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: look at the you know, the background and the what
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: we can see in a molecule, we're probably the best
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: ones to assess that and understand what the loe of
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: novel molecules are and it helps us fight, you know,
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: for our innovative programs as well, So we have best
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: of both worlds when it comes to that.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: And how about upcoming to do for negotiations, could you
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: speak to any of those.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Notion Negotiations are very important because I think that you know,
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: one of the things about the generics in biosimilars development
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: and review process with the regulators, you know, it's evolving.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: It's not like the innovative space. The innovative space has,
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: in my observations and our team, you know, a very
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: clear pathway, there's timelines, and there's a great collaboration that
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: goes on in the innovative space. In generics, it's it's
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: much more. There's many more programs. I mean, we have
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: five hundred generic programs or approved products in the world
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: right now, but there's just such a huge influx in
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: a huge flow of data all the time. You know,
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: we need to make the rules clearer and more transparent
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: when we do work with the FDAs, and I think
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: that they're listening to that, and I think that with
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: the Kadufeno negotiations, it's going to be very important to
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: bring that innovative mindset to the generics realm so that
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: we can work with the regulators more efficiently and rapidly
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: to bring these drugs forward, because, like I said, that's
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: ninety percent of all prescriptions. We should be bringing those
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: forward with equal vigor. We apply to the innovative space.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: And we talked about partnerships before on the innovative side,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: how does the partnership equation change or not change on
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the generic and specifically, maybe biosimilar side.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we do partnerships and business development deals all
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: the time in both the generics and the biosimilars. I
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: would focus on, you know, the strategy for biosimilars because
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: that was one of one of the more important things
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: we did in our Pivot to Growth strategy that we
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: rolled out three years ago. And that's the fact that
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: you know, biosimilars are hard to make and it actually
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: costs a lot of money to make them. So to
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: really maximize the value, our strategy is not to invest
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: you know, the one hundred to two hundred million dollars
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: it takes to develop a biosimilar, but we will partner
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: with people in the development process and help them commercialize
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: those And what that does is helps us lower the
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: capital investment up front, but also increase our bandwidth or
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: our breadth of biosimilars. You know, we'll have one of
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: the largest biosimilar portfolios out there, which helps us not
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: only you know, back end the deal structure for our
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: launch capabilities, but also maximizes the chances of success because
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: as you can see in the US, it's very difficult
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: to find out who's going to be the winner in
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: biosimilar so the breadth of your portfolio is very important.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: In contrast, Europe is more straightforward, the process is clear,
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: and you know, your watch capabilities are more transparent. So
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: that's how we're balancing it, and I think that's the
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: winning strategy for biosimilars.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Absolutely all right, and sort of taking all of that,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: how do you balance all of this development with your
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: commercial colleagues.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's a great question. I'm glad you brought that
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: up because you know, one of the things that I've
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: been known to say, and I say it all the time,
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: you know, when the commercial organization and the R and
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: D organization is in lockstep, that's when the magic happens.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: And that's when you know, you know, patients get drugs quickly,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: that's when the waunch goes well and people can really
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: be excited by all the hard work they put into it.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: So I work very closely with our commercial colleagues. We
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: try to make these a co ownership when we're developing
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: a drug and when we're working on a launch and
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: into life cycle management. So I revel in that. I
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: love working with my partners, you know, Chris Fox in
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: the US and Richard Daniels in Europe and mark ZIBAG
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: and the rest of the world. You know, working with
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: them is critically important to make sure that you know,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: all the hard work of R and D, you know,
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: sees success in the future fantastic.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Well, Eric, your your passion for drug development is clear
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: and it's it's exciting to watch this transformation. What are
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: some of the kind of final thoughts and key features
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: we should leave people with.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the last three and a half years
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: has been the best part of my career, to be honest,
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: It's been a great opportunity to mold this organization into
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: a modern drug development matrix. It's been a lot of
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: fun leveraging our internal expertise across our biosimilar as generics
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: and innovative medicines. You know, the culture that we've been
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: emphasizing in this system that we've built is key. You know,
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: we've gone from maybe a conservative group to a real
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: mindset shift where you know, we're empowering our teams to
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: really move their programs forward. And finally, you know, I
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: think one of the things I'll be most proud of
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: is that partnerships we've developed and the deals we've done
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: over the last three years to really accelerate this growth.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: You know, when I think about you know, what we're doing.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: It's not a matter of how much whether we're going
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: to grow, It's going to be how much we grow
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: in the future.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Eric, it was a pleasure to sit down with you.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time today and sharing
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: your story on Teva's R and D engine. It's clear
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: that the culture and the passion shines through and we're
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: excited to see next steps from you. I'm an Hunter
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: van Kirk, and you've been listening to the Vanguards of
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Healthcare podcasts by Bloomberg Intelligence. Follow along to make sure
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: you never miss a discussion with the leaders in healthcare innovation.