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Exclusive Life Science Feature Venkayya the autonomy to build his own team, rather than micromanage the process, a common leadership mistake (see sidebar on page 27). In addition to recruiting talent, Takeda needed to acquire additional vaccine capabilities. ADDING COMPETENCIES VIA ACQUSITION In October 2012, Takeda acquired LigoCyte, a small biopharmaceutical company in Bozeman, MT, that manufactures a vaccine to prevent norovirus gastroenteritis. "Norovirus is the largest cause of epidemic diarrhea in the United States," says Yamada. The CDC estimates 1 in 15 Americans come down with norovirus each year. Because it is highly contagious and presents with highly debilitating symptoms (i.e. vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps), there is significant lost productivity. Norovirus is estimated to affect 267 million people globally, causing more than 200,000 deaths annually, most occurring in less-developed countries. The second acquisition occurred in May of this year when Takeda bought Inviragen. With this acquisition, Takeda picked up competencies for creating innovative vaccines for emerging infectious diseases, including dengue fever, a mosquito-spread illness primarily found in tropical and subtropical climates. "Half a billion people or more will get dengue each year," states Yamada. Inviragen's lead candidate, DENVax, a fourstrain recombinant viral vaccine for the prevention of dengue, is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials. With these two acquisitions, the company picked up the ability to manufacture subunit vaccines via LigoCyte's proprietary, virus-like particle platform (VLP) technology, as well as live vaccines. "These two important technologies shore up our ability to produce vaccines of the future," states Yamada. "We are particularly interested in combination vaccines, including the Sabin-inactivated Polio virus, so-called sIPV. Oral polio vaccines are live strains, which can be shed. Once you've eradicated polio from the world, you really don't want that around." As a consequence, Yamada believes the world will soon turn solely KEY LESSONS LEARNED FROM WORKING AT THE GATES FOUNDATION Prior to joining Takeda Pharmaceuticals as the chief medical and scientific officer, Tachi Yamada, M.D., spent five years working as the president of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's global health program. There, he directed projects geared toward solving some of the health challenges of the developing world. These included TB, HIV, malaria, other infectious diseases, malnutrition, and maternal and child health. As a former academic and pharmaceutical executive, Dr. Yamada was asked what was the most valuable experience he gained from working at the Gates Foundation. Instead of one experience, he explained he learned a lot about urgency, innovation, partnership, and measurement. "The sense of urgency we have in the pharma industry is not the same as that which I felt when I was in the field at the foundation," he explains. "I would come into contact with mothers holding babies on the verge of dying or already dead. This happens seven million times a year unnecessarily or from preventable causes." This experience gave Yamada a heightened sense of urgency about the work he was doing, and he brought that sense of urgency to Takeda. "If we don't work with urgency, then we can't meet people's unmet medical needs, and they will suffer or die unnecessarily," he states. Regarding innovation, Yamada describes it this way. "We worked on problems at the Gates Foundation that didn't seem to have any viable solution and required more than just the usual everyday pharmaceutical effort to solve. They require true innovation, which means more than just a little tweak or a little 'smart' move." According to Yamada, the pharmaceutical industry is primarily involved in evolutionary innovation, which advances but does not significantly change the field. "Revolutionary innovation is where something absolutely transforms the field, and often it involves some crazy 28 LifeScienceLeader.com August 2013 idea or something never thought of before," he explains. "Take the example of peptic ulcer disease. It was treated with antacids, then with H2 Blockers, and then Proton pump inhibitors. All of these just treat the disease, but don't cure it. The finding that Helicobacter pylori causes peptic ulcer disease — and if you treat with antibiotics, you can actually cure people from the ulcer and from ever having the ulcer again — is an example of revolutionary innovation." To create revolutionary innovation, Yamada says you need to take chances, be willing to take risks, be willing to fail, and create an ecosystem of challenging dogma. He also learned the importance of partnership, essential for executing global health initiatives. "You can't do it alone," he affirms. "We worked very closely with WHO, UNICEF, and other international agencies in the developing world to get things done," he says. "Our closest partners were with the department for international development in the United Kingdom or USAID in the United States." Finally, there is the concept of measurement. "It is easy when you are giving a lot of money away to assume you are doing good," he states. "But, in fact, you have to measure the impact of what you are doing." This is something the pharmaceutical industry could do better. Recent policy makers are in agreement, as are payers, who are seeking outcomes-based data from patients taking medicines and the real impact those medicines are having on society and patients. According to Yamada, these four concepts — urgency, innovation, partnership, and measurement — are critical concepts. "I worked with these every day at the Gates Foundation and brought them back with me to the pharmaceutical industry," he concludes.