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EXCLUSIVE LIFE SCIENCE FEATURE leaders LIFESCIENCELEADER.COM JUNE 2014 30 chain more productive. Identifying hits and leads to new targets, which used to take us months and years, we can do now in only weeks and months. We have leveraged technologies, such as X-ray diffraction to image struc- tures of targets and ligands in drug discovery. This hasn't played out yet all the way through the cycle, but there's no question we're much more productive in the early stages." ENCOURAGING MANAGEMENT Lechleiter's style of managing people, and the company, shows up clear- ly in his handling of R&D.; Rather than riding herd on the group and second-guessing its decisions as might be expected given his sci- ence background, his approach is broadly nurturing. His relationship to the R&D; leadership relies largely on trust: "It's important for our company to have not only good scientists but also excellent managers and leaders in that R&D; endeavor. You can have the best scientists in the world, but unless they are capably led, inspired, moti- vated, and cared for, you're not likely to get the best result. I let the leaders do their jobs. I'm particularly careful at Lilly that people don't mistake me for the head of R&D.; Dr. Jan Lundberg is our head of R&D;, and he knows I'm very supportive of R&D;, as the CEO." With the past long gone, and the present quickly becoming past, a dou- bly seasoned Lechleiter faces a future with light on the horizon. Is the light dusk or dawn? His answer is down to earth. "I see us remaining a major player in diabetes and in oncology. We are hopeful that we will begin to see some positive data with our Alzheimer 's portfolio in the latter half of this decade, and we believe we can estab- lish a presence in the autoimmune space by virtue of three different molecules that we currently have in development for psoriasis, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis. I see a future where Elanco Animal Health is a more prominent part of Lilly. And I focusing in certain therapeutic areas has probably helped as well." Learning and focusing work hand- in-hand, it would seem. " When you focus on trials in cancer, diabetes, or neuroscience, you gain a lot of tacit knowledge that would be difficult for others to replicate. Since the early days of developing Prozac, Lilly and a few other companies have really rewritten the book on how to study drugs in this space. So being focused on key areas helps us make better decisions as we take molecules for- ward into Phase 2 and Phase 3." Lilly will also likely enjoy some successes in the clinic, according to Lechleiter. "As our data plays out, we're seeing positive results on the lead ImClone molecules, and from several drugs in our diabetes portfo- lio. This is a big year for us in terms of data readouts, and we will get more readouts throughout the year." Those readouts will come from data collected all over the world, reflect- ing what Lechleiter describes as the globalization of Lilly 's R&D; — which also reflects a great broadening of the company 's culture. Moving beyond its old image in the industry as a lonely battleship on the vast ocean of the U.S. Midwest, Lilly now spans the con- tinent, and far beyond, as he relates. Besides establishing U.S. sites such as ImClone in New York and an R&D; center in San Diego, CA, the company has expanded its presence worldwide, especially in the U.K., Italy, China, and Japan, where Lechleiter says it has been one of the fastest-growing phar- ma companies for the past five years. While globalizing R&D;, Lechleiter says Lilly also made productivity improvements that have lowered its R&D; costs and at the same time cre- ated the biggest pipeline in its history. Most of the gains so far have come in the research part of R&D;, he says. " We certainly did not exempt our research laboratories from the improvements. We have been chal- lenging our researchers to consider and to take measures that would make everything we do along our value see a company that I believe is well- positioned for growth. The experience we've gone through with the patent expirations has made us stronger and more resilient, and I believe we are a more competitive company having experienced some of the challenges we've faced." Characteristically, and reliably down to earth, are closer to the truth. L LILLY NAVIGATES THE REALITIES OF INNOVATION By W. Koberstein EMERGING GROWTH Lilly's John Lechleiter shares some additional insights into the company's thinking regard- ing emerging markets: "We lump the emerging markets together at some peril, because there is a great deal of variation among them. In many of these countries, you see a few very wealthy peo- ple on one hand and very destitute people on the other. Realistically, in those coun- tries, our products reach a certain stratum of people who have access to good-quality medical care through private insurance, out-of-pocket, or in some cases, govern- ment programs. As their economies grow, we expect millions of people to enter the middle class in this decade, which will enable access to our products and sustain the grow- ing middle class with better opportunities for good healthcare." Among other reasons for giving emerging markets their own business unit was a long- term strategy: "We want people 20 or 30 years from now to look back and say Lilly was here in the early days, investing appro- priately at a point when the market was not as robust as it will be down the road. Lilly has great opportunity in emerging markets because Type 2 diabetes is so prevalent everywhere. The treatment of Type 2 diabe- tes becomes a de facto point of entry for us because we will have an even more complete portfolio of products in Type 2 in the next few years." F e a t u r e - C o v e r - L i l l y . i n d d 7 Feature-Cover-Lilly.indd 7 5 / 2 1 / 2 0 1 4 1 2 : 4 9 : 2 7 P M 5/21/2014 12:49:27 PM