As the pharmaceutical industry evolves into a more transparent and collaborative sector, Michael Milken sat down with Jeffrey Kindler CEO and Chairman of the Board of Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, to candidly discuss these transformations and the challenges ahead. 

With so much of the world’s economic and population growth attributable to medical advances, the population holds great stake in the pharmaceutical world. Yet the drug industry is met with challenges which impede the speed in which new products are developed. 

“One of the biggest road blocks is in the clinical trial area.  From our point of view, the biggest challenge is recruitment of patients; 80% of patients considering participating in clinical trials are very concerned about privacy,” said Kindler identifying one of the key barriers to getting new treatments to patients. Kindler said clinical trials were moving much faster in countries outside of the United States, demonstrating the need for policies here to be revisited. 

This internationalization of competitive medical research is an important issue for pharmaceutical companies with a number of emerging foreign research institutions and researchers drawing important players in the medical research world outside of the U.S.

With these threats to U.S. pharmaceuticals Pfizer has made efforts to stay competitive and cutting-edge.  Kindler revealed Pfizer’s mantra “the spirit of small, the power of scale” to illustrate Pfizer’s new approach to innovative collaboration. 

“In order to achieve our goals, both our financial goals and our desire to help patients, we have to do things differently,” he continued.  Kindler believes the drug industry has changed its attitudes toward entering partnerships, resource sharing, and collaborating in new ways.  Yet, there are still policies in place which restrict these efforts.  And while he understands the need for appropriate regulation, he advocates for equally appropriate flexibility in the system, stating “the patient’s voice…really needs to be better heard in the policy councils.” 

Milken then moved the discussion to preventive care and innovation in healthcare today. Milken noted that chronic disease due to preventable causes, particularly weight gain, in the U.S. has caused America approximately 1 trillion dollars annually and efforts must be made to alleviate this burden.  Kindler fervently agreed but explained that better data on the cost savings of prevention investment was needed in order to convince Congress of its worth. 

“Healthcare is seen as a cost not an investment; that’s the fundamental problem.”  Kindler closed by saying innovation begins with human capital, having engaged and motivated employees and fostering these qualities in entrepreneurial ways, giving them as much space, power, and encouragement as possible. He said he hopes to have built a company with enough flexibility to adapt to the changing world and responsive enough to meet the needs of its customers.