Canada’s life sciences sector is at a key inflection point. As massive transformation continues to reshape the sector, we sat down with Alok Kanti, who double hats as Bayer Inc.’s President & CEO, and Head of Pharmaceuticals. Kanti shared unique perspective on the trends shaping the sector, and the innovative opportunities that lie ahead.

Bayer has been around for 150 years. That longevity speaks to the company’s ability to evolve. Where is Bayer going next?

Bayer has three businesses: crop science, consumer health and pharmaceuticals. They’re connected by a common vision of health for all, and hunger for none. Bayer’s underlying purpose is the belief that science can improve lives. Of course, the foundation of success over the last 150 years—specifically in pharmaceuticals—has been constant innovation, be it in antibiotics, cardiovascular medicine or biotechnology. Today, I think we’re at the threshold of another wave of innovation with biology, chemistry and digital sciences coming into interplay. You have some phenomenal platforms with stem cells and genes. You have the digital adjacencies that may even have a curative impact on patients. We are definitely at a phase where technologies are coming together to significantly improve patients’ lives, and Bayer is at the forefront. Here in Toronto alone, we had the first patient in a clinical trial where we’ve injected stem cells for Parkinson’s disease.

You mention the threshold of a tremendous amount of change. What skills, expertise and kinds of employees are you looking to attract and hire at Bayer to affect this change?

We’re basically looking at three sets of competencies. The first set is functional; the second is organizational and leadership; the third is growth. Let me unpack those.

The functional competency is skills in the foundational elements of your job, such as biology, chemistry, pharmacy sciences, accounting.

The second one is the realization that you only work or you only produce when you work with various people. So, you need organizational and leadership competencies to work with a variety of people. That’s how you produce output that is meaningful to patients or customers.

The third competency is growth—the ability to be a lifelong learner as science evolves and changes, and as the underlying dynamics of the tools you're using change. Think of a chemist who might have earned a PhD in chemistry 20 years ago. He or she now needs to evolve into understanding newer platforms, which might be primarily biology based. The capability and the ability to make this transition is important. Secondly, you might have an expert in a very specific area of technology, but he or she might have to work with the cross-functional team to create a strategy and deliver a program, product, or service that’s meaningful for customers.

We need to have people who have these three buckets of competencies as we move towards the future.

Switching gears, Canada’s unique regulatory environment is often cited as a challenge for the life sciences sector. How does this impact Bayer, and what’s your point of view?

Be it research, development or commercialization, pharmaceutical development is really a global endeavor. We look for the best technology and infrastructure globally. We also look for the most attractive markets around the world. Canada, with its smaller population, needs to be competitive in each and every aspect of this. It needs to have a regulatory environment that fosters innovation in pricing and reimbursement; one that rewards innovation. Canada also needs a regulatory and safety environment that maintains high standards, but does so quickly and efficiently. When these three things come together, you get an environment that’s attractive for product development, spurs innovation and then becomes a consumer of that innovation. This actually results in improving the lives of citizens. Right now, Canada’s policy is a bit asynchronous in terms of objectives as a country. This country has an opportunity to get affordable drugs, maintain a healthy life sciences environment and access medicines for patients through holistic policy. Canada shouldn’t let this opportunity pass it by.

The pandemic has created quite an evolution for many industries, and life sciences sector in particular. What can governments do at the municipal, provincial and federal level to partner with companies like Bayer as the sector evolves?

In a socialized healthcare environment, it’s always important for policy to meet multiple objectives. That could include affordable pricing, a healthy life science segment, access to new drugs. COVID-19 accelerated the view around this. But, there's been a lot of discussion about independence for every jurisdiction in their response to a pandemic. For countries outside of the US and China, doing this would be extremely difficult, given that pharmaceutical research development is actually a global task. Even a simple product in a factory might have 60 or 70 suppliers who fuel different actives. These suppliers, in turn, might have other suppliers. You can imagine the complexity of the chain when you're looking for independence.

Canada needs to ensure that components of the global value chain, which are placed in Canada, have a sustainable competitive advantage. We need to be the best at certain segments of the value chain, and we need to have an environment that brings pharmaceutical companies to the country through appropriate pricing and a healthy segment of life science activity which ensures drug access for patients in need.

How can Canada make itself more attractive as part of that global supply chain?

Canada has some very good capabilities for pharmaceutical companies. Take clinical trials. Canada punches way above its weight in this space. It’s a domestic activity with global coordination because the patients are based in Canada. Strengthening this through appropriate regulation or a lack of overregulation can have a significant impact.

When you think about a country of Canada’s size, you cannot have an end-to-end solution. You need to know which technologies you're going to participate in, and where can you get a sustainable competitive advantage. Looking at this from a slightly different perspective, take the example of stem cell research. The US lagged a bit behind in the early 2000s, and Canada took up the opportunity with significant government investments (also supported by philanthropy and universities). Canada was able to create a competitive advantage in the stem cell space. That’s why a lot of stem cell work is done here today. We need to find these areas of expertise and engender or develop a similarly sustainable competitive advantage.

Congratulations on Bayer being nominated among Canada’s most admired corporate cultures. What does this recognition mean for Bayer?

Thank you! We did win Canada's most admired culture in the enterprise class among about nine other companies, and we're quite happy about it. It reflects the work environment we’re trying to create in Canada. In fact, in our survey, one of the things that people cited as the best part of working at Bayer was working with our colleagues. We also have what we call our LIFE values. We’re always reflecting on them. They're used in performance management systems and conversations. People live them on a day-to-day basis. I think that's what makes our culture very strong and has lead to this award.

Thank you for your candor, experience and points of view, Alok! Final thoughts?

Thank you, Elena! The pharmaceutical industry is facing a time of great change, with great benefits for clients. Bayer is at the forefront of that change in many areas, and Canada has an important part to play. We have the capabilities and the competencies right here. We’ve just got to maximize the possibilities.