“Roche reborn through customer-centric reorganization”

[Interview] Nic Horridge, General Manager of Roche Korea

“Reorganization of teams by indication… culture settled in after an adaptation period”

“Is proud have expanded reimbursement for Tecentriq... will continue such efforts”

Nic Horridge, General Manager of Roche Korea

Multinational pharmaceutical companies are known to endlessly pursue change.

 

In addition to active acquisitions, mergers, and spin-offs, the companies boldly reduce and expand their many originations in line with the new drug development trend, and show no hesitation in consolidating or reorganizing departments.

 

Their endless evolution for efficiency and survival continues on even now.

 

The same goes for Roche.

 

Roche, which used to hold a strong image as a company specializing in anticancer drugs, have continued to maintain its strength in that area while expanding its interest to other diseases.

 

The company released ‘Xofluza,’ a follow-up of its antiviral ‘Tamiflu,’ and is also spurring up the development of its new Alzheimer's treatment in CNS.

 

The company had also undergone great change in the organization as well.

 

The company had promoted ‘"agile transformation" at the global level to improve flexibility and responsibility as an organization.

 

Unlike conventional organizations where employees are assigned specific products, at Roche, employees are assigned to each disease-specific indication.

 

Roche Korea also joined in this transformative journey in 2018.

 

In the process, quite a few issues in personnel adjustments and departures arose.

 

General Manager Nic Horridge, who has been running Roche Korea for 4 years since being appointed GM in October 2018, has led this transformation in Roche Korea.

 

Dailypharm met with Nic Horridge to hear about the transformations made and those to come for Roche Korea in the future.

 

-Two years have passed since the company decided to undergo an agile transformation.

 

What are the advantages of agile transformation?

 

Agile transformation is an innovation that is being pursued at the global level to transform our organizational culture.

 

In line with the rapidly changing healthcare technology, medical environment, and the exponential increase in information, Roche’s portfolio has continuously evolved and entered new treatment areas.

 

The company had determined it would be difficult for Roche to achieve its goal of bringing the best results faster to our patients with the existing ways of business and operation model and decided to pursue agile transformation.

 

We now have teams organized according to the treatment area or patient group to identify the practical needs necessary for each patient’s treatment journey and make optimal decisions.

 

In the past, we had unmet needs in rapidly identifying how diagnoses and treatments were being made in areas unfamiliar to Roche, such as Alzheimer’s and Ophthalmology, but this organizational evolution now allows each team to rapidly identify, understand and strategize what’s needed.

 

-The transformation process would not have been easy.

 

How did the employees and executives at Roche Korea receive the change? We have now passed the adaptation period, and our efforts are now coming to fruition.

 

The autonomous decision-making system was one thing that many employees and executives had first found difficult, as each employee, as his/her own leader, was required to contemplate and find an answer on 'what role he/she should play to bring value to the domestic medical ecosystem?’ Some employees have decided to part ways with the company in the process.

 

I consider this positive as these former Roche employees continue to contribute to the development of the healthcare industry in their respective positions.

 

At the time, we had candid discussions with the employees who believed the new business model was not right for them, and some had decided to seek new opportunities.

 

In the process, younger employees were given the opportunity to take on a leadership role in the company, and this gave rise to fresh and new perspectives that could help achieve Roche's vision.

 

The ideas were successfully incorporated into the organization.

 

--Roche is developing ‘gantenerumab’ as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Many other companies that have jumped into the scene are struggling, such as in the case of Aduhelm.

 

What is your opinion on this? Roche’s gantenerumab is an anti-amyloid-beta monoclonal antibody that reduces brain amyloid plaques, which are known to induce brain cell death, to improve symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Its Phase III trial results are expected to come up in the second half of the year, and we are confident that we would be able to see good results.

 

Also, in treating Alzheimer’s, Roche believes early detection of the disease is as important as new drug development.

 

If a patient is prescribed treatment after his or her symptoms have progressed to a certain extent, the brain damage that has already occurred will most likely not be regenerated.

 

Assuming that gantenerumab's clinical findings are successful, we believe that Roche’s approach of early detection and treatment will provide patients with an invaluable solution.

 

-You served 4 years as the head of Roche Korea.

 

What is your impression of the Korean healthcare ecosystem?

 

I am pleased to have been awarded this opportunity to promote various changes in Roche Korea for the past 4 years.

 

Due to the unprecedented crisis brought on by the pandemic, we have undergone many changes in our daily life and work, but I believe the Korean government showed excellent leadership in the containing COVID-19, and that Korea has received less damage than neighboring countries.

 

This was very impressive.

 

Statistics show that Korea’s accessibility to new drugs is 35%, which is significantly lower than other countries such as the US (87%), the UK (59%), and Japan (51%).

 

Also, it takes an average of 601 days to reimburse listing, and new drugs account for only around 20% of the pharmaceutical expenditures spent in NHI finances.

 

This is far below average in other OECD countries.

 

I believe there would be a way to increase access to innovative drugs without significantly increasing the overall drug expenditure without affecting national finances.

 

Roche will do its best to support the government in fulfilling its pledge on relevant tasks.