Heal the world: We meet Iris Loew-Friedrich of pharmaceutical giant UCB

The fact that Dr Iris LoewFriedrich “struggles with routine” and predictable career paths is what drove her from her vocation as a medical physician towards clinical research into medicines that treat immunological and neurological diseases such as arthritis and Parkinson’s. But with the typical journey from molecule design to usable medicine taking more than 10 years, she certainly couldn’t be accused of impatience.

As executive vice president and chief medical officer for global biopharmaceutical company UCB – headquartered in Brussels – the German national has multiple responsibilities and is rarely in one country for long. But among the multitasking, the singular aim at the heart of the job, she says, is understanding and meeting the needs of patients. Dr Loew-Friedrich finds time to talk to ING’s head of expatriates, Dave Deruytter, about radical changes to the pharma culture, Belgium’s inspiring environment, and being a global citizen.

How has your career path brought you here?

I started as a practising physician at Frankfurt University Hospital. As with many academic physicians, I was challenged to devote both 100% of my time to patient care and 100% to research. But you can’t compromise on patient care, and if you do research at midnight and over the weekends it will never be of the quality that you want. So I was thinking about what to do.

My father was employed in the German administration and, as a child, I was impressed that he always knew what he’d be doing in 10 years’ time. But when I became a teenager it felt quite scary that there were jobs like that. I realised that I struggle with routine, and a physician role that would come with a lot of routine wouldn’t work for me. While I was thinking about my next step, I got an offer from a pharma company who wanted me to do clinical research.

It was still about patient care and highquality science, so I joined the industry and agreed with myself that I would try it for a year. At the end I made a list of the pluses and minuses. There were three big pluses that outweighed all of the minuses, and they are still my big three. One was about working in teams. As a physician you are pretty much a lone decision-maker. Working internationally was very attractive for me, and thirdly, I learned that if there’s no narrow framework, you can take the space and be creative and innovate.

So I’ve stayed in the industry since 1992. A big part of developing a new medicine is exploring the safety and efficacy of the molecule in humans; I’ve always worked around this area in different capacities. My last position was head of research and development at Schwarz Pharma, which was acquired by UCB in 2006.

Is that when you came to Belgium?

I’ve been spending more and more time in Belgium since 2006, but I also still have very strong links back in Germany. I am really kind of a global citizen. I spend a lot of time in Belgium, some in Germany, some in the UK, and also a lot in the United States and, increasingly, Asia. So don’t expect me to be very often in one place.

What are the main aspects of your job?

I have three roles in UCB. I am head of development and medical practices. What’s behind that is ensuring the best possible way for our developmental medicines to become an approved medicine that’s hopefully better than the current standard of care. We need to ensure not only regulatory approval but that our molecules provide unique value for patients and the healthcare system.

A lot of projects are developed with partners and, increasingly, we are bringing the industry together to improve the processes, plus working with regulators and policymakers to ensure we align more than we’ve done in the past on a ‘patient value’ agenda.

My second role is chief medical officer. Whenever there is patient safety of our medicines concerned I get involved very early and, as UCB’s senior physician, am really the steward of benefit-risk of our molecules. Then the third job is being a member of the executive committee where I try to leave my other roles behind and, with my colleagues, work on strategy for the company.

How can you make the process work best?

The development of a new medicine is a very lengthy and costly process. Typically, from the invention of a molecule to getting it to patients, it takes more than 10 years. Only one out of maybe 1,000 molecules being designed actually makes it to patients. And depending on what statistics you look at, it takes between €1bn and €2.5bn to develop it. So what we are trying to do – with other industry partners and regulators – is find ways to accelerate the process.

Current clinical studies can include several hundred or thousand patients, and we are trying to find innovative designs and statistical approaches that will allow us to expose fewer patients.

But it’s not a unilateral decision and requires cooperation with and buy-in from regulatory authorities and payers. We’re trying to contribute our share of taking cost out of the system, but it can only happen with very strong collaboration.

Why is Belgium such an important pharma hub?

My experience of Belgium is it’s very business-friendly and very international, and so all the ingredients are there. It’s easy to attract international people. To work globally you need that. UCB is a very good illustration. We have more than 7,500 employees in 40 countries – 2,000 of them are based in Belgium and 25% of those are of foreign nationalities.

We have headquarters in Brussels and a strategic research and manufacturing site in Braine-l’Alleud. Belgium is an environment that really inspires research with very impressive academic institutions and a lot of biotech and start-up companies, which you also need to fuel the spirit of innovation.

In today’s world even the best companies cannot own all of the knowledge and science so we need to cooperate. Having an inspiring academic and corporate environment is very helpful and important.

Tell us about UCB’s patient-centred approach

We started to really focus on patient needs about 10 years ago and this has professionalised and become our strategy and key business focus. We have a rule that says we don’t start any activity without being very clear what it will actually do for people living with severe diseases. I’m not saying we’re perfect, but it’s a very deep commitment. For example, when we design a clinical study protocol the team goes into a retreat for a week or so and we always try to have a patient with us. Patients provide a very different perspective and the atmosphere changes when you have them in the room. They’ll tell us, there are too many visits to the hospital, there are too many questionnaires … they’ll help us to do it better.

And in today’s world you have other means to get input. We work with specialised companies who engage with patients in Facebook-style communities. And there’s a lot of data available that we use to try to understand what are relevant topics for patients.

The classical approach was that researchers got interested in a target, designed a molecule and then looked for what patients could benefit from it. Now we are turning this around 180 degrees and saying let’s start with the patients’ unmet needs and let’s understand the biology and then, based on that, find the molecules. For me that’s the most radical change our patient-focused approach has driven.

What role does technology play?

We are working more and more with real-world data – data outside our clinical studies – in trying to really understand what patient experiences with current treatments are. We work with specialist companies to search large quantities of literature and
information for specific questions. And we are building a capability to use big data and AI to better understand patient needs so we can generate additional insights for our work.

In our clinical studies, today we rely heavily on the clinical assessment of symptoms, but tomorrow it may be technology wearables that will help us with that. We’re all thinking about how we turn what currently is more of a toy into a device that is really useful in research. We’re looking at these solutions – such as devices that can remind you to take your medicines – as enhancers. The focus of our interest is always the highly differentiated medicine, but if we have tools that can help this medicine to be more impactful for patients, we’ll gladly take that.

Where does your personal life fit in to all this?

My life is shaped a lot by my professional life. I am married with 20-year-old twin daughters who are at university in London and Hamburg. I try to have as much quality time with my family as possible, and often spend time in London and Hamburg over weekends.
We have always tried to have one individual in the family taking care of the children full-time. In the early years my mother took care of this and later my husband, a biochemist, stepped in. As a family we have always travelled a lot. Beyond that I have no hobbies that require a lot of time. I enjoy reading and going to the theatre or the movies, and that doesn’t take much preparation.

This article first appeared in ING Expat Time. Photo: Bart Dewaele