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Mr. Paul Lirette

t GSK, our values of

trust, respect, integrity,
and patient focus underpin everything we do. Guided by
these values, we expect our employees to be accountable for
their decisions and to feel empowered to make choices that
focus on the best interest of patients.
Our vision is: to be the science-led healthcare company
that is the best at enabling
positive patient and health system outcomes. By focusing on
where patient need is greatest
and where science is most fertile, we are putting plans in
place to accelerate the delivery
of innovative new products to
patients and making decisions
that, we believe, drive the greatest benefit for all.
In 2011, we enhanced our
already rigorous policies and
standards to create a clear distinction between scientific dialogue and promotional activity.
In doing so, our values have become more clearly reflected in
how we engage with our
stakeholders.
Our business is not just about
selling products we truly believe that guided by our

? What are the most important

lessons you have learned
throughout your career?
Two major lessons come to
mind:

Paul Lirette, President,

GlaxoSmithKline Inc.

values, we can provide healthcare

solutions that generate improvements in patient health outcomes
and create sustainable capacity in
the system. While we are inspired
by this way of working, we realize
we still have much work to do in
order to prove successful in
achieving our vision.

The Pharmaceutical
industry speaks about
putting patients first.
So, how does putting
patients first translate
into how you do
business?

The first came earlier in my career when

I left Canada to run GSKs Australian
business. It became very clear that I
could not step in to lead a business with
the mindset that I already had all the
answers to fix what I perceived to be
the problems. That is actually the
quickest and easiest way to lose
employees trust and be perceived as
not credible. This is why, when I came
back to Canada, it was important for
me to begin my transition as leader of
the Pharma business with what I call
a Listen and Learn Tour. My goal was to
meet with various employees across
the business to hear their thoughts and
perceptions about what was working
well and what could be improved, and,
based on this direct employee feedback, I began to build the appropriate
leadership platform.

Putting patients first means

putting the patient at the core of
all we do.
Canadian Pharmaceutical Marketing l June/July 2013

11

It means patients needs

drive employee decisions, conversations with physicians,
meetings with regulators and
recommending bodies, and the
partnerships we undertake with
patient groups. Ultimately, it is
about all of us working together
to provide healthcare solutions
that generate improvements in
patient health outcomes, while
creating sustainable capacity in
our healthcare system.
On a more basic level, putting patients first also means
thinking about the patient journey (both physical and emotional) and what we can do to
improve that journey. It also
means understanding the reality of our customers who impact patient care and how we
can help them help their patients. We represent putting patients first by bringing real life
patient stories to employees, so
that they can truly understand
and conceptualize the journey
a patient takes from the moment
they are diagnosed, through various treatment regimens, and
onwards through their recovery
or acceptance of a chronic illness. These stories help us to
step back from the day-to-day
routine and better understand
how our work directly impacts
the patient, while also creating
a sense of responsibility and urgency to deliver our products to
patients, quickly and efficiently. So far, our patient journey experiences have been
inspiring and motivating for
employees but this is just
one step in bringing an outside-

12

in perspective to the work we

do. We continue to look for
ways to ensure we understand
the needs of our patients so that
we can deliver the most value,
which goes beyond providing
just medicines and vaccines.
To us, delivering value for
our customers, like healthcare
professionals, means listening
to what they need and what
their patients need not
telling them what we think they
need. We have made it a priority to build an understanding of
patients needs and to keep
them in mind as we work to
provide customers with the
right tools to help their patients.
Our ultimate goal is to
offer true value through the design of innovative customer solutions that solve customers
real challenges. Our PRIISME program is an example
of how we are committed to developing strong collaborations,
vibrant partnerships, and innovative approaches. Our investment in this program provides
for community-based chronic
disease prevention and management, and it helps healthcare providers support patients
suffering from asthma, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and
prostate cancer. Originally
launched in Qubec in 1999,
PRIISME now consists of
more than 50 regional active
and heritage projects across
Canada all meeting local
community healthcare needs.

Canadian Pharmaceutical Marketing l June/July 2013

Second, my role as Senior VicePresident and Area Director for Central Europe allowed me to adopt a
new way of thinking about how we
do business, which, in turn, led to
a new way of working. The Accelerated Delivery Programme (ADP) has
helped us execute our strategy by establishing a disciplined and systematic approach that drives ongoing
performance improvement. ADP does
this by combining simple approaches
drawn from Organization Development, Lean Six Sigma, and Project
Management underpinned by the
GSK Change Framework. Applying
these approaches together delivers
greater effectiveness and efficiency
in an engaging way that, in turn, results in improved capability and behaviour.
I am so proud that our Canadian
business has adopted this new framework, which has been essential in
enabling us to simplify our way of
working, streamline processes, provide
clarity around accountability, and
enhance teamwork all with the goal
to focus on achieving our vision: to be
the science-led healthcare company
that is the best at enabling positive
patient and health system outcomes.

? What perspective did you gain

while working abroad that
helps inform your role at GSK
Canada?
When I first left Canada for Australia in
2005, I knew I would be back. Im
proud of my Canadian education, and
it was very important for me to return
and share the lessons I learned with my
colleagues at GSK and others in the
industry. Lessons that focus on the fact
that we need to do more than just

make medicines we need to harness the opportunity to have a real impact on the healthcare system.
Working abroad has taught me
that the pharmaceutical industrys role
is to ensure that we can offer more
than just great science and innovative
healthcare products. We need to play
a role in creating a collaborative environment that frees up capacity in the
healthcare system, while also improving patient health outcomes. If were
successful, not only will Canadian patients experience improved quality of
life and health outcomes, but the burden on our healthcare system to remain viable and sustainable will also
be lessened as we learn to extract
greater value from our investments.

? What makes you most proud

to work for GSK?
Thats an easy one because there is
so much to be proud of. I am proud to
be part of an organization that is committed to living by its values putting
patients first and working transparently with integrity and respect for
people.
In addition to our values, there are
four key areas that make me proud:

The visible leadership in our

Canadian operations the
Pharma Leadership Team is accessible to employees and transparent with both internal and
external audiences. This visible
leadership is apparent to employees, as we now all sit on the main
floor of our Mississauga office
at one table in an open space that
is easily accessible to everyone

GSK and Save the Children launch a new global partnership with
the goal to save the lives of one million children. This unique
collaboration will see the two organizations work together in a very
different way, sharing expertise, resources, reach, and influence to
tackle some of the leading causes of childhood deaths

Additionally, we are also

very proud of GSKs Open
Lab, located in Madrid. Here,
external researchers work on
their early stage research
alongside GSK scientists, benefiting from GSK facilities, resources, and knowledge to
help advance their own research projects. The Tres Cantos facility is intended to be an
engine room of scientific innovation, stimulating more
R&D into diseases that affect
the worlds poorest people.
These diseases affect millions
of people, and, yet, R&D is
struggling, due to the complexity of the science and
low return on investment. By
working together, we strive to
find solutions in achieving improved outcomes.

What do you see as

the role of pharma in
todays challenging
healthcare system?
In Canada, research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies like GSK have the
opportunity to move beyond
selling products to providing
healthcare solutions that generate improvements in patient
health outcomes, while creating
sustainable capacity in our
healthcare system. This challenge requires all stakeholders
in the healthcare sector that
have an obligation to patients
and to citizens industry
peers, healthcare professionals,
universities, governments, charities, and regulators to work

Canadian Pharmaceutical Marketing l June/July 2013

13

together to identify the barriers

to getting patients access to more
medicines, vaccines, medical devices, and healthcare products.
At GSK we strive to enhance our ability to discover innovative treatments by investing
in the best science; researching
treatments offering significant
improvements over existing options; and accessing innovation
through external collaborations.
Essentially, this means that we
are focusing our R&D investment where the science is fertile
and where patient needs are
unmet. This is something we are
very proud of and committed
to because there is still so
much we can do in this area.
Recent steps we have taken
in this space include:
In November 2012, we
launched the $50 million
Life Sciences Innovation
Fund, intended to advance
commercialization of scientific innovation in Canada.
This fund will fuel innovative ideas and groundbreaking science with the goal of
significantly improving patient health outcomes

14

And very recently, GSK and

the Governments of Qubec
and Canada announced agreements solidifying a shared
investment towards a new influenza vaccine filling-line
within GSKs Sainte-Foy site.
Sainte-Foy is one of the only
two GSK sites in the world
that engages in pandemic influenza vaccine filling, and it
is the only domestic producer
of pandemic influenza vaccine
Ultimately, the pharmaceutical
industrys role is to ensure that
we can offer more than just great
science and innovative healthcare products. We need to establish a collaborative environment
where academia, government,
venture capital, and industry
work together to advance innovative ideas to market in order to
create better patient health outcomes, while contributing to a
sustainable healthcare system.
This is not just a good idea but a
necessity for Canada.
CPM

Canadian Pharmaceutical Marketing l June/July 2013

At GSK, we follow a rigorous set of

global principles and standards to
emphasize the distinction between
non-promotional scientific dialogue
with our external stakeholders and
legitimate promotional activity to
support licensed products. These
principles and standards are intended to maintain the highest standards of engagement between GSK
and external communities and to ensure a patient-centric focus. I believe
in this approach, as it is essentially
our license to operate in a highly regulated industry that demands the
appropriate level of ethics and
compliance
Our commitment to philanthropy
through Global initiatives, like a new
partnership with Save the Children
that aims to save the lives of one million children in need, our corporate
Orange Days that allows employees
to take one paid day to do volunteer
work in their community, and our
local long-standing partnerships with
United Way and the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association
And finally, I am so proud of the
quality of my Canadian colleagues
who challenge and inspire me
everyday.