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al useTaking a Values-based Approach to Serving Patients and Healthcare Providers

What makes GSK’s approach different?

At GSK, our values oftrust, respect, integrity,and patient focus under-

pin everything we do. Guided bythese values, we expect our em-ployees to be accountable fortheir decisions and to feel em-powered to make choices thatfocus on the best interest of pa-tients.

Our vision is: to be the sci-ence-led healthcare companythat is the best at enabling positive patient and health sys-tem outcomes. By focusing onwhere patient need is greatestand where science is most fer-tile, we are putting plans inplace to accelerate the deliveryof innovative new products topatients and making decisionsthat, we believe, drive the great-est benefit for all.

In 2011, we enhanced ouralready rigorous policies andstandards to create a clear dis-tinction between scientific dia-logue and promotional activity.In doing so, our values have be-come more clearly reflected inhow we engage with our stakeholders.

Our business is not just aboutselling products — we truly be-lieve that guided by our

values, we can provide healthcaresolutions that generate improve-ments in patient health outcomesand create sustainable capacity inthe system. While we are inspiredby this way of working, we realizewe still have much work to do inorder to prove successful inachieving our vision.

The Pharmaceutical industry speaks aboutputting patients first.So, how does putting patients first translateinto how you do business?

Putting patients first meansputting the patient at the core ofall we do.

What are the most importantlessons you have learnedthroughout your career?

Two major lessons come tomind:

The first came earlier in my career whenI left Canada to run GSK’s Australianbusiness. It became very clear that Icould not step in to lead a business withthe mindset that I already had all theanswers to fix what I perceived to bethe problems. That is actually the quickest and easiest way to lose employees’ trust and be perceived asnot credible. This is why, when I cameback to Canada, it was important forme to begin my transition as leader ofthe Pharma business with what I call a Listen and Learn Tour. My goal was tomeet with various employees acrossthe business to hear their thoughts andperceptions about what was workingwell and what could be improved, and,based on this direct employee feed-back, I began to build the appropriateleadership platform.

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Two minutes with Mr. Paul Lirette

Canadian Pharmaceutical Marketing l June/July 2013 11

Paul Lirette, President,GlaxoSmithKline Inc.

Canadian Pharmaceutical Marketing l June/July 2013 12

It means patients’ needsdrive employee decisions, con-versations with physicians,meetings with regulators andrecommending bodies, and thepartnerships we undertake withpatient groups. Ultimately, it isabout all of us working togetherto provide healthcare solutionsthat generate improvements inpatient health outcomes, whilecreating sustainable capacity inour healthcare system.

On a more basic level, put-ting patients first also meansthinking about the patient jour-ney (both physical and emo-tional) and what we can do toimprove that journey. It alsomeans understanding the real-ity of our customers who im-pact patient care and how wecan help them help their pa-tients. We represent putting pa-tients first by bringing real lifepatient stories to employees, sothat they can truly understandand conceptualize the journeya patient takes from the momentthey are diagnosed, through var-ious treatment regimens, andonwards through their recoveryor acceptance of a chronic ill-ness. These stories help us tostep back from the day-to-dayroutine and better understandhow our work directly impactsthe patient, while also creatinga sense of responsibility and ur-gency to deliver our products topatients, quickly and effi-ciently. So far, our patient jour-ney experiences have beeninspiring and motivating foremployees — but this is justone step in bringing an outside-

in perspective to the work wedo. We continue to look forways to ensure we understandthe needs of our patients so thatwe can deliver the most value,which goes beyond providingjust medicines and vaccines.

To us, delivering value forour customers, like healthcareprofessionals, means listeningto what they need and whattheir patients need — nottelling them what we think theyneed. We have made it a prior-ity to build an understanding ofpatients’ needs and to keepthem in mind as we work toprovide customers with theright tools to help their pa-tients.

Our ultimate goal is tooffer true value through the de-sign of innovative customer so-lutions that solve customers’real challenges. Our PRI-ISME® program is an exampleof how we are committed to de-veloping strong collaborations,vibrant partnerships, and inno-vative approaches. Our invest-ment in this program provides for community-based chronicdisease prevention and man-agement, and it helps health-care providers support patientssuffering from asthma, dia-betes, chronic obstructive pul-monary disease (COPD), andprostate cancer. Originallylaunched in Québec in 1999,PRIISME® now consists ofmore than 50 regional activeand heritage projects acrossCanada — all meeting localcommunity healthcare needs.

Second, my role as Senior Vice-President and Area Director for Cen-tral Europe allowed me to adopt anew way of thinking about how wedo business, which, in turn, led to a new way of working. The Acceler-ated Delivery Programme (ADP) hashelped us execute our strategy by es-tablishing a disciplined and system-atic approach that drives ongoingperformance improvement. ADP doesthis by combining simple approachesdrawn from Organization Develop-ment, Lean Six Sigma, and ProjectManagement underpinned by theGSK Change Framework. Applyingthese approaches together deliversgreater effectiveness and efficiencyin an engaging way that, in turn, re-sults in improved capability and be-haviour.

I am so proud that our Canadian business has adopted this new frame-work, which has been essential in enabling us to simplify our way ofworking, streamline processes, provideclarity around accountability, and enhance teamwork — all with the goalto focus on achieving our vision: to bethe science-led healthcare companythat is the best at enabling positive patient and health system outcomes.

What perspective did you gainwhile working abroad thathelps inform your role at GSKCanada?

When I first left Canada for Australia in2005, I knew I would be back. I’mproud of my Canadian education, andit was very important for me to returnand share the lessons I learned with mycolleagues at GSK and others in the industry. Lessons that focus on the factthat we need to do more than just

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Canadian Pharmaceutical Marketing l June/July 2013 13

Additionally, we are alsovery proud of GSK’s OpenLab, located in Madrid. Here,external researchers work ontheir early stage researchalongside GSK scientists, ben-efiting from GSK facilities, re-sources, and knowledge tohelp advance their own re-search projects. The Tres Can-tos facility is intended to be anengine room of scientific in-novation, stimulating moreR&D into diseases that affectthe world’s poorest people.These diseases affect millionsof people, and, yet, R&D isstruggling, due to the com-plexity of the science and low return on investment. Byworking together, we strive tofind solutions in achieving im-proved outcomes.

What do you see as the role of pharma intoday’s challenginghealthcare system?

In Canada, research-based phar-maceutical and healthcare com-panies like GSK have theopportunity to move beyondselling products to providinghealthcare solutions that gener-ate improvements in patienthealth outcomes, while creatingsustainable capacity in ourhealthcare system. This chal-lenge requires all stakeholdersin the healthcare sector thathave an obligation to patientsand to citizens — industrypeers, healthcare professionals,universities, governments, char-ities, and regulators — to work

make medicines — we need to har-ness the opportunity to have a real im-pact on the healthcare system.

Working abroad has taught methat the pharmaceutical industry’s roleis to ensure that we can offer morethan just great science and innovativehealthcare products. We need to playa role in creating a collaborative envi-ronment that frees up capacity in thehealthcare system, while also improv-ing patient health outcomes. If we’resuccessful, not only will Canadian pa-tients experience improved quality oflife and health outcomes, but the bur-den on our healthcare system to re-main viable and sustainable will alsobe lessened as we learn to extractgreater value from our investments.

What makes you most proudto work for GSK?

That’s an easy one — because there isso much to be proud of. I am proud tobe part of an organization that is com-mitted to living by its values —puttingpatients first and working transpar-ently with integrity and respect forpeople.

In addition to our values, there arefour key areas that make me proud:

• The visible leadership in ourCanadian operations — thePharma Leadership Team is acces-sible to employees and transpar-ent with both internal andexternal audiences. This visibleleadership is apparent to employ-ees, as we now all sit on the mainfloor of our Mississauga office —at one table in an open space thatis easily accessible to everyone

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

Canadian Pharmaceutical Marketing l June/July 2013 14

together to identify the barriersto getting patients access to moremedicines, vaccines, medical de-vices, and healthcare products.

At GSK we strive to en-hance our ability to discover in-novative treatments by investingin the best science; researchingtreatments offering significantimprovements over existing op-tions; and accessing innovationthrough external collaborations.Essentially, this means that weare focusing our R&D invest-ment where the science is fertileand where patient needs areunmet. This is something we arevery proud of — and committedto — because there is still somuch we can do in this area.

Recent steps we have takenin this space include:

• In November 2012, welaunched the $50 millionLife Sciences InnovationFund, intended to advancecommercialization of scien-tific innovation in Canada.This fund will fuel innova-tive ideas and groundbreak-ing science with the goal ofsignificantly improving pa-tient health outcomes

• And very recently, GSK andthe Governments of Québecand Canada announced agree-ments solidifying a shared investment towards a new in-fluenza vaccine filling-line within GSK’s Sainte-Foy site.Sainte-Foy is one of the onlytwo GSK sites in the worldthat engages in pandemic in-fluenza vaccine filling, and itis the only domestic producerof pandemic influenza vaccine

Ultimately, the pharmaceuticalindustry’s role is to ensure thatwe can offer more than just greatscience and innovative health-care products. We need to estab-lish a collaborative environmentwhere academia, government,venture capital, and industrywork together to advance inno-vative ideas to market in order tocreate better patient health out-comes, while contributing to asustainable healthcare system.This is not just a good idea but anecessity for Canada.

• At GSK, we follow a rigorous set ofglobal principles and standards toemphasize the distinction betweennon-promotional scientific dialoguewith our external stakeholders andlegitimate promotional activity tosupport licensed products. Theseprinciples and standards are in-tended to maintain the highest stan-dards of engagement between GSKand external communities and to en-sure a patient-centric focus. I believein this approach, as it is essentiallyour license to operate in a highly reg-ulated industry that demands the appropriate level of ethics and compliance

• Our commitment to philanthropythrough Global initiatives, like a newpartnership with Save the Childrenthat aims to save the lives of one mil-lion children in need, our corporateOrange Days that allows employeesto take one paid day to do volunteerwork in their community, and ourlocal long-standing partnerships withUnited Way and the Canadian Hos-pice Palliative Care Association

And finally, I am so proud of thequality of my Canadian colleagueswho challenge and inspire meeveryday.

CPM