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Matins Esade with Carlos Gallardo, chair and CEO of Almirall

The chair and CEO of Almirall shared his views on innovation, the company’s strategic transformation, and the challenges facing the European pharmaceutical industry
Matins Almirall

 

It is imperative to revise European policies to boost Europe’s appeal as an innovation hub in the pharmaceutical sector,” was the idea that Carlos Gallardo stressed throughout his entire talk at Matins. The gathering was opened by Patricia Valentí, Esade Alumni director, and the speaker was introduced by Manel Peiró, director of the Esade Business School’s Institute for Healthcare Management.

Gallardo took a business and European perspective to analyze the importance of innovation and leadership, along with the main challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry in an environment marked by increasing competitive and regulatory pressure.

Gallardo began by explaining that Almirall is maintaining its steady commitment to research and development, to which it allocates a large chunk of its resources. In a highly regulated sector, “developing a medicine is a long, complex process that may take more than a decade, and with a limited chance of success, as is usual in the field of scientific research.”

One of the key junctures in the company’s evolution, he recalled, was the decision the company made in 2014 to sell its respiratory business in order to focus exclusively on medical dermatology. He explained that, “this strategic decision enabled efforts to be poured into a field with a high unmet medical need” and a heavy impact on patients’ quality of life.

Carlos Gallardo

Psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, two essential areas

Today, Almirall is strategically tackling pathologies like psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, among other skin diseases. Gallardo said that these treatments have made a significant contribution to the company’s growth and are allowing it to continue spearheading new research projects with the goal of having a positive impact on the lives of people who live with dermatological diseases. Within this context, he highlighted the fact that today Almirall is a touchstone in medical dermatology with a consolidated track record in sales and a product portfolio in different research phases.

The chair and CEO of Almirall particularly stressed the strictly medical nature of the dermatology in which the company works. “Our focus is on developing medications that the community of dermatologists prescribe, so our area is not aesthetic or cosmetic. If someone is familiar with our treatments, it’s usually because they suffer from a severe disease,” he said. Skin diseases are one of the top ten causes of disability around the world, according to the WHO, and they have a significant physical and psychological impact that affects patents’ mental health, sleep, and work life.

Gallardo also said that Almirall’s ambition is to lead medical dermatology worldwide, an aspiration that the company assesses via different indicators related to the impact on patients, the perception of dermatological specialists, and steady progress in innovation. “Medical dermatology is a broad, growing market which enables us to further our mission of developing new treatments for dermatological needs that are still uncovered.”

Europa is losing ground in pharmaceutical innovation

From a European perspective, Gallardo expressed his concern with the continent’s loss of competitiveness in the pharmaceutical sector. “Europe’s relative importance in innovation has declined in recent decades,” he said, and he pointed out that factors like regulatory complexity, long access times for medicines, the flight of clinical investigation, and the increase in geopolitical pressure have accentuated this situation. Within this context, he called for a review of European policies to boost the continent’s appeal as an innovation hub. “As long as we’re seen as a cost center and not a strategic sector, it will be difficult to reverse this trend,” he concluded.

To conclude, the chair and CEO of Almirall mentioned the impact of artificial intelligence on the pharmaceutical industry, an area in which the company is already developing an array of initiatives aimed at improving its research capacities, automating processes, and enhancing decision-making.

Thanks to CriteriaCaixa for making a new edition of Matins Esade possible and for supporting us in this space of debate and business reflection.

Watch the video of the session here

Matins Almirall
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