HIGHLIGHTS: Emma Walmsley - CEO of GSK

0:01Hi, everybody. Tune in to this short version of the podcast, which we do every Friday. For the long version, tune in on Wednesdays. Hi, everyone. I'm Nikolaj Tangen, the CEO of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund. And today I'm in really good company with Emma Wormsley, the CEO of GSK, one of the global leaders in pharmaceuticals. Now, we own 1.7 % of GSK valued at 1.3 billion US dollars. Emma, great to have you here. Wonderful to be here. Thanks for having me. I believe this is the second podcast ever in your life. The second ever. Wow. Looking forward very much to the conversation. Now, which areas of research excites you the most just now?

0:41What excites me most is when we can innovate in a way that has real impact at scale for patients around the world. So I'm incredibly excited about five new approvals for new drugs and vaccines that we're expecting to get this year, one down and another four to go. And that's the first wave of a cohort of, we think, 14 scale medicines and vaccines, each of the potential of more than£2 billion worth of sales that we expect to launch this decade. And that includes in areas of oncology and infectious diseases, in respiratory immunology, in HIV. And some of these, what's really exciting is when you have totally new technology platforms in pharmaceuticals.

1:27So, for example, in multiple myeloma, very nasty blood cancer where there are 180 ,000 new diagnoses every year, we have a new technology platform, something called antibody drug conjugates. And you have to think of these as like kind of biological missiles that have precision targeting for cancer, which means they can bring greater efficacy, but also with less side effects. So we hopefully have a new multiple myeloma drug that has data that proves it extends life expectancy by three years. That's a very big deal for these patients in terms of overall survival. In that new platform technology, another example of something totally new in emerging science is in a field called oligonucleotides.

2:16You have to think of these as a kind of spell check for RNA expression to correct the way disease develops. And there we may have a new functional cure for a horrible disease, hepatitis B, which impacts 250 million people around the world. So these are examples of new near-term assets. You are both in vaccines and in medicines. And how do these areas complement and each other? Well, vaccines are there fundamentally to prevent disease before it starts. And at GSK, we say we combine science, tech and talent to get ahead of disease. There is no better return on investment than vaccine technology.

3:00In fact, in healthcare, perhaps except for clean water, it really is a very powerful solution, mainly in infectious diseases. So when you see how you've used technology and how you use AI, what has it done for you so far? And how much more improvement will there be? Oh, I think we've hardly scratched the surface. We're already using it in the design of our clinical trials to predict outcomes, to be able to follow patterns of infectious diseases. So what do you think it will do, let's say, over the next five years? What will you do and how will you measure it? I think what we're going to do, I think this five years, I'd say definitely within 10 years.

3:42And I hope we'll have more and more examples along that way. But instead of having this linear process, we're going to move to more of a lab in a loop, which is an overused term. But you actually get into reverse translation, patient back rather than target out so that we can get to, frankly, faster, better outcomes with more precise targeting for patient cohorts. But Emma, aren't all pharmaceutical companies doing this? I hope so. Absolutely. I mean, there's a lot more... I mean, if not, I think you need to be pretty thick. But the thing is that what is this going to do to the competitive landscape?

4:24Well, what I hope... I mean, Nicolai, let's just step back. In the end, our job is to meet the enormous amount of unmet need there is out there in the world. and most of what we do doesn't work. I think it is a wonderful thing if this industry that frankly has, you know, too many negative Netflix movies made out about it, is able to show the world what science and technology combined can do for good. We still have so many diseases that don't have solutions around the world. You know, one of the biggest ones, the most exciting area for science, I think for the long term or we don't have good solutions is in everything to do with neurodegeneration, dementia and Alzheimer's.

5:12The trajectory of disease is going to change hugely, I think, over the next 10 or 20 years. If you imagine that metabolic disorders that are going to be, I think, you know, and their sequelae because of what's going on in these amazing discoveries in the obesity drugs is going to be less of a burden. But we're going to have triple the number of over 80s in 20 years' time than we have today. In the medical sector, there's always a trade-off between how you price your drugs and the availability and affordability. You don't think there is a trade-off? Well, I think there's occasionally tensions, but I don't...

5:51Has the tension changed? Is the tension changing in any way? Well, I don't see these as an either-or in any way. I think they are structurally... they have to be an and. Because you're not innovating unless you do it at scale. At GSK, we say we want to reach two and a half billion people this decade. It's one of the things that differentiates us. I think there is the scale of our impact relative to our size. I think there is a huge misunderstanding about the economics of our industry in terms of the pricing that is required to cover the cost of failure. and the value that drugs and vaccines bring to a healthcare system.

6:36And remember, what's expensive is treating sick people and having them in hospital. We all know an earlier diagnosis is better, an earlier intervention is better. So we need to value the innovation and recognise that there are so many diseases that don't have solutions yet. But at the same time, we have a social responsibility, I believe, to drive access. And there are two billion people in the world that don't have access to the health care they need. And it's not just a developing country agenda. By the way, GSK has been top of the access medicine or second of the access to medicines index every single year since it was founded.

7:14Drilling down on vaccines. I mean, vaccines got the world back on its feet. And then now there is so much misinformation and vaccine hesitancy and anti-vax and so on. Yeah. Just why is this? Let's remember, vaccines by definition are being given to healthy children or adults. It is preventative care. So you wake up in the morning. I can remember. I'm a mum of four. I remember taking my brand new babies, by the way, which were born in, I have experience of three different countries of giving birth and you have different vaccine policies or it felt like you did. And you have these questions. I've got this precious newborn.

7:53What is this? What am I giving them? What's it mean? and you want to have information. Then I think, obviously, we went through the global experience of COVID, which engendered huge pressure on the healthcare systems. And what does GSK do here? Well, our answer is what it has always been, okay? Which is you start off by saying, if you have the responsibility of, as we do today, frankly, vaccinating 40 % of the world's children through our global programs and a pipeline of new vaccines, of listening hard to people's questions, communicating transparently, underpinning everything with a 100 % commitment to quality and safety and trust in our products, and remembering shouting, trust us, as frankly a company that is a public company with responsibilities to shareholders and that has to generate profits from these things, is not the most effective way.

8:57So we seek to partner with governments to provide the data and total transparency and to frankly go to where people are with their questions, be it in the community, because that often is that as well, but also not to lose sight of the fact that, I mean, you know, the US spends$9 billion a year on the hospitalization of people from vaccines-preventable diseases. So, you know, I think we're working through an age where people have questions and we just need to calmly continue to underpin our work with, you know, the value set that we've been committed to for generations and keep answering people's questions.

9:41A bit more on the personal front here at the end. Sure. What is energy? Well, for me, it's something that is fuelled and allows you to keep getting back up, whatever the challenges are, but also inspire others as a leader to do more than they ever dreamt possible, both individually, but also as scale. And where do you get your energy from? Purpose.

10:17opportunity, curiosity, other human beings, the love of my family, and the deep belief that you get one life and you shouldn't waste a single second of it.