A new triumvirate of biopharma bigwigs is in line to reign over one of the industry’s top trade groups.
The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) on Wednesday unveiled the upcoming lineup for its CEO leadership team over the next two years. Captaining the group as IFPMA’s new president and chair of the organization’s CEO steering committee will be Pfizer chief Albert Bourla. Beneath Bourla, Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker will act as IFPMA’s vice president alongside existing VP Sunao Manabe—the chief executive of Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo.
Bourla—who currently holds the position of IFPMA vice president—is picking up the presidential torch from Jean-Christophe Tellier, CEO and chairman of UCB, who’s held the position since Jan. 2021.
IFPMA is the pharma industry’s biggest global trade group, representing more than 90 drugmakers around the world. The organization is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and boasts official relations with the United Nations.
“As we stand on the cusp of a new era in scientific innovation, it has never been more important to harness the power of our partnerships across all health stakeholders so patients around the world can benefit from the next generation of medicines and vaccines,” Bourla said in a press statement.
Having steered Pfizer toward fame and fortune during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bourla represents an appropriate choice to succeed current president Tellier, who guided the group through what IFPMA director general Thomas Cueni called “the biggest global health emergency in a century.”
Reflecting on his tenure, Tellier said he was “proud to see the way in which our industry responded to the COVID pandemic."
IFPMA’s changing of the guard comes several months after the industry's U.S. trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), appointed Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan, M.D., as the new chair of its board of directors. At the same time, Gilead Sciences’ Daniel O’Day and Pfizer’s Bourla assumed new leadership positions on the organization’s board. Specifically, O’Day took up the post of board chair-elect, while Bourla became PhRMA’s board treasurer.
Narasimhan’s appointment at PhRMA came as the biopharma industry grappled with the passage of Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Signed into law in 2022, the IRA will allow the government to negotiate prices on the costliest drugs in Medicare starting in 2026. It also forces companies to pay rebates if they raise Medicare drug prices faster than the rate of inflation, and it sets an out-of-pocket cap for patients in Medicare, among other changes.
In light of those changes, Narasimhan has outlined three “core priorities” that the biopharma industry should target while the law is still being rolled out.
One is to “correct” the distinction allowing the government to negotiate prices on small-molecule drugs after nine years on the market. Another item high on the industry’s agenda, Narasimhan said, is to push pharmacy benefit manager reform. And the third area of focus for the Novartis chief is more scrutiny of hospital profits.