By Jennifer Jett
She was the first female CEO in the pharmaceutical industry and is currently one of only 23 female CEOs to lead Fortune 500 companies. Esquire named her one of its “Patriots of the Year” in 2011, and Fortune has ranked her among the country’s 50 most powerful women, coming in at number 37.
West Virginian Heather Bresch is the CEO of Mylan Inc., the third largest generic and specialty pharmaceutical company in the world, where she is responsible for a global work force of more than 20,000 employees.
With a shortage of women CEOs as examples of how to compete for and succeed in high-level executive positions, Bresch set out to blaze her own path to the top. By combining her core values of ambition, drive, compassion and generosity with hard work, she has created a unique leadership style that made her the ideal candidate for the CEO position at Mylan in 2012.
Bresch took some time to discuss with us her climb through the ranks of Mylan and provide insight into the pharmaceutical industry. Here, she discusses West Virginia’s business climate, advances in technology, the impact the Affordable Care Act will have on the pharmaceutical industry and her plans for the company’s future, which include doubling Mylan’s business through 2018.
WVE: As a native West Virginian and the CEO of Mylan Inc., tell us about the journey that has brought you to where you are today.
HB: My journey began at Mylan more than 20 years ago when I started as a data entry clerk. Over the course of the last two decades, I worked my way through roles in about 15 different functional areas, touching most aspects of our business. I think the holistic, diverse picture of our company I built from this experience has been instrumental to my success.
Along this journey, there were a few opportunities that were particularly important catalysts in my career. The first was serving as head of Government Affairs. This role, combined with my family’s background in politics and public service as I was growing up, led me to embrace public policy as a key factor in our business, as well as an area where we can make a real difference in people’s lives—this is truly an area where Mylan can do good and do well.
Another impactful role in my career was serving as Mylan’s chief operating officer and chief integration officer. In this role, I led the successful integration of two international acquisitions—Matrix Laboratories and Merck KGaA’s generics business, which more than doubled the size of the company and transformed Mylan from a purely U.S. company to a global one. This process allowed me to not only understand our company inside and out but to vertically and horizontally integrate Mylan in order to maximize our opportunities and the potential of our global platform.
WVE: How would you describe your model for success in running a large company?
HB: As a successful, 50-year-old company, it can be easy to rest on your laurels and keep doing things the same way. However, part of Mylan’s success in the past and what will drive our success going forward is a willingness to continually transform and challenge the status quo. I challenge everyone to look at their jobs with the mindset of “Is this the best way to be doing it?” And, if it isn’t, to put forth ideas of what would work better.
A key to our continuous transformation has been preserving and cultivating our unique culture. Mylan’s success has been the result of the commitment and passion of our employees, as well as our company’s unconventional and relentless approach. We have managed to maintain Mylan’s culture while growing from a few dozen employees to a work force of more than 20,000 people around the world today, and our challenge is to continue to preserve this culture as we double the size of our business through 2018.
WVE: As the CEO of a large company with strong roots in West Virginia, what is your perspective on the Mountain State’s business climate?
HB: West Virginia is known for its quality work force, which is a tremendous asset for a company such as Mylan. West Virginia’s success is important to me personally, having grown up here, and professionally, as Morgantown is home to our largest U.S. employee base.
Given the ongoing challenges in West Virginia that impact both the reality and the perception of the state’s business climate, such as the legal and tax environments, we are active in our efforts to ensure that West Virginia continues to evolve its business practices. Our efforts within the state are part of our overall efforts on a state and federal level to advocate for what is right, both for Mylan and for the patients we serve.
WVE: Tell us about some of the most important industry trends you are seeing in both the health care and pharmaceuticals industries.
HB: There are a number of macro trends shaping our industry, such as an aging population, a greater incidence of chronic disease, an emerging middle class in countries like India and China that is seeking greater access to health care and a greater availability of information, which allows greater consumer involvement. In addition, I see continued spiraling of health care costs putting significant pressures on many economies, particularly those with government-funded health care, which is forcing them to seek ways to lower costs and improve outcomes.
The health care industry is in the process of being redefined and, in fact, must be reinvented in order to meet today’s challenges and the rapidly changing policy environment. Since its inception, our health care system has focused on taking care of the sick rather than preventing illness. As a result, our nation’s health care spending, as a percent of the gross domestic product, is the highest in the world, yet our outcomes in terms of life expectancy are among the lowest. We rank 27th out of 33 countries in the developed world. I believe Mylan has a unique opportunity to lead the way in redefining this industry by driving access to affordable, high quality medicine for all and by engaging the consumer in their health care decision making.
WVE: Technology is continually changing, and those changes have an impact on every industry. Which technological advances do you see revolutionizing the pharmaceuticals industry?
HB: I believe mobile technology will transform how health care is delivered. By 2018, 5 billion people will have access to the Internet via their phones. The possibilities that this, and other technologies, creates in terms of access to medical information and treatment are boundless. We are looking at several ways to use technology to enhance engagement with our customers and consumers, improve access to information and achieve our mission of reaching 7 billion people. Personally, I am excited by the increased prevalence and affordability of teleconferencing capabilities that are allowing the acceleration of e-medicine.
WVE: What does the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mean for the future of pharmaceuticals?
HB: As a pharmaceutical company, the ACA should, theoretically, result in more insured lives seeking access to medicine, which would benefit us. Generic medicines, which represent the lion’s share of our business, are one of the prime sources of health care savings for consumers or payors, including insurance companies and government entities. For instance, over the last decade, generics have saved the U.S. government, payors and consumers more than $1 trillion. Regardless of the final impact of reform, we see the generic utilization continuing to increase and generics playing a vital role in the sustainability of our health care system.
WVE: As a major employer, how will the ACA affect Mylan?
HB: The ACA is impacting us both as a pharmaceutical company and as a large U.S. employer. As a large U.S. employer, Mylan must consider the ACA’s impact on the health care benefits we offer our employees and think long-term about how we must adapt to these changing dynamics. It is important to note that Mylan offers one of the most generous and affordable employer health benefits packages in the U.S. For more than 50 years, we have bucked the trend of passing health care costs along to our employees and instead absorbed the majority of our employees’ health care-related expenses.
However, health care costs are skyrocketing, and the ACA is mandating that employers with generous benefits packages such as ours pay additional federal taxes. All of these factors create significant cost burdens for companies like Mylan that provide excellent benefits. This is forcing businesses, including our own, to assess the sustainability of their health care offerings.
To preserve the exceptional benefits we have at Mylan, we are asking employees to serve as change agents with regard to adopting a preventive approach to health care. As a leading health care company, we want our people to be on the forefront of the evolution of our health care system and serve as an example of how taking an active role in their health can make a difference.
WVE: What do you see as potential growth areas for the health care industry both regionally and for Mylan specifically?
HB: Mylan’s differentiated operating platform, combined with our innovative commercial model, positions us to transform and innovate how we deliver medicine and health care. We are evolving from a pharmaceutical company to a health care company through a greater focus on differentiated products and services.
WVE: After 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, tell us what the best thing about your job is and what your biggest challenge is.
HB: The best thing about it is making a difference in people’s lives. Whether producing an orphan drug, which is used to treat an extremely rare medical condition; making a medicine affordable or innovating to make a medicine easier to take, we make a difference. While our mission is to get high-quality medicine to 7 billion people, we must always keep in mind how we impact the lives of each individual patient. Their stories are our inspiration.
The biggest challenge in our industry is staying ahead. Health care evolves at an extremely fast pace—virtually daily—and you can’t succeed by just keeping up. You have to stay ahead.
WVE: What advice would you give other women who are trying to work their way to the top of their industry?
HB: I’d like to believe that achieving a leadership position is all about competency, capability and ambition, so I try not to distinguish between the sexes when it comes to giving career advice. Having said that, there is a lot of discussion about what keeps women from entering the executive ranks. We have seen an increasing number of women succeed and reach the highest levels in functional roles, such as legal, marketing and human resources, but there continues to be fewer women in key business and operational roles where there is responsibility for profit and loss and the financial success of the business. These are the roles that often lead to becoming a CEO.
I think the obstacles for women in taking on these kinds of business roles start at a very early age and, ultimately, create a funnel that leads to a smaller talent pool of women for top business leadership positions. For instance, there is simply not enough focus on math and science for girls and building up girls’ confidence to excel in these areas. As a result, they begin to opt out of business and science curriculums in high school and college. Then, the funnel becomes narrower, as there are fewer women pursuing careers in those fields, resulting in a smaller pool of available talent for business and operational roles. Both society and women themselves play a role in creating this phenomenon. I hope that seeing me and other women in leadership roles, particularly in CEO positions, demonstrates to young women what is possible and expands their view of what their career options are.
WVE: What keeps you motivated?
HB: I am motivated every day by our mission of setting new standards in health care and providing high quality medicine to the world’s 7 billion people, as well as by the fact that we have the global platform necessary to actually achieve this goal. For us, this is much more than just words on a sheet of paper; it is something we live by. I am also motivated by our continued transformation and belief that we can continue to transform this industry. Finally, I have always been motivated by being underestimated, something that dates back to my childhood. When people—whether it’s investors, analysts, media or competitors—underestimate Mylan and our ability to achieve our goals, it makes me all the more resolved to deliver on or exceed them.
Photography by Tracy Toler
