M’s the word: Why I’m in pharma?
To change lives for the better. Aren't we all?
By on Sep 2, 2011Some months ago, I committed to being recorded for a promotional video.
I turned up yesterday at a location in the heart of Berlin. I was pretty disorientated.
Anyone who knows me will confirm that usually means I turned round once ... but after lining up on the gaffer tape marks, and facing towards the white screen, I happened to glance over my shoulder to see the Brandenburg Gate, which was something of a shock.
From below, it is an amazing structure, but when you get half way up, and can see the winged rider, you are filled with a sense of awe.
Berlin is a strange place. People say it is poor but sexy. I am not convinced this is appropriate, it sounds like so much marketing hype to me.
I have been here for 10 months now, through the coldest winter I have ever experienced.
I can testify to the poor; the snow was allowed to build up until the pavements were treacherous ice-rinks.
It is now grey and overcast, but for several weeks we had glorious sunshine.
I do not find it at all sexy. I do not think you love Berlin, like you might London or Paris.
Instead it seems to grow into you like the damp, to the point where you feel Berlin inside you. You start to defend it in conversation.
Anyway, the filming took place in a Gehry building, lots of space and shiny metal.
I spoke to someone who works in our liaison office, who explained the value of an office in a building near the parliament building, which made perfect sense.
We talked about corporate culture. It is difficult, against the vista of the Tor, not to feel a sense of grandeur, the majesty of the place and the power.
In these austere times, the lowering presence engendered by that backdrop can be a little challenging for a pharmaceutical company.
Which really presents you with a dilemma. On the one hand, you want to emphasize that most of your profits go into research, to change lives for the better.
On the other hand, we want to project a sense of permanence, and to generate trust that you know what you are doing, because you have been around for a long time.
I suppose you strive for a confident humility.
Standing in the glare of the arc lights, with my shirt getting more crumpled by the minute, and with sweat pouring down my brow, it was difficult to strike that balance-until the interviewer asked me why I am in pharmaceuticals.
I bit back the desire to say it is a little late in the day to change to something else, but even before I could make a joke of it, I heard myself telling the story of a discussion I had with a leading physician, only a couple of months ago.
In an unsteady voice, he told me he had recently attended the funeral of one of his patients.
He had found it difficult to talk to the bereaved husband, until the man spoke: "She died from breast cancer, David, not PAH."
I am in this business to change lives for the better.
I would like to think everyone in pharmaceuticals would make that claim, but sometimes I am not so sure.
Despite the effect of the drugs we develop, produce and market, our industry has a poor image.
We are down there with lawyers, newspaper proprietors, oil companies and nuclear power.