Read the Conversation
Meeting highlights:
- Improving Access: 2025 brings significant challenges as well as promising opportunities, and Lilly is committed to expanding patient reach by accelerating the introduction of innovative medicines. In addition, the 30x30 social initiative has already benefited 24 million people in settings with limited resources.
- Partnerships with Impact: collaborations with regional partners such as Aspen and regulatory authorities have helped increase access for more patients earlier.
- Leveraging AI: Lilly embraces AI as a strategic tool to improve productivity, efficiency, and streamline operations, and allows teams to focus on strategic priorities across all areas of the organization. Therapeutic Areas of Focus: Lilly’s product portfolio includes major advances in cardiometabolic health, oncology, Alzheimer’s disease, and immunology. Buendia is enthusiastic about how these developments could address unmet medical needs and greatly improve patients' lives.
- Vision for the Future: Buendia aspires to expand patient access to Lilly’s breakthrough treatment products, strengthen partnerships, contribute to healthcare systems, and support his team’s professional growth, all while keeping Lilly values and patient needs central.
EF: How do you see 2025 from your perspective?
CB: This year is filled with both challenges and immense opportunities. The needs across South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa are significant, and we approach them with a strong sense of responsibility. At Lilly, our robust pipeline of innovative medicines is well-positioned to improve quality of life and extend life expectancy. These outcomes further advance the well-being of patients’ families, improve healthcare efficiency, and support economic growth through better health outcomes.
While Lilly’s growth has been steady, our CEO reminds us often that reflecting on the number of patients who could benefit from our innovative products brings a renewed sense of urgency, especially in our region. For us, 2025 has been the year of both opportunities and responsibility: a time to be bold and accelerate our efforts to reach more patients and bring hope and health to them.
EF: Access is a core focus for Lilly globally, with the 30x30 initiative aiming to reach 30 million people by 2030. How are you driving this in South Africa and the sub-Saharan region?
CB: In 2024, the 30x30 initiative accomplished 80% of Lilly’s goal to reach 30 million patients annually. This significant milestone has enabled us to serve 24 million patients in resource-limited settings, including our region, through three key pillars: programs that expand access, a pipeline of new products, and philanthropic efforts dedicated to improving access to quality care.
We are accelerating the launch of new products to enhance patient access to better treatments. The current strategy emphasizes collaboration and agility. Previously, introducing new products in different countries required extended periods due to lengthy internal regulatory processes. Recently, efforts have been made to streamline these procedures and shorten timelines, allowing more markets to access new medicines sooner.
Partnerships play a key role in our operations. For example, our strategic partnership with Aspen helps Lilly expand access and reach more patients by combining Lilly’s innovative product portfolio with the strong local presence of our partners. This joint effort creates synergies that support improved patient access and advance our goal to broaden availability in African countries.
EF: How can trust between the pharmaceutical sector and other stakeholders be strengthened in the region?
CB: Trust begins with a shared commitment to improving health outcomes. At Lilly, we engage proactively with key stakeholders, including regulatory authorities and partners, to emphasize the value that innovation delivers to both patients and healthcare systems. While the development of new medicines requires substantial efforts and investment, these new therapies have the capacity to halt disease progression, reduce long-term healthcare costs, and enhance the health sector.
I believe that innovation creates a virtuous cycle, where each new breakthrough medicine brings solutions to unmet medical needs. Over time, through access expansion, these advancements benefit wider populations. Our goal is to bring stakeholders together around this shared commitment, ensuring that healthcare systems continue to improve in sustainable ways.
EF: Many healthcare systems in sub-Saharan Africa have been heavily reliant on donor funding. With some of these funding streams now reduced, how can the region build more sustainable, domestically funded systems?
CB: Internally, we focus on making a lasting impact in sub-Saharan Africa through innovative medicines and the 30x30 initiative, ensuring our presence is both meaningful and sustainable. Externally, we are committed to adapting and building strong partnerships to tackle the unique challenges and opportunities to bring our medicines to more patients in the region. This is a continuous journey that requires us to be flexible, open-minded, and proactive in our actions.
No single stakeholder can solve this alone. Addressing this challenge requires collaboration from all sides. By working together—governments, industry, and local stakeholders—we can broaden access and create sustainable healthcare solutions that can create lasting solutions.
EF: Lilly is recognized globally for its use of AI. How are you applying it in a practical way in South Africa?
CB: At Lilly, AI is a strategic tool widely utilized across the whole organization. It significantly streamlines operations and enhances operational efficiency.
By utilizing AI, our teams can focus more on strategic initiatives and high-value activities. We actively encourage ourselves to embrace AI, not fear it. As I like to remind the team: “AI will not replace individuals, but those who choose not to use AI may be replaced by those who do”. It’s about leveraging technology to amplify human potential.
EF: You’ve described Lilly’s pipeline as one of the richest in the industry. Which therapeutic areas excite you most in terms of impact for Africa?
CB: Cardiometabolic health stands out, particularly with new treatments for diabetes and chronic weight management, given the growing burden of these diseases across Africa.
However, Lilly’s focus isn’t limited to just this area. Lilly’s pipeline also includes significant advancements in oncology, Alzheimer’s disease, and immunology. I’m confident that even greater innovations are on the horizon.
What excites me most about Lilly’s innovations is the potential to address unmet medical needs with treatments that can truly improve quality of life and extend life expectancy. This means helping people remain active in their families, communities, and workplaces. For conditions such as Diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease, which affect so many, the impact is especially significant and personal. Our sense of urgency comes from the belief that solutions are possible and the responsibility we have to deliver these solutions to patients who need them.
EF: Looking ahead to this time next year, what would you like to be able to say you’ve achieved?
CB: By this time next year, I’d like to transform our vision and strategic plans into reality. This includes accelerating and expanding patient access to Lilly products across the region, strengthening our partnerships, and making a meaningful and sustainable contribution to healthcare systems.
It is equally vital to nurture an environment where my team can develop both professionally and personally, feeling empowered and well-supported. For me, true success is reflected in the team's ability to thrive collectively as we achieve our objectives with integrity, excellence, and respect for people while keeping the patient at the center of our efforts.
EF: Finally, what challenge would you like to set for the healthcare sector in South Africa?
CB: While South Africa’s healthcare sector faces many challenges, there are also substantial opportunities for progress. It is the shared responsibility of the government, the private sector, including our own organization, and other stakeholders to work together, always putting patients’ needs first in every initiative. By combining our resources and strengths, we can help build a healthcare system that not only addresses today’s needs but is also prepared for future challenges. I am confident that with sustained commitment and a positive outlook, we can achieve real improvements and make a lasting difference in people’s lives and for the country as a whole.
