Read the Conversation
Meeting highlights:
- Sampada's Extensive Career and Leadership: With a diverse career across various positions, locations, and responsibilities, experience leading teams, managing products at different life cycles, overseeing market access, and driving patient engagement has uniquely positioned Sampada to lead Astellas in India.
- India’s Evolving Market: India has transformed into a more business-friendly market, with improvements in ease of doing business, a progressive regulatory and IP landscape, and rapid digitalization, revolutionizing the healthcare sector.
- Astellas' Strategic Focus on India: Astellas is undergoing a transformation in India, viewing it as a key driver of growth. With a focus on building a strong portfolio through new product launches and leveraging the country’s highly skilled talent pool, Astellas is committed to making global innovations more accessible to Indian patients as part of its long-term strategic vision.
- Patient-centric approach: the industry is moving beyond the pill, getting deeply involved in the entire patient journey. The approach prioritizes patient-centric solutions, aiming to enhance overall healthcare experiences and outcomes.
- Future Leadership Skills: Critical skills for the future include fostering cross-functional collaboration, balancing empowerment and delegation, staying grounded, and managing challenging situations, especially as a woman leader breaking barriers.
EF: What were the most transformative changes you have witnessed in the Indian market over the past few years? And how did this shape your mission and priorities in your current role as general manager at Astellas?
SG: Over the last few decades, India has evolved significantly in terms of ease of doing business, from regulatory and intellectual property (IP) landscapes to digital transformation. From medical reps carrying heavy visual aids to now using iPads and engaging the HCP digitally, all these changes have resulted in a tremendous positive shift. This shift was further accelerated during COVID-19, becoming the ‘standard’ way of working.
Astellas has been in India for almost 14 years, but for much of that time, our presence was limited to a few brands. Since last year, we have also embarked on a transformative journey in India, focusing on building a strong portfolio and preparing for the launch of global assets in the country.
Preparing for these launches is a key priority for me. With the combination of having the right talent, skills, and capabilities coupled with innovative medicines, our goal is to make a real positive impact on patients in India.
My journey in the pharmaceutical industry began 25 years ago. With a background in pharmacy, I decided to focus on sales and marketing and started my career as a medical rep. I then worked with other Indian companies like Ranbaxy, UniChem, and Lupin. Later, I transitioned to multinationals like Abbott India, Boehringer Ingelheim, and now Astellas.
Over this time, I took on various roles that challenged me, moving between sales and marketing, then gained experience in market access, patient engagement, and, later, healthcare strategy. India’s size and diversity bring unique challenges, which I experienced firsthand during my stint as sales head. I then moved into profit and loss (P&L) management, handling larger teams and businesses across various therapies ranging from mass and chronic to super specialties and rare diseases.
When I reflect on my journey now and how far I’ve come, for me personally, this feels significant, especially as a woman in this industry.
EF: Could you elaborate on your portfolio and footprint in India and how Astellas responds to the country’s healthcare needs?
SG: Our presence in India has primarily been through our portfolio in the transplant space, which remains our established business. However, we are expanding our portfolio into oncology. With our oncology assets, we will enter key therapy areas like acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), bladder cancer, and gastrointestinal (GI) cancer. Additionally, postmenopausal care offers yet another significant opportunity, particularly in addressing vasomotor symptoms (VMS). Over the next four to five years, these will be our focus areas, and we expect to bring more innovations beyond that.
EF: What are your access strategies in India, and could you tell us more about the partnerships you are building to help bring affordable innovation to the country?
SG: Access is closely tied to pricing, and we recognize that affordability impacts patient access. That is why we work with a broad array of healthcare stakeholders to develop sustainable solutions, including patient access programs (PAP) and patient support programs (PSP), which are all being considered for our upcoming product launches.
As part of this, we will explore various pricing and access solutions, such as patient access initiatives and value-based approaches to pricing our medicines. Both approaches consider a variety of factors, including geographic and socio-economic circumstances.
We remain committed to working with these stakeholders to find durable solutions that enable patients to have affordable access to our treatments, while still allowing us to invest in innovative new medicines.
EF: What strategic role does India have for Astellas? Where are the challenges and opportunities to navigate the country´s growing global role?
SG: On a global scale, India is considered one of the opportunity markets for Astellas, making it a significant growth driver. As one of the largest countries in the world, India’s importance cannot be overstated. We are bringing almost all our global innovative assets into the Indian market.
For Astellas’ long-term strategic vision, portfolio transformation is crucial, and our goal is to ensure that these assets successfully enter the Indian market.
However, launching four global assets in just four years is no small task. It keeps me up at night, but it is also incredibly exciting because, with each launch, we will have the potential to impact patients' lives significantly. Another major focus is ensuring we have the right capabilities and talent to support this journey. With these two pillars, portfolio transformation and the right capabilities, we are in a good position to increase our presence in the country as we move forward.
EF: What key skill sets are you looking for, and how are you building effective teams for Astellas’ future in the country?
SG: Attracting talent has been a really positive experience, given our exciting plans. For me, building a cohesive team is key to our success. Cross-functional collaboration is crucial, and team members must collaborate effectively as we prioritize empowerment and delegation. Humility is another important aspect, especially with many new team members coming from diverse and highly experienced backgrounds. Staying grounded, whether in success or failure, is therefore vital. We celebrate every small milestone on the journey of achieving the big goals we have set for ourselves. We balance hard work with celebration, ensuring dedication and a sense of achievement.
Diversity is very important to me, especially as a woman who has risen through the ranks, where female company heads and MDs are not commonplace. Since joining the company, our diversity ratio has nearly doubled, from 17% to over 30%. I strongly believe for every woman leader who reaches a senior position, there are ten more waiting! Mentoring and coaching them to achieve their aspirations is the best way to give back to them and the industry. This is something that I have been practising throughout my career. My current team is energetic and values agility and urgency because patients are waiting, and we need to act quickly.
EF: How do you translate Astellas’ mission and vision into your leadership and daily operations?
SG: At Astellas, we strive to become a cutting-edge, value-driven life science innovator. This means working at the forefront of healthcare change to turn innovative science into value for patients. Making a positive impact on patients' lives is the purpose behind everything we do.
We forge open and collaborative partnerships to develop new treatments and technologies, support HCPs to ensure patients can access our treatments, and do our part in improving healthcare systems.
EF: India is known as the Pharmacy of the World, but where do you see India advancing in the next 5-10 years?
SG: India's reputation as the pharmacy of the world is impressive and growing stronger. Its global healthcare presence is expanding, and the health start-up ecosystem is thriving. The number of healthcare start-ups has expanded multifold. For example, in chronic conditions, start-ups support possibly every stage of the patient's journey. It would be exciting to see how the start-ups integrate AI and machine learning with the goal of improving patients’ lives. India's booming health start-up ecosystem is as significant as its role in global pharmacy. There are exciting opportunities to create meaningful partnerships with patients at the center.
EF: When you raise your glass to celebrate your two years at Astellas soon, what will you be most proud of, and what will you say to your team?
SG: The past two years have been incredibly exciting. There has not been a single day where I have not woken up eager to tackle the challenges ahead. Astellas is a fantastic organization with strong values, vision, mission, and innovations that make a difference in patients' lives. Bringing that global innovation to India and knowing we’re making a real impact on patients' health fills me with pride. Being part of this transformative journey of evolving our portfolio, building capabilities, and strengthening talent makes me incredibly proud. I am sure my entire Astellas India team shares this excitement & pride as we accelerate this journey together.
