Taren: Welcome to the WoW podcast program.

Araz: Thank you Taren. It's a pleasure to be here and to talk with you.

Taren: It is my pleasure to speak with you. Before we get into all that you're doing with Ferring. Can we talk a little bit about some of the travel you've been just embarked on? I understand you're back on the road after a couple of years of being limited by COVID. How does that experience feel like and what does it mean to you in terms of pulling your group together?

Araz: We are indeed back on the road. And, of course COVID is not yet over, but I think we're managing it and of course, when I joined Ferring three years ago, we actually embarked on building the organization. And a lot of that has happened during the COVID period virtually so naturally when the situation was under control we really were very keen to get back and connect at a personal level. I would say a couple of months has been somewhat hectic, but really very enjoyable and to really be back out and connect globally with the scientists. And to get to know each other because in our case, as I mentioned, we really started building the organization, so it was good to meet and greet people in person. Although, the teams and zooms worked really well to connect the dots. From that point of view, of course, it worked very well for us. But I think we're back to some level of reality in general, which is great to see — for the world for the scientists, for our economies. And we are also beginning to see in person, scientific symposium, and conferences starting to emerge again and it's great to be again out in the community, interact and really connect.

Taren: Wonderful. It's funny, because when you start to do that this travel again, do you find that you'll ever go back to the way it was traveling all the time? Or is it going to be somewhat of a hybrid so you can do still some do some zoom meetings, or will it be always all in person?

Araz: Well, I think COVID changed the way we think about travel and maybe life work balance, but also flexibility in terms of access to talent and the way we do work. I think all organizations now are in reflection as to how we can learn from that and what were the probably unnecessary if it's travel or other things that we were kind of imposing on ourselves and how we will transform the way we work the way we interact, learning from COVID experience, so I would say it will be a hybrid and that might not be necessarily a bad thing for some functions easier to really operate in a hybrid mode for of course, or lab scientists and the community in general. I think it's good to be back to be to be in the labs and connect because I think that's where innovation emerge. is by really talking by connecting and accessing the external world, traveling to universities to conferences and meeting and greeting other players as well. I'm eager to go back to some level of normality is knowing very well of course, certain practices that we were, operating under may as well change due to COVID.

Taren: Absolutely. Thank you so much, now let's get into what you do at Ferring, which is a leader in reproductive medicine and maternal health and in specialty areas with gastroenterology and urology. Now, I understand you oversee the global drug discovery and external innovation unit or GDDEI, which is the company's women led innovation engine. Can you share what this entails? Because that's a pretty big title and I don't know how you fit it all on your business card.

Araz: Well, thanks. Taren before I introduce my organization, I'd like to tell a little about Ferring and its beginnings and how it came to be the specialty biopharma. group where it is today. Actually, the company owes its existence to two scientists. They were a couple, Dr. Frederick and Eva Paulsen, and the two of them actually shared the passion for peptides and isolation and synthesis of various hormones for many clinical indications and they were very successful actually doing that and but they began their work on the research from two rented rooms in Sweden almost 70 years ago. So really started from very humble beginnings. But since then, the company has grown primarily through entrepreneurship in size and focus. Today we are 6000 employees across 56 countries. And our activities are really centered on three main therapy areas, reproductive medicine, maternal health, which is a key therapy area for us, and gastroenterology and urology. As for my own units, you're right it is GDDEI. This term stands for Global Drug Discovery and External Innovation. And it's exciting because it's a newly formed division within Ferring that started three years ago when I joined the company. Our mission is really to discover new medicines and build an early pipeline for the organization. As I mentioned before, we are a multinational team with researchers in our R&D sites in San Diego, which is a great hub for biotech, in Copenhagen, which has been our main R&D site in Ferring, and I also have a small satellite team in Israel. We consider ourselves to be the big thinkers for Ferring and the team is accountable for idea generation to clinical proof of concept, which is a big scope to cover. And for that we needed to build the scientific disciplines and expertise to be successful to discover new medicines, but also to be able to take them quickly from an early clinical development phase to establish a proof of concept. I am often asked also, what about building a pipeline? We have of course our own philosophy in Ferring about this. But for me, discovery really begins with science focusing on differentiated molecules, tackling unmet needs differently, utilizing different modalities that are available and at our disposal. I also believe that nowadays we should explore complementary mechanisms to allow for combination therapies because many of the diseases we try to solve are really complex. And it requires a combination therapy to combat the disease from many angles. The other part of the name GDDEI, the EEI part stands for external innovation, something that I believe is also very essential in building organizational capabilities and the pipeline. It's about looking outside ourselves and finding the right strategic partnerships and expertise to help us develop our pipeline. In our case, the external team is fully embedded within our own structure and there are many structures out there that connect external and internal environments. In our case, we deliberately went for an integrated model where the external innovation team is fully embedded in drug discovery. And we deliberately went for this model because I think it's very important for the scouts looking for external opportunities to really work very closely with our scientists on a day-to-day basis to identify the best science, best opportunities, but also forge collaborations with really trusted partners. So hopefully, that gives you a little bit about Ferring GDDEI and our mission in drug discovery.

Taren: It's a lot to unpack, there are a whole lot of moving pieces that you're responsible for. So I guess one of my initial questions is when you're looking at those new molecules, to bring in either singly or in combination, as you noted, what makes it a viable opportunity for you? What are some of the things that you look at?

Araz: We are the drug discovery arm, we're focusing firmly on the future so entrepreneurship is a key and within Ferring, the wider organization, is very committed to discovery, entrepreneurship, and scientific innovation. I think being a privately owned company we are uniquely positioned to pursue a cutting-edge science without the resource limitation of a large company and that the pressure of return on investment. In my mind, the decision making process and in strategy is the science, it's about innovation. I strongly believe that innovation matters, as there is a clear correlation between value creation of a product and its benefit for patients and payers alike. I often joke with my colleagues, also in the organization, that we in discovery have to be ahead of everyone else and have a strong vision about the future trends in science and technology and the trajectory of future treatment paradigms to the extent that we can. These are important elements of the strategy and decision making and at times is quite frankly, difficult. Because in discovery, you have to balance the focus on current areas, but also being brave and looking beyond to the new horizon and to go beyond the short term deliverables. In my mind in any drug discovery organization we need to step outside and explore new field. As I said Taren flexibility is very important. We talked about COVID earlier in our conversation, and it's amazing how fast the industry responded and provided effective vaccines within a year of the virus emerging. I think the pace of scientific innovation is so fast at the moment, and it's really important for us to be flexible, and to jump on opportunities as they arise. So in short, I think strategy-setting decision making in discovery has to be about managing the paradox, and it has to be led wisely, and focusing on short term but also long term deliverables. I could be biased but for me, this is one of the biggest appeal of staying in discovery, compared with other functions within R&D.

Taren: That's fantastic. Thank you so much for that those great insights. When you talk about innovation, where do you see the greatest opportunities for innovation coming from? Is it from academia is it from your own internal organic drug discovery programs? Or is it a combination or someplace else?

Araz: No, I think it has to be a combination. The internal discovery engine has to be very strong, powerful, and science-focused on diseases and opportunities. I think internal drug discovery plays a key role. But I think externally as well because science is so complex now and opportunities are numerous for a company our size. It's clearly part of our strategy not to innovate in isolation. So it's very important for us to tap into the ecosystem. And we have a lot of collaborations with academic groups, small startups, biotech companies, Big Pharma. And the area, to a certain extent, dictates the direction of the collaboration. For certain areas like reproductive medicine, maternal health, where we have to start from scratch, building the knowledge and innovating, I think necessitates collaborations with quite a lot of academic teams to build the basic science that is necessary before we even forge those ideas into our drug discovery programs. For other areas where there are a lot of mature assets, mature opportunities to collaborate in gastroenterology or oncology, are also of interest to us. And we are looking of course to a more mature forms of collaboration with players, for instance, with acids or technology platforms that will really help us at a clinical stage. I think we have a mixture of opportunities and as I said, the nature of the therapy area really dictates with whom one should collaborate and how.

Taren: There's a lot of talk about new technologies, which are helping to drive innovation, including data science, AI, not that that's new, but it's starting to come into the more mainstream, computational modeling. So what do those kinds of technologies mean to your strategic objectives? Are you including some of these technologies in the work you're doing?

Araz: In general, we are experiencing an avalanche of scientific breakthroughs in technology innovation in this field in general. And drug discovery is the ideal playground for testing and validating such new technologies, but it's important for me to marry biology with technology. And here of course, data sciences, artificial intelligence, machine learning play a key role in connecting the dots for us. Of course, we need to validate these technologies and in this context accessing well-curated databases, for instance, are essential so we can have confidence in the predictions and claims we make. And I believe this is still very much a work in progress. But with increased availability of human samples, appropriate biobanking large databases, etc. I'm really optimistic that this field is really heading in the right direction, and having the right foundation in place. Of course, identification of new therapeutic targets in discovery is a key driver for innovation and protein design characterization and looking for biomarkers for targeted engagement imaging assessment to predict efficacy, in preclinical as well as clinical trial settings. All of these are very good examples where computational sciences and AI and ML play a vital role in learning and bringing new insights. So, like many of our peers in industry, we have lots of proactive engagements in the space with external partners to enable advances. For instance, identifying new targets for reproductive medicine, maternal health, in gastroenterology, in irritable bowel disease where we still see significant unmet need. These are the areas where computational sciences and AI will be a great help. Another area, which is also important for data sciences is in the microbiome area. Our body has trillions of microorganisms and they of course affect our general health. I see the fusion of these technologies with the microbiome databases where we can really can generate actionable insights and knowledge for the industry. We can accelerate the science in those new areas and decipher that knowledge to discover new medicines.

Taren: Fantastic. One of the areas that obviously is a big focus for Ferring is in woman's health. Why do you think women's health is having such a moment right now?

Araz: Clearly, it's a very important area and we see significant unmet need. Ferring has been recognized as a world leader in this field for more than half a century we have been developing treatments for mothers and babies applying innovation in fertility and gynecology, to ensure parents have the best possible opportunities to build families. We're probably one of the very few pharmaceutical companies very active in this area and committed to drive innovation, but also has a portfolio of products spanning the full spectrum from conception to birth. In spite of having actually many products and successes in this area by us and others in the market, there are still significant unmet medical needs in fertility for both men and women, and diseases of pregnancy, such as recurrent pregnancy losses, preterm birth, postpartum hemorrhagic, endometriosis, etc. You name it. While we are really committed to tackling these fields, driving innovation, and generating new insights, there are significant challenges with those in the diseases and conditions of human health, because for many of these diseases we still don't understand at some molecular level what causes them and how we can best intervene and identify disease modifying therapies. Going back to the comments I made about external innovation, it's very, very important to forge and advance this field through collaboration. And in fact, in Ferring we have been very proactive, we have entered public private partnerships with the WHO and MSD to introduce a heat stable formulation for one of our drugs to prevent excessive bleeding after childbirth. I'm excited about this because with this treatment, we are hoping to really protect the lives of millions of women and their families. And in fact, when you look at this particular case, the bleeding after birth, the majority the cases occur in low- and middle-income countries are really tragic and avoidable if treated effectively and on time. I feel really with this partnership, and other efforts driving discovery and innovation in this field, we will be making a meaningful difference in in this area.

I think there is another angle in reproductive health, which we have to pay attention to and it's about inequality and disparity in accessing health. We are very aware of this and for me it's a serious issue that has to be addressed. These disparities persist because there's clearly a lack of dedicated research and investment by society and by the industry. I'm very pleased to say this year we have committed to provide substantial special funding to bring real solutions to tackle racial and social disparities in reproductive health. Clearly, there's a lot to do in this area, from a scientific perspective, from a social perspective. We are very committed to make a difference in this space.

Taren: That's wonderful. And I think it's great that you all are addressing this inequality in health, because I think that also was a result of COVID where we knew it was there, but it was brought into stark reality as a result of the pandemic. I also know that you are a proponent for including women in science when building an R&D organization. Why do you feel that's important in terms of driving innovation or economic output? Why does that make a difference to you?

Araz: Well, Taren, I think this is a very serious topic and maybe I will spend some time on it. I feel very passionate about this, I strongly believe that science reflects the people who drive it and diversity is at the heart of it. And women quite frankly, simply bring a different perspective. Creating an environment where true innovation can grow, can only happen by bringing together people with different backgrounds, culture, and thoughts. It’s very important for us, of course, to encourage women to be involved in science. At the same time, it pains me to see that women are still underrepresented in STEM and the statistics wherever we are not in our favor. So still only 30% of researchers worldwide are women, only 35% of all students enrolled in STEM are female. In my area, we are making great progress and we are bucking this trend. We have 50% female representation in discovery, I'm really proud that we are outperforming the status quo, but clearly we have a lot to do. At Ferring, I would like to make a point that we as women, we can hold up our company cofounder Eva Paulsen as an inspiration. She was a chemical engineer and an outstanding scientist. She is a real role model to all of us, which is very important. One of the issues we are dealing with at the moment with women in STEM is stereotyping and gender bias but also the glass ceiling. I often think about whether Eva Paulsen ever considered, when she started her career as a scientist, if there was a glass ceiling. She was unusual in in her day as a female scientist. She was passionate about what she did. And for me, clearly the message is to follow your heart and go for it.

There are many, long-standing biases and gender stereotyping, discouraging women from going into science. And quite frankly, if I think about when I started my career, it didn't cross my mind to talk about glass ceilings. In my day, I knew that it existed and as a female scientist, I was in the minority. And I had to accept that. But we also thought at that time, career progression was just about getting a foothold. And then doing a lot of hard work to get ahead. But, of course, now we realize that there are other issues that we need to tackle and we know better also as women how the real world works. While of course hard work is very important, there are other factors we women have to be aware of and work towards.

I'd like to mention a couple of points for women in general, that we need be aware of, and one of them is the career. I may be somewhat biased by what I have seen, but for many women, their career progression is less linear. If you compare it to men, and that's primarily due to motherhood and other family responsibilities, but it doesn't have to be any less exciting in terms of personal development, career development, or even work achievements. I don't want to generalize too much, but I do think that we women are task-oriented for instance, and because of that, many of us don't make enough time for intentional networking, which is quite important to get that mentorship and insight into your life and career. I also see other barriers and one of them is maybe our own making. We tend to be somewhat self-critical, and rate our performances lower than we should and this is because, going back to the origin of the problem, women don't get enough information that they need to step outside their comfort zone. My message to get ahead is: be brave, be evolved and explore new horizons — if it's in your private life, career or an academic environment. We should challenge ourselves and look forward to setting ambitious goals for ourselves. As I mentioned, creating the awareness is good, and I think we have been very proactive in doing that. But I think we need to work on concrete plans and actions and as a global society, we all share that responsibility. I don't think it's really for individual players to do something, it's for all of us to drive progress and close that gender gap because clearly, it's not going to happen in isolation. It needs every stakeholder to join in, and by that, I mean of course government education, national institutes, NGOs, corporate bodies, etc. Trying to tackle the glass ceiling just from the outside in my opinion, does more harm than good. We need to shift the needle, we need to move it, and we need to have concrete plans in place.

Looking back at my own personal situation and my own family background this has encouraged me to be a champion of women. I grew up in Iraqi Kurdistan among books and strong woman. And as you can imagine, this could be a potent combination and some may say even a lethal combination, to combine strong woman with books, but it was this environment that paved the way for me and my siblings to pursue a career in STEM. And in fact, in the family, this legacy continues. I have now have eight nieces and one nephew and all of them are in STEM with the exception of one. We often talk very openly about the challenges women face and I always try to share my own experiences — having worked in different countries, different companies. I want to help my siblings, but also my colleagues at work to reflect on our lives and I encourage women to take bold but really well-informed career decisions.

Taren: Araz, that is an amazing story, and all that you're doing and your passion for being a champion for women. Eva's a role model at Ferring, but I think that you're also a role model. And that's going to mean something to you because look at the path you're creating for those to come behind you, not just within your family. But within your organization. How does that responsibility feel to you?

Araz: Well, of course, it's a great responsibility. And, I personally take that very seriously, because I think we all have a role to play. I think raising the visibility of women in every profession is just so important and empowering women to achieve gender parity. And as I mentioned, it takes the accumulation of role models. We all have a role to play and for me, it's quite simply the matter of justice and passion. But I'm absolutely convinced this is also a matter of proven economic and social sense. After all, we women represent 50% of the population. Economically it makes great sense for us to be part of that and drive progress. And as I mentioned, I tried to be a champion for women and do what I can to be a role model but also actually mentor and provide advice and I encourage everybody to do so. So, if you are listening to us, and you've been asked to be a role model, and that's a call for my fellow women leaders, do that. And I think doing it may inspire a younger woman to do something that she wouldn't have done otherwise. If you're asked to be a mentor, say yes. If you're asked to be interviewed for a podcast like this one, I think we should go for it.

I also think as women are worried that we are too inexperienced to take on a role, I would encourage them to take a leap of faith and go for it. Because I think while we women tend to underestimate our abilities, I think men tend to overestimate theirs. It's very, very important that we set for ourselves really ambitious goals. In a corporate setting and in society, I think encouraging women begins really with a strong culture. We cannot do it without a strong system and policies being put in place to close the gender gap. It’s not only about men and women but it's also about all forms diversity and inclusion. I'm very conscious about that in my own work. I recently looked at my own team — we are 150 group of scientists, we have more than 30 different nationalities on the team — men and women from diverse countries, cultures and backgrounds. And it's great to learn from them learn and contribute. We are all united of course behind, our mission which is discovering new medicines, so it's great to witness that cultural mix and diversity of thoughts really coming together.

Taren: That's amazing. I love that you have such a diverse team. And I want to go back to something you said a little bit earlier that that lethal combination of women and books, that was just as a great soundbite. And it is it's about that empowerment piece. It's about knowing it's about wisdom. It's about education. It's about all those things you just talked about. So when you put together your team of 150 what are some of those characteristics you look for to help build a really high performing team to achieve the goals you're looking to do and to achieve the mission of the organization?

Araz: Building a high-performing team is very important in our pharma industry, considering the innovation trends, the organizational changes, because R&D is very much a moving target. Building a high-performing team is very important. And the key for me is building the right culture and environment in the organization. This is very, very important, but also is recruiting a stellar team, a team that is ready to go above and beyond and very eager to do something really big. For me there are some very important elements to consider and as a female executive, in still a male dominated world, it's important to lead with these principles: be innovative, passionate, brave, and curious and create that culture for the organization. Discovery and R&D in general has its own unique environment and one in which to flourish, requires what I call the three Cs at the company level. And those three Cs for me are curiosity, courage, and collaboration. I'm strong believer that it takes a certain R&D mindset to discover new medicines and to improve human health requires those three Cs of curiosity, courage and collaboration. Curiosity is all about finding answers that give rise to new questions and not to be afraid to embark on a new path. Discovery and development start with curiosity. And curiosity is about smart people with great ideas. And then as a leader, you have to create the organization and the ability to execute. I think courage is also important. And this is about the willingness to take risks, and I think in our line of work this is very, very important. I want to help our scientists to approach their work with that mindset, to give them a license to show courage to voice their thinking freely, and not to be afraid to fail. Because having the right talent will never be enough if our people don't feel trusted to share their smart ideas. And collaboration. This is another key as a catalyst for success. And while we have brilliant scientists in house, we cannot innovate in isolation — nobody can innovate in isolation. Collaboration is important and can be defined in many ways. For me, it's creating that environment to encourage trust and an open exchange of ideas and to create the right partnerships and opportunities for us to bolster our scientific and technology expertise. Again, going broadly into a diverse ecosystem collaborating with biotech companies, academia, research organizations, NGOs, etc. For me, high performance is about environment and about people, their passion, and their great ideas.

Taren: I love the three Cs really, it's a great management philosophy. Speaking of management philosophies, what is some of the best leadership advice you ever received?

Araz: I've been fortunate to work with so many leaders who have influenced me — men and women — who showed their trust in me and gave me a lot of opportunities to grow. I think that the advice to be yourself and more importantly, to believe in yourself is the best advice I've received. And of course, it's as valid in leadership as elsewhere in life. To be yourself also means being honest. In the sense of being true to yourself and others. I think if you are truly honest, it empowers you to do the right things automatically, and to form and defend your own opinion. To believe in yourself, especially as a woman leader is very important.

The other solid piece of advice I received is to be very transparent, to be as transparent as you can with everybody, with your team members, with your stakeholders. And this is especially important in the R&D environment. Because the more you share with your teams and your stakeholders, the more they know about your thinking, your direction, your vision, and the more you share that direction and vision you can go toward where you need to go as a team. It's important to create that environment where communication is good and the vision is shared. Also, create a sharing of the purpose.

Perhaps my own family background and upbringing influenced that you need to be yourself and be authentic and to believe in yourself. And this is something I bring to my work.

Taren: You've talked about your family a couple of times now. Can you share a little bit more how were you influenced by those the other women in your family?

Araz: I was born and grew up in Erbil, the Kurdish capital in the north of Iraq, a place deeply rooted in history, it’s six millennium old, one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. I did my grad degree in Baghdad, which was far from the north and this was a great experience because being away from home for the first time, of course, I was homesick, but getting to know many friends and colleagues from different nationalities, ethnicities, religious background was extremely interesting. Homesickness soon disappeared when I studied in Baghdad, but of course growing up in that environment, growing up with people who share the passion for education really played a key role in my thinking around my own career, my eagerness to work in R&D because I had my own pharmacy, I was very comfortable. But I was interested to discover new medicines. This drove me to the west to do a PhD in Belgium and then join industry. That path took me to many countries and companies, but I think at home, reading is a must. I was very much influenced by that environment by my parents and the bigger family.

Taren: I love that. You've touched on so many really important areas. It's been a conversation filled with wow moments, but I'm going to ask you to narrow it down. Can you share with us a moment that either transformed or changed your career?

Araz: Working in the pharma industry, it's so rewarding because of being part of a purpose-driven industry and mission where I can really make a difference to people's quality of life and health. For me, there’s nothing more rewarding than just being a player in this field. It's not easy of course, the journey to discover new medicines has long been beset by many failures and I've had such a rewarding and varied career and very fortunate to grow across the industry in various disciplines, across countries and companies. The wow moment was truly when I was working at Janssen and we succeeded in winning the approval for our first HIV drug, this was truly exciting and at the same time, a very humbling moment for me. Later, on a trip to South Africa, it was brought home to me because seeing the scale of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa and the devastation this disease caused to people’s lives and the country's economy, really underlined the importance of discovery of life-changing medicines. So of course, now my quest continues with my team, I am looking forward to continuing that journey to create a great environment and also bring new medicines to patients who are in need. So for me, the Wow moment, has to be when we discover something and successfully bring it to patients.

Taren: Araz there's no doubt in my mind you will be successful in your quest and that you will continue to drive innovative medicines to help underserved populations, in this case of Ferring. And I want to congratulate you on your success to date and look forward to seeing what's to come. Thank you so much for being part of our WoW podcast program. It's been a fascinating conversation, and I can't thank you enough.

Araz: Thank you, Taren for having me here.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Wow, the Woman of the Week podcast. For more while episodes visit PharmaVoice.com This 2022 program is copyrighted by Industry Dive.