CEO Today Healthcare Awards

www.ceotodaymagazine.com 54 CEO Today Healthcare Awards 2018 USA Renaud Dehareng is the Global CEO of Curium, a manufacturer of radioactive pharmaceutical products. Curium has created what is widely regarded as the largest global platform in the nuclear medicine space through acquisitions and consolidation. Curium produces diagnostic and therapy solutions for over 14 million patients annually. What is nuclear medicine? Nuclear medicine scans provide unique information, acting as a key diagnostic method for a selection of life-critical diseases, e.g. in cardiology and oncology. Over 40 million procedures are performed worldwide every year, 80% of which are based on an isotope called Technetium (Tc99m). The latter is provided to hospitals via generators usually replaced on a weekly basis – Curium exclusively offers 100% low-enriched uranium (i.e. non-weapons grade) generators to the world market. Nuclear medicine is a branch of medicine that uses small amounts of radioactive isotopes to help diagnose, determine the severity of, or treat a variety of diseases, including certain types of cancers, heart disease, gastrointestinal, endocrine, neurological disorders and other abnormalities within the body. Because diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures can help visualize molecular activity within the body, they offer the potential to identify disease in its earliest stage, often before symptoms occur or before abnormalities can be detected with other diagnostic tests and can even help identify a patient’s response to therapeutic interventions. Larger amounts of radioactive isotopes can also be used for therapy for certain types of diseases. Nuclear Medicine diagnostic scans offer unique information, including details on both the function and anatomic structure of the body and have high sensitivity & specificity for cardiology and oncology. Are there any new products that Curium is currently working on? Curium has 5 new products currently in development with expected impact over the next several years and is evaluating more than 200 candidates for In-Licensing or Co-Investment. Amongst others we are currently working on a new product for the diagnosis of neuroendocrine tumors using a new isotope which is entering phase 3, a product for prostate cancer diagnosis, and other disease states. Five new products will hit market in 2019 and early 2020. Given the size of Curium, we have been building an inside strategic team which enables us to analyze and evaluate industry efforts to bring innovation to the clinical space, including the collaborators involved and the product being developed. Our team has been putting together a pipeline of about 200 opportunities in which Curium could invest, and we have an internal M&A team to deal with the licensing or purchase of the relevant technology, should we decide to go forward. We have created a platform that is big enough to generate substantial cash- flow, as well as maintain credibility with shareholders and prospective investors in order to invest into this innovation. With a full view of innovation opportunities in the industry, we can evaluate and fund the ones that we have decided to go for. We have built unique worldwide capabilities to execute on these innovations with expertise in development, regulatory affairs, compliance, commercialization and distribution. We take a holistic approach at new product development in nuclear medicine, across all key growth areas, both in diagnostic and therapy. As global leader with the most comprehensive product portfolio, we want to provide accelerated access to new nuclear medicine products to patients, on indications where true innovation is happening. To that purpose, we frequently organize scientific advisory boards with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), that help us shortlist compounds of highest value for patient care. As a result, we do not necessarily follow a specific indication per say, even if oncology stands out as an obvious area of focus, given the potential of nuclear medicine to address unmet needs and help cure patients in segments where current treatment pathway is not optimal. What are the key things to keep in mind when expanding a business to a global scale? It comes down to two