Josh Boger’s advice to pharma: stick to the plan

Last week I attended a talk by Josh Boger, CEO and founder of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Boger will be retiring from Vertex this May and spoke on “Lessons From a Lifetime in Biotech”.  One of his key ideas was that more biopharma companies should stick with their original business plan, even when things start getting hairy.

This advice is not new; I’ve heard recommendations like this before, in other contexts. On a much smaller scale, I encountered similar dilemmas during my dissertation research. When one experiment after another fails, how do you choose your strategy? Sticking to the plan sounds simple. What makes it so hard?

Sticking to the plan can be risky. When obstacles arise, you need the will to find a way around them. If you’re lucky, your work could lead to innovation and the potential to break away from the pack. If you’re unlucky, you could learn a lot but otherwise come away empty handed. Small wonder, then, why sticking to the plan can be hard, especially in an industry like pharma where development can go on for decades. Longer time lines mean more time for doubt to settle in, more time spent, more money spent. How long should you maintain a goal in the face of repeated failure?

Dr. Boger clarified that sticking to the plan wouldn’t lead to success for everyone, but might collectively lead to more spectacular successes as well as more spectacular failures. He mentioned that almost all blockbuster drugs were at one point dumped during development but later revived. Dr. Boger was concerned that  we may lose out on future success by prematurely ending research programs today (but never restarting them). Despite the challenges, the potential rewards of keeping a consistent goal are huge.

I found Dr. Boger’s philosophy and sense of adventure inspiring.  I wonder what he’ll be up to next.

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