Stef Heylen is the new Managing Director and COO of Janssen Pharmaceutica (Belgium), since November 2016. After a half year in this position, it is a good time for BioVox to have an interview with him. Heylen discusses the position of the Janssen campus in Belgium in a global context, tells us how Janssen remains at the forefront of scientific breakthroughs and sheds light on some interesting new, ongoing clinical trials.
The global position of Janssen Pharmaceutica
Heylen: From the five therapeutic areas, Janssen Belgium has world-class expertise in the field of neurosciences, oncology, and infectious diseases. In addition, we have a dedicated research lab studying immunosciences. We’re also the sole site within Janssen focusing on the development of small molecules, which is still more than 50% of the Janssen portfolio. Linked to this, we just got approval to invest about 43 million dollars to bring all the development capabilities for small molecules together in one building in Beerse. The building will open in 2019. The success of the Janssen campus in Belgium is partially thanks to the presence of a unique ecosystem, which is built on a few fundamental pillars:- High-level education, thanks to renowned and high-ranking universities.
- An innovation network through a thriving biotech sector, supported by research centers such as VIB. This network includes university spin-offs built onto very solid biotech companies (a few nice examples are DevGen, Ablynx, and Galapagos).
- A very good healthcare system that’s largely accessible to everybody.
Collaborations are at the heart of Janssen
Heylen: Here in Beerse, we have an incubator where startups can get office and lab space and access to research and funding. The difficulty for many startups is that they might have a great scientific idea, but to transform that idea into a product that can be administered to humans, you need a set of unique capabilities. You can find all those capabilities here on site. We are willing to share our expertise and help make those companies successful. We don’t expect anything in return; we only hope that through close interactions with these companies, Janssen will be the first company they think about when they want to grow or partner. We want to be on their shortlist. We currently have six companies here on site: S-Biomedic, Caelus Health, Octimet Oncology, eTheRNA, Clarity Genomics, and ProteoFormiX.The vast majority of all science happens outside of your walls, so you need to be able to get a foot in the door.Not to brag, but I really believe that partnering is in our genes. About 50% of our portfolio comes from early acquisitions and partnering. The vast majority of all science happens outside of your walls, so you need to be able to get a foot in the door. Through our Innovation Centers in Shanghai, London, San Francisco, and Boston, which have brought in more than 250 deals over the last 4 years, we have set up a system that allows us to tap into science wherever it happens, be it in academia or in startups. This is an essential component of our scientific strategy. The goal of the Innovation Centers is to act as one-stop shops for startups. If they want to collaborate with us, they should knock at the (digital) door of one of the Innovation Centers, where our in-house scientists will take a close look at the project. They will quickly evaluate whether it suits one of Janssen’s therapeutic targets. If we want to make a deal, we make sure to work constructively and jointly with the partner.
