OncoDaily Dialogues #1 – Harout Semerjian / Hosted by Roupen Odabashian

We’re thrilled to launch our new series, “OncoDaily Dialogues”. This initiative by OncoDaily is designed to spotlight leaders in the field of oncology, sharing their stories of success, challenges, and life lessons.

For our inaugural dialogue, we’re honored to welcome Harout Semerjian, the President and CEO of GlycoMimetics, as our guest. Mr. Semerjian possesses extensive experience in both biotech and big pharma. He began his career as a pharma representative in Lebanon before ascending to a leadership role at the multinational giant, Novartis. When he departed the company, he held the position of Senior Vice President and Global Launch Lead for Ribociclib. Subsequently, before joining GlycoMimetics, he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Immunomedics and as EVP and Chief Commercial Officer of Ipsen. Harout earned his MBAs from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management and Queen’s University, and he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the Lebanese American University.

Our host is Dr. Roupen Odabashian, hematology/oncology fellow at Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, USA. Beyond his clinical practice, Dr. Odabashian possesses an unwavering passion for delving into the intricacies of healthcare policy, regulations and Oncology. He understands the multifaceted nature of cancer as a medical condition and acknowledges the various stakeholders and regulatory bodies that influence the delivery and administration of Cancer treatments. In alignment with this commitment, he has joined OncoDaily, where he plays a pivotal role in conducting interviews with Leaders of the Cancer world.

About OncoDaily 

OncoDaily was founded in 2023. It is a US-based oncology media platform, which features the latest news, insights, and patient stories from the world of oncology. Within a short period of time it became one of the leading oncology media platforms globally.

OncoDaily gathers content from various sources, including social media posts from renowned oncologists from all over the world, news from oncology societies and cancer centers, patient and survivor stories, and career-related information for professionals.

The mission of OncoDaily is to empower patients, survivors, and professionals with the knowledge and inspiration they need to fight cancer. The motto of OncoDaily is “Cancer doesn’t take a day off – neither do we”.

Follow the transcript below

RO: Hello everyone and welcome. My name is Ruben. I’m your host at OncoDaily, and today I’m introducing our distinguished guest Mr. Harout Semerjian. He’s a visionary leader with a profound impact on the healthcare and biotechnology industry. His educational journey started with an admission to the Lebanese American University where he pursued a bachelor in science in biology. He furthered his education with an MBA from Cornell University and then from an MBA from Queen’s University in Canada. Mr. Semerjian’s distinguished career includes 18 years at Novartis, most recently serving as head of the U.S. hematology business and the senior vice president and the global launch lead of the CDK-46 program, and later contributing significantly to Ipsen’s global expansion as the chief commercial officer. Currently, he holds the position of President and the CEO of GlycoMimetics, a clinical-stage U.S. biotech, bringing invaluable experience to the table as the company advances its lead assets in acute myelogenous leukemia. Join us as we delve into the journey of Mr. Semerjian, uncovering insights and wisdom that have shaped the healthcare landscape on the global scale. Stay tuned for enlightened conversations. Welcome, Mr. Semerjian, I’m so happy to have you today here.

HS: Thank you, Ruben, and please call me Harout. Thank you so much.

RO: Can we start by bits about you? I want to understand more about you. What inspires you to pursue a career in this field, and were there any pivotal moments or mentors who guided you along the way?

HS: Yeah, no, thanks for that question. And, um, maybe to start with disappointing you, there wasn’t like this big master plan, you know, 30 years in the making where it was all about, you know, all the premedicated steps were clear. I loved sciences, I love biological sciences, and that’s what I went to university to study. At the same time, I knew I did not want to go to medical school and spend, you know, 10 years of my life studying. I wanted to go out, explore the world, which was kind of a challenge because pretty much all my classmates were there with a very clear vision of wanting to go into medical school next after they finish their undergrad. So, it was kind of a complex time for me. It’s like, okay, I like the science, but what am I going to do afterwards? And it was really serendipitous because I was asking people as I was graduating, you know, people who I thought were doing well in the community, prominent members, and I stumbled across a gentleman who was a neighbor of ours, and he mentioned his informal sales, which he turned out to be a career pharma salesperson. And I asked him if I can shadow him for a day to further understand what he does, and actually, he was kind enough to ask his district manager, and they allowed it. And I actually accompanied him to one of the local hospitals, Hotel Dieu de France in Beirut, and I really fell in love with what the domain is. I mean, I went from not knowing anything about it on a Monday to a Friday saying this is what I want to do. So, that’s kind of how I started in pharma and never looked back across countries and continents as well. So that was the start. Program, which is really, you know, very interesting. So, the vast majority of that 18 years was spent in oncology and hematology, and very fortunate to have worked with some amazing people and learned a lot. The common thread is really being open to additional challenges. And, uh, I remember roles where, you know, if I was offered because I was solving one issue and then you get offered something else, “Oh, we have this challenge in this area, would you be interested?” And, you know, for me, as my wife always reminds me, is like I say yes before knowing exactly how to figure it out. Yes, I’ll do that, it’s interesting, and then, you know, kind of go back and try to figure out, okay, how are we going to tackle this issue? How are we going to kind of decipher the multiple issues that it has into different pieces, and how can we unknot the tie one at a time? I guess that passion and skill set has been seen as valuable, and that’s kind of how I rapidly rose in the ranks of Novartis, I would say.

RO: Amazing. And can we discuss your role at Ipsen? You successfully transitioned roles and spread the growth across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. Could you share insights on how you positioned the company in the global market?

HS: Yeah, it was… I mean, after 20 plus years in large pharma, you know, I wanted to do something a bit different as well. And, um, and yeah, you know, being of Armenian and Lebanese background, and having been in North America for many, many years, um, and it was one of those where a European mid-sized company wants to further expand and professionalize their footprint, and they had just hired their first non-France CEO at the time, with the idea and agenda of further pursuing innovation and building upon the great work that had happened in the past. So, I kind of had two roles there; one was operationally I was responsible for all countries outside of the US from an operational excellence perspective, but also the second strategic role was really setting up a global organization that’s ready to be able to launch and, you know, multiple assets one after the other, especially in oncology and hematology. And that was something of more of a transformational… Can you do that at scale? Can you do that consistently across the world? The company had bought different businesses and kind of was a different ways of how business was done across the world. So that was another area. So those were the two things, and it was a lot of fun, I have to say. Met a lot of amazing people, um, and, you know, and three years very well spent, and I’m in touch with many of the folks who, you know, you become friends as well after a period of time of ups and downs and all that. So, that was a really cool role as well.

RO: Amazing. So let’s now transition and talk about GlycoMimetics. Could you explain in simple terms what is the distinction between pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries?

HS: Yeah, oh wow, I mean, I don’t know if I’m the right person to, to, you know, explain that. There are books written on this, Ruben, but, uh, I mean, broadly speaking, this used to be kind of similar but different. So, you know, it started from biotechnology was really, you know, what it says, bio and technology. So using technology based on living organisms to produce therapies that come through what became the biologics, right? And then pharmaceuticals were traditionally more known as companies that are more chemistry based. They’re synthesizing therapies in the lab. So, that’s kind of where generally it started, but over the years, it’s just kind of have been overlapping quite a bit. And then you have another term, which is the biopharmaceuticals I really didn’t have to worry about funding. You know, I did not have to go out and raise capital for Novartis. I’m sure my bosses had to do that, but I didn’t have to do that. Here, you know, in a biotech, thinking about cash runway, thinking about making really tough choices, is really a daily living much more than anywhere else I’ve ever had that experience. So there are similarities, but there are also differences, and these days people use the word interchangeably, but generally, that’s kind of how it’s been defined as I was mentioning.

RO: Oh yeah, I completely agree with you. I think also when it comes to healthcare startups, the most challenging journey lies in front of biotech companies. So like, kudos to what they are doing. It’s like, it’s it’s it’s it’s there are tons of challenges and it’s not easy at all.

HS: Yeah, I mean one statistic that I learned in the university, I mean when I was in Cornell, is the vast majority of companies fail not because they have a bad idea but because they just run out of cash, you know. And I really didn’t appreciate this, uh, and that’s kind of where I see it every day, unfortunately. You see, especially in the last couple of years where the market for biotechs has been, you know, let’s say brutal, uh, from a funding perspective, but still, it’s, you know, we’re I mean, I’m excited about our journey where we got ourselves which I’m sure we’re gonna get into, but uh, yeah, generally for the environment, it’s definitely not in the heydays as it was a few years ago, which I hear about, you know, people talk about it fondly.

RO: Yeah, I agree. So, we talked about GlycoMimetics, uh, but now can you explain like what are the glycol biology-based therapies? Could you provide our audience with an overview of what are the company’s mission and its significant contribution to the healthcare and biotech sector?

HS: Yeah, I mean, so when I was, uh, when I was looking at, um, at what I won’t do next, you know, like I was in big pharma for many years, medium-sized, and really, you know, fortunate enough in my life to be able to take more risks as well, uh, in terms of, uh, you know, being in a much smaller biotech without any commercial drug yet, um, and when I was looking at different, uh, you know, platforms of innovation, this area of glycobiology really caught my eye. And, um, and I, to be honest, I had no idea what it is because typically what’s in the limelight, what we pursue a lot is, is really the, um, you know, from a molecular biological perspective, perspective is the pursuit of protein synthesis, right? DNA, RNA, proteins, and there’s a very good pre-structured, uh, template for how, you know, precisely, exactly, exactly. Yes, very good. But then, you know, you step back and you look at, you know, I saw a few different presentations where, and one of them by actually Carolyn Bertozzi, who is a leader in this area of glycobiology, and she was one of the, uh, Nobel Prize winners last year. Wow, and, uh, and it’s really it was all about, you know, talking about the complexity of higher organisms like humans, uh, while their genetic composition is not too much more complex than some of the simpler, you know, organisms, and, uh, and then people arguing that a lot of that is because of the addition of carbohydrates on top of these proteins and on cell surfaces that really explodes the complexity of, um, of, uh, you know, human cells. And that was really fascinated by that, um, you know, aspect, and glycobiology in a very simple term is the science of sugars. It’s really the synthesis and, you know, knowing that, um, uh, you know, carbohydrates on cell surfaces have a role to play in terms of cell recognition, uh, communication. So, uh, when I met the, um, the management and the board of GlycoMimetics, that was an interesting conversation in terms of, is it maybe time to bring a therapy forward, uh, in the real world, based on a pure glycobiology, you know, made platform, and that’s one that’s where I was very interested in, in, you know, kind of being part of that, um, early pioneers and joining a company that has been pioneering this area of glycobiology for a long time. So it’s really, in a way, it complements these, you know, the what we know on proteins, uh, synthesis and natural by really expanding, um, you know, the field into into the, the sugars on top of that, and the carbohydrates and their role in, um, in the body. So that’s what, um, you know, if I, I don’t know if I did it justice, but, uh, that’s kind of what I was excited about, uh, about joining a company that’s glycobiology-based platform.

RO: No, I agree with you. It does make sense. There is lots of emphasis, as you said, like on genetics and DNA and RNA, and I do agree that the cell structure is much more complex than that, and lots of therapies that we use today target receptors and target specific proteins, and sugar is part of this receptor, part of this protein, and developing things that can target specifically the things that we haven’t been thinking about is crucial. I think there’s also like lots of pressure and maybe lots of research about DNA and RNA, and the glycobiology hasn’t been entertained enough, and I think it’s time to start thinking more about it.

HS: I completely agree with that. Yeah, it is complex, it has seen a lot of setbacks, but I mean, that’s science, right? It’s never a straight line to go up, and in a way, like I get excited about, you know, as one of my mentors would say, if everything is going south, you need to go north. Exactly. You know, now obesity assets are all the rage, and I heard the figure the other day about how many new companies are forming in this area, how much investment is going into this area. Years ago, it wasn’t the PT1 PDL1, and that’s okay. I mean, that’s needed, but what motivates me is actually saying, okay, what is different? What is new? Are there some ways that we can actually bring it forward, and if it works, you’re literally opening a whole new paradigm in the field of biology and understanding how can we help more patients through different ways while a lot of the science continues but also new approaches are needed, especially in some diseases where there hasn’t been that much improvement, such as relapsed and refractory AML patients, as an example, where we’re studying our drug.

RO: I can’t agree more. Now, so you are the CEO of GlycoMimetics, but I want to understand a bit more about what are some key strategies and initiatives that you implemented as a leader in the field of oncology and at GlycoMimetics that have contributed to its success.

HS: Yeah, I mean, it’s a very small company. I mean, as an example, in Ipsen, my team was around 3,000 people. I had about 700 or 800 people. Here, I have less than 50. But still, that’s a great number, that’s a huge number, you know. Well, that’s exactly where, you know, when I talk with Pharma people, they say, “Oh, that’s so small,” and someone like you would say, “Oh, that’s actually much more than what, as a physician manager, you would say,” yeah exactly, it’s all relative. And I think that’s one of the challenges of also recruiting people from Big Pharma is we got to be careful, you’re not going to find a department of 15 people on a certain area. That is a great model in a bigger organization where you can really go deep, have all the in-house expertise because you’re doing one program after the other, so you have that common thread between programs. But in a biotech, and especially in a small one, a lot of it is about nimbleness, a lot of it is about extending your cash runway as long as you can, while really making sure you’re advancing the things that matter. And I think that’s probably the last part is really the most important part, but then it’s the toughest thing to do, which is making choices between four or five great things that you can do, but you got to be very strategic, and you got to be able to gate things in a way. So, you know, it’s difficult, a lot of folks would say, “Yes, but they’re all important,” I’m like, “I agree, but here’s the thing, we got to move things forward as well. We can’t just move five things just one step. We got to be able to keep multiple balls in the air but also be clear on where our priorities are.” So that focus is very important, making sure you have the right people working in the team but also the right people who you can tap into from your environment. That’s another very important area. You don’t have to have every role in the company, but you got to have good contacts of folks where you can lean into whenever needed. And then I would say the third one is really the cash runway, making sure investors, especially sophisticated ones who are very still very involved in the Biotech Industry, that they really understand what the opportunity is. So I would say those are the three things: really prioritization, the people aspect, internal and external, and then the value story to folks who are still active in this market and who really are looking to invest in novel therapies, especially advanced ones and late-stage ones.

RO: I agree with you. I think it’s something also like I’m learning. I’m early in my career and being a good leader also, like part of it is knowing what to delegate to who and that’s not an easy job. You can’t do everything by yourself. Um, and that brings me maybe to the next question, um, when you choose members to join your team or people to join your team, how do you choose them? And how do you think, okay, who should be where in this team, especially like now you’re working with relatively smaller teams? So I think you have more knowledge of your team members. So how do you put the right person in the right seat?

HS: Yeah, no, it’s really, um, it’s probably one of the most important things that as a CEO you do, especially in a smaller company, to be honest. I mean, we don’t have an HR, we had one at one point, but you know, as I said to the team, I am the HR. You know, that’s really, yeah, as a CEO, to make sure we’re bringing in folks who, um, and it’s a few different things. One is, you know, they clearly have to have competence, especially technical competence in an area that we need, right? I mean, these are high science areas, and if it’s an area where there’s certain technical expertise that is needed, you know, you got to have recent expertise. You can’t learn that here on the job; you got to come with that. So that’s kind of the first cut, but to be honest, that’s the easy part because you know you can see it from the resume, from a first, you know, kind of meeting with our own technical experts as well. Um, what is really important is how motivated is the person, how do they understand what they’re getting into. That’s where I am very keen. Do they understand what the role is, and are they in on the story? And the last part is, will they play well with the rest of the team? You see, so you know, the competencies part is probably the easiest to understand.

RO: Yeah, um, motivation, yeah, you know, like the motivation is really important. Like, why GlycoMimetics? Not, you know, the XYZ company. Yes, like, are you just looking for a job that’s 10 minutes away from your house, or are you really interested in joining a company that’s about to change how, um, you know, certain therapies are coming to the marketplace? Do you really want to be part of that? And are you really willing to be part of a team where, you know, we have a model called positive tension. So, uh, we don’t want everybody to agree with each other all the time. That doesn’t make sense because we’re not going to be pushing the boundaries. At the same time, if it’s chaotic interactions, then we’re also not going to move forward. So we got to be able to have that positive interaction where everybody is able to speak up, uh, feel comfortable enough that they can express their mind, but they also know the rules of engagement is how do you build forward, how do you stay positive, how do you keep it on topic, not on the person. And, you know, so, so my job is to ensure first I’m providing that space for that conversation to happen, be clear about the rules of engagement, and then, you know, give feedback to folks as they, you know, kind of maybe get close to that frame or step outside of it and making sure as we supplement the team members, we’re really supplementing team members who are able to, you know, take our model and thrive and move forward with it. That’s kind of where I spent quite a bit of my time, uh, you know, making sure it happens on a daily basis.

RO: When you hire people, like do you put them, like on, okay, so two weeks, we’re gonna try how things go, or three or one month, we’re gonna try how things go, and then we can decide, or like you, when you interview people and you hire them, you already made that decision in your mind?

HS: So the moment we extend an offer to somebody, I tell them I have 100% confidence in them as a person and their ability to add value to our organization. We do not do the two weeks version or the three weeks version. You’re either in or you’re not in. There are two categories, and when we give somebody like, I will literally tell them, I give you my trust from day one. And sometimes people, what are you talking about? But that’s one of the models I’ve grown up with, my mentors, and with people who trusted me. And I know how that felt when somebody says, “I trust you,” and “I’ll be there for you, this is your role, I trust you’re gonna do the job.” I know how that felt, and I wanted to give 150% to that person, to that company. And I want to carry that, you know, what I learned forward. So that’s the model we use, and at the same time, you know, we trust people, but we also hold them accountable. The trust does not mean blind trust; it just means we’re all in the same equal field from day one, it doesn’t matter if I know somebody for five years or if I know you for five minutes.

We’ve vetted you. We’ve done that before we extended you an offer. So we do that step. But once we’ve done that, we’re not, you know, continuously vetting you on a daily basis in your first week. It doesn’t work that way.And on top of that, actually, we got some people to come in as consultants to say, look, if you’re not sure, you know, consult with us for another month and then we talk. You know, sometimes we do that as well. Yeah. And that’s important because as an example, you know, we hired one of, you know, a great, chief commercial officer, who I’ve known for, you know, 25 years. But we were I was a chief commercial officer. He was a chief commercial officer. So, you know, it’s like, how is that going to work? And I was very clear. I’m no longer the chief commercial officer. That’s not a role I’m going to do. But, you know, a lot of people say that, but then they, you know, end up micromanaging their team anyway. And then I said, well, why don’t you come in for a month and, you know, see how it works. And if you, you know, if you like it, then we can talk. And that’s what we did, you know? So yeah, that’s kind of a bit of, maybe, insights into how I like to be led and, and the way I like to be led is, is the way I lead.

RO: I can’t agree more with that. Like when when we were talking, like you reminded me and my grandma actually used to say, like, people rise to your expectations. so I think, you are right. And then not micromanaging. It’s something, I think that’s how you transition from a founder to a CEO. TTalking about that. So you had lots of experience in the business world and making a difference. in healthcare and biotech. unfortunately, lots of physicians in medical school and when they become physicians, we don’t learn a lot on navigating the industrial, the business part of healthcare, which can be complex. What advice do you have for physicians or other founders in the biotech space who are looking to make a meaningful impact on this space? 

HS: Yeah, that’s a great question Roupen. And I mean, there are so many fantastic, you know, medics and, and they’re very good because they’ve been trained for many, many years in a very certain, you know, rigorous program and a certain ways. And then sometimes they’re thrown into the business world where it just a very different skill set. exactly. And, and sometimes, I mean, I know so many amazing medics who’ve made that transition and who were great leaders in the sense of a business perspective, and, you know, went on, but others have not. And then you look at it and say, okay, what’s the difference? Is it they both went to the same medical school.

The medical training. What is it? And, a lot of it is really, you know, for me, comes down to the openness and, you know, of knowing what you know, and being humble enough to say, yes, in the field of medicine. I’m a great medic in this area. You know, I got to be humble enough to know who I need to surround myself with? Yes. You know, how do I need to learn things? because if the first thing that comes to your mind is “I know” that’s a very difficult situation, because if you’re in a frame of mind “I know”, you’re not going to listen to anybody. Why would you? Because you already know, right? So you know, the best medics that I’ve seen transition into great business leaders are ones who continuously worked on themselves. And I’m not just talking about, like, they went and got an MBA. Yes. That’s helpful. but, I can tell you, that’s not enough. You know and you don’t actually need one, It would be helpful to, to have one because then you can understand the theoretical aspect and you will work on a lot of business cases from a business perspective, but a lot of it is around, you know, having the humility and understanding of surrounding yourself with folks who complement your skill sets who make you a better, you know, bayad or triad and being able to do that. And, and sometimes I’ve seen CEOs who are, you know, medics and co-founding and then they move into a CMO role or a CSO role. And I’m always kind of saying, you know, for these people that have the humility to say, I started it off, but now we need a professional CEO to take on, but I’m going to be providing them the space for them to thrive. I’m not going to be every day reminding them that I’m the founder of the company or the co-founder, you know? So there’s a lot of dynamics over there. I’m pleasantly surprised by many different universities, are now, you know, understanding this as well. So offering additional business courses to, to, to physicians as their part of their training. But I think more, more needs to be done. And also on the real world, as I said, that, that that understanding of how do you continuously improve and surround yourself with people better than you in  areas that are needed I think that’s that’s really you know the secret sauce.

RO: I can’t agree more. I think as we become like Physicians or and we have this halo around us if you understand everything this we spend 10 years yes it’s right I spent 10 years uh in medical school and learning about the Krebs cycle and uh the underlying pathophysiology of heart rate and like whatever but it’s it like you have to be very self-conscious and you have to know that you have so much blind spots when you go to a business meeting or you go to meeting with other leaders in the space and like you just suddenly get surprised because like what you know about medicine doesn’t apply and many it doesn’t translate that to Executive skills in managing Healthcare Company. And I think finding, me I’m still learning that I’m still struggling with okay so I don’t know that it’s okay the second year engineer who’s been in that space and who will spend two years in school knows that part better than me and I spend like for for example 15 years of school that’s fine it’s okay it’s okay to say I don’t know even though I’ve been 15 years in school and I think it’s something even though I struggle with I think it’s one of the most important things um transitioning through bits about the recent changes that have been happening in healthcare um I want to pick your brain about uh how do you see the intersection of Technology Ai and Healthcare shaping the future of patient care especially in the field of oncology.

HS: Yeah. I mean, I’m more excited than ever about the potential these new tools can provide us. I mean, that’s kind of my big headline is, you know, we thought innovation wasn’t a fast cycle ten, 20 years ago. I mean, it seems every decade it’s even faster and more multifaceted, where you’re able to combine multiple, multiple different things under this big banner of intersection of technology and, and medicine. Now, there are so many different aspects of technology, you know, AI being one of them and so many different aspects of medicine. And it’s not about like, two by two, it’s really about ten by ten, 20 by 20 kind of intersections. So the complexity, if you’re afraid of complexity, well, you know, tough luck because it is more, much more complex than ever before. And if you’re, you know, afraid of complexity and ambiguity is probably not the right industry for you anyway. But if you’re if you’re driven by, you know, what is possible, the question of what is possible. And, you know, different companies and different platform companies have the, you know, their own interrogation system of, you know, what if or but the whole idea is that curiosity of if we combine this with that, what would happen? What are we trying to solve for and and really staying with it, and try to advance this. I think it’s one of the best times for this to happen.

In fact, so much so that my daughter, who was asking me, like, what do we want to do? And I took her with me to work. I’ve done that over the years. you know, she went into biological sciences with an eye on complementing it with technology as well in her studies. So, you know, we believe in it, in this emerging household so much that now the second generation as well is getting into that. so it’s a very exciting time, but also it is a very complex time.

The one thing I would just say is be careful of the, the hypes, you know, there’s a lot of hype circles as well that happens. You know, it’s okay to be a bit skeptical. You know I’m open to the, to the technology and what it can do, but not just following the trend because people around you are saying that it’s important.

RO: Oh that’s amazing. And talking about AI in healthcare, I can’t agree more like healthcare is very complex prescribing one medication, for example, if you’re going to talk about the, the simplest unit, let’s say I’m a physician, I’m going to prescribe a chemotherapy, for example, for a patient, it takes me it takes pharmacists, it takes a dispenser unit, it takes a billing unit. It takes so many moving parts, It takes insurance, to administer one chemotherapy to a patient. So healthcare is very complex. And it’s not a place where you can’t deal with ambiguity and you can’t deal with complexity. BBecause it’s not an easy space, but it’s very exciting. Talking about the excitement, in space, what legacy do you hope to leave as a leader in the biotech industry, and how do you envision your contributions making a lasting impact on the field?

HS: Wow. That’s a big, question. I’ve been blessed with a career so far of almost 30 years, and more to come, doing something I love and making a good living at the same time. It’s, you know, there is a, if I look back to my college days, like, yeah, there’s a lot of people who were smarter than me, and you know, you always kind of say, oh, where a few different choices could have made the difference between one path versus the other. For me, I’m very fortunate to be on the pathway or that curiosity, that self-drive has gotten the notice of mentors who believed in me, trusted in me, moved me forward, gave me opportunities from this boy in a sales rep from Beirut, Lebanon to be having large organizations.

I’m very blessed and humbled, and I never forget that journey. A lot of it is all about giving back, you know, a lot of my time is about mentorship, spending time with the new generation. And if people could believe with me, and then especially when, you know, as a young boy how brash I was, it’s really something where I want to give back, and I do that on a daily basis. So really, the legacy, obviously on the business side, I’ve been fortunate to have launched 20 plus therapies, especially in oncology, hematology. I remember one of the first imatinib patients back in the day when I was the global head for imatinib Gleevec The gentleman was a young German guy who didn’t know if he’s gonna live or not, and until he could see how the world of chronic myeloid leukemia has changed and now he was going to live. And then the next questions came is where him and his wife were thinking about having a child and does he stop his life-saving therapy because it has a teratogenic effect as well, does he stop it enough for them to get pregnant and have a kid. I mean, that was such a change in the conversation, and then a year later when I met him again, they had a beautiful young small girl in their hands. So you could see that journey. These are things like I never will forget in my life in terms of the impact on the patient’s side but also on the talent side, where when somebody says, “Remember, I used to be part of your team. I still remember what you said on the stage,” for me, you know, last week somebody from Canada said, “We had a conversation in an elevator in 2015. I don’t know if you remember” I cannot say I do, but hopefully, it was a good one.” Years later, so those are the two things really that drive me, is those patient stories, the people we impact, ultimately that’s why we’re here for, and also in the way, the friends that you make, the camaraderie, the respect of folks who, you know, I look up to my mentors and people look up to me. So I take that very seriously and make sure that I’m living and being the leader that they think I am every day. So that would be probably part of my legacy one day when that day comes.

RO: Thank you so much, this has been really an enlightening interview. I learned a lot and that’s what I love about interviewing people and learning from experience, and thank you so much for sharing all these details about your life and your leadership and your companies, and I’m sure that you left lots of legacy and you are still leaving a legacy for the upcoming people, and like, it’s so exciting for me, like when you are talking about these therapies like CDK46 or imatinib or levetiracetam, like those are things I use on a daily basis in the clinic and it’s so nice to talk to the people who were part of introducing this to the market. It’s amazing, thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

HS: Thank you so much Roupen.