STS Forum: Science Technology Society

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Lights and Shadows of Science and Technology
Remarks of Jeff Kindler, Chairman & CEO, Pfizer
Science and Technology in Society Forum — Kyoto, Japan
Sunday, October 5, 2008

I am honored to join Minister Noda [Seiko Noda, Japan's State Minister of Science, Technology and Consumer Affairs] and my other distinguished panelists to discuss the lights and shadows that science and technology can bring our world.

This discussion could not be more timely, as grave concerns about the future of the global economy have only temporarily diverted attention from even larger questions about the sustainability of our planet and humanity's ability to prevent the spread of pandemics in a tightly-connected world.

As we make our way through this uncertainty, we know that technology marches on, sometimes to humanity's benefit, and sometimes to its detriment.

At a time when science and technology tell us we can do almost anything, we have to ask ourselves, what should we do?

I would humbly submit that the medical advances the world has seen in recent years can offer us valuable insight. Over past generations, advances in science and technology have brought longer lives and healthier years to millions of people around the world.

People in Japan can now expect to live more than 82 years, far longer than people in most of the world. This is due largely to low rates of heart disease and obesity, as well as to highly valuable advances in medical innovation that have extended the lives of individuals and have expanded the nation's productivity.

In Japan and elsewhere, advances in surgical technique have transformed many procedures from complicated multi-day hospital stays to outpatient procedures that have greatly reduced cost and shortened recovery times. In my country, death from cardiovascular disease has been cut nearly in half over the past generation, and we have made great strides against many other chronic conditions, including HIV/AIDS and cancer.

These advances have enabled individuals and their families to live lives their forebears could not have considered. Today, many young children are able to know their grandparents and even their great-grandparents more than ever before. That alone is cause for celebration.

The biopharmaceutical industry – companies like my own, and Takeda, here in Japan and around the world – has been privileged to help bring these advances to people around the world. We take very seriously our responsibility to search for the next generation of medicines that will extend life and enhance the ability of people everywhere to live it to its fullest.

Science and technology have brought greater health and longer lives into the light. That should be a cause for additional investment in wellness and prevention of disease. But lurking in the shadows lies a real economic quandary: As people grow older, they require more health care.

A Problem We're Fortunate to Face

This is the sort of problem we are actually fortunate to face, but that makes it no less serious. In short, fewer workers are contributing to the economy that generates the revenue to care for aging populations. This is true around the world. So as populations age toward retirement, it will be essential to help as many people as possible remain healthy and productive, for as long as possible.

That's especially true today as the outlook for the world economy grows increasingly uncertain. Because whether a country's health system is financed privately, or publicly, or some combination of the two, the turbulence in the global economy means there is little chance of major new infusions of capital to pay for a rising demand for health care.

Right now, no one honestly knows what the economy is going to look like for the months to come. This practical reality makes the need for greater innovation in health care all the more urgent, and it is driving the work in our research and development labs and in those of other biopharmaceutical companies around the world.

We and other life sciences companies are seeking new treatments and vaccines for chronic and preventable diseases. We're focused on disease areas that represent significant unmet medical need — oncology, pain, diabetes, obesity, immunology, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, to name a few.

We are exploring stem cell technology, which could one day provide us with new tools and ultimately, new therapies. We're also specifically targeting cancer with our R&D work, focusing on cancers common in developing parts of the world such as Asia, where cancers of the liver, esophagus and nasopharynx are more common. We conduct clinical trials at research sites around the world. At more than 1,500 sites across Asia alone, 16,000 patients are participating in 170 active clinical studies for our company.

We hope and dream that these projects will cast light on new treatments and cures for sickness. But we know these solutions won't come overnight, because that's the nature of science in general and of drug discovery in particular. To bring a new medicine from the research lab to the marketplace often takes a decade or more and can cost more than $1 billion.

Not everyone can take business risks like these, or make investments like these. But our industry can do so. We eagerly accept the risks of searching for new medicines, and we fully expect the marketplace to reward the innovations that result from that risk-taking. We also know that those rewards impose upon us a tremendous responsibility to the communities in which we do business and to the world at large.

The past has shown us all what can happen when businesses or others consider science and technology only from a perspective of narrow selfinterest. When profit alone becomes the sole motivation for a business, it can lead to insufficient testing of new products or to manufacturing of unsafe products. It can hurt employees and damage the natural environment, even destroy it. No amount of profit is worth that.

I'm proud to say that I work in an industry that aims to add years to life and life to years. People deserve to enjoy these years in an environment that is safe, healthy and clean. For that to happen, a spirit of stewardship must govern our use of science and technology.

Understanding Saiko-Kyoji

In the world of business, we're learning that the promise of science and technology can benefit humanity most when the public and the private sectors work as partners. We are coming to understand the importance of Saiko-Kyoji, or "leading with a small mouth and big ears." Government has a real and important role in helping companies innovate to their full potential – a role that goes way beyond tax rates and regulatory schemes.

The U.S. offers a good example, where the National Institutes of Health has promoted a strong research community throughout the United States, through policies that encourage companies to share research tools and circulate research results, so as to advance science as rapidly as possible.

To continue turning today's new ideas into tomorrow's new medicines and treatments, companies obviously require a constant flow of new and fresh thinking. That is one reason why we have begun building a network worldwide of external partnerships with government research institutes, with academic institutions and with other companies.

These partnerships offer extensive new opportunities to translate basic science into new drugs. More importantly, they offer a forwardlooking model for making wise choices together, to ensure a sound application of science and technology for the benefit of humanity. And that, after all, is what everyone here is all about.