A new giant in women's health, Organon looks to future growth in China

After spinning off from global biopharmaceutical giant MSD in 2021, the United States-based pharmaceutical company Organon has achieved a market performance "beyond expectations" in China and is confident about the future, said the company's China senior executive.

As one of the world-leading pharmaceutical players dedicated to women's health, the company went beyond its commercial objectives in China in 2022, despite an initial year of independent operation with foreseeable challenges, said Zafer Unluer, senior vice-president of Organon and president of Organon China.

"We're very proud of our performance with what we were able to deliver in 2022 and are quite optimistic for this year and the next. After 2025, it'll get even better," he said.

He said that the company — with more than 60 products across multiple therapeutic areas globally, including women's health, cardiovascular diseases, pain management, respiratory conditions, dermatology and bone health — plans to launch at least one product every year in China, which may include some in women's health. Also, it will usher in results from partnerships with local innovations.

The company is in the process of moving into the final stage for a number of local deals in China with local biotech companies that could bring new assets in women's health and beyond.

China's market, which accounts for 15 percent of the company's global business, one of its highest ratios, was one of the main reasons that gave the company and the team confidence and strong commitment, Unluer said.

"So now we can seize more growth opportunities in the country with a larger capability of making investments here," he said.

Most of the company's innovation and research and development expenditure goes into women's health. This is both for global assets that will be launched in China and the potential local assets for the unmet medical needs in this country. The company passionately invests in this realm called "in China for China", Unluer said.

Having worked outside his home country of Turkiye for more than a decade and holding positions in many parts of the world, Unluer said he is fascinated by innovations in China regarding biopharmaceuticals and beyond.

"The Chinese biopharmaceutical ecosystem and all the innovations happening within it are catching up in a rapid manner with the developed markets," he said.

The backbone of society

Women's health goes very much beyond women's health itself and is the backbone of society. The company is committed to amplifying women's voices and making investments in this area that has been under-invested and under-resourced for a long time globally, Unluer said.

Women are significantly underrepresented in clinical trials, especially in the therapeutic areas of cancer, cardiovascular disease and psychiatric disorders, among others, based on a global study.

"Women are not small men, and they have different biological requirements. They must be represented equally depending on the prevalence of the diseases between genders," Unluer said.

"So Organon invests deeply in R&D in preterm labor, postpartum hemorrhage, endometriosis and different disease areas in an effort to change the situation in favor of women," he continued.

China improved its ranking by five places in terms of Global Gender Gap Index 2022. Also, the country is close to the level of developed regions when it comes to women's participation in the labor force and women's education level.

"And in Organon, we can proudly say that in higher level positions, we have more women than men, while in most companies, the ratio of women holding senior managerial roles is apparently lower than their male counterparts," Unluer said.

The company tries to come up with the most favorable policies for women in its organization, he said. By helping them and providing benefit and well-being programs, they can progress in their career with the right momentum.

"We'd like to be the most preferred employer by women in China and this is one of the directions that we're moving forward with," Unluer said. He added that the company has received two awards by external organizations, Top Employer and Great Place to Work, both for women and for overall employees.

Proudest achievements

The work culture that they have created, and its people are the proudest achievements of the new company, said Unluer. Their employee engagement in China has scored the highest throughout the company's global network.

"Probably the biggest advantage of Organon's successful operations in China lies in its trust in its people. We're driven by people's ambitions and entrepreneurial spirit that they bring to our organization," Unluer said.

To raise awareness among Chinese women, Unluer said it will promote healthier mindset, knowledge and solutions to decrease the level of unintended pregnancies through education, partnership and solution, including long-acting contraception and oral contraception.

As for the established brands of the company for many chronic diseases, Unluer said Organon China has recently gone through a transformation to focus on certain therapeutic areas, geographies, and hospital types to improve the accessibility of its products in markets of different tiers, in order to reach more patients with high quality of products and solutions.

Looking to the future, China plays a more and more important and critical role in MNC's global footprint, so do talents. China has huge potential to be the new hub of the global business landscape; some of Organon's global teams, in the future, may be located in Shanghai, Unluer said.

"Shanghai will become one of the global hubs for the company to some extent not only for China but also for the rest of the world," he said. "The country is rising, and we do see those changes already happening in certain areas.

"I hope we'll be able to achieve this in less than 10 years. In China we do things quite quickly."