Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- Strategic Shift: Clinigen has evolved into a global pharmaceutical services company focused on breaking access barriers and supporting partners across emerging markets.
- Access by Design: Its mission—right patient, right medicine, right time—guides a flexible model ensuring medicines reach underserved populations.
- Integrated Platform: The SSI acquisition strengthens Clinigen’s end-to-end offering, uniting medical affairs, safety, and launch strategy with market access expertise.
- Africa & Beyond: With operations in over ten sub-Saharan markets and expansion toward North Africa and the GCC, Africa remains Clinigen’s growth engine.
- Empowered People & Innovation: A strong focus on local leadership, partnership, and AI adoption drives innovation and sustainable access worldwide.
EF: What has been your biggest strategic evolution in the past years?
CB: Clinigen has positioned itself as a pharmaceutical services company. The company was built to support multiple pharmaceutical entities and address barriers to entry in markets where access to medicine is restricted and complex. We have the expertise to solve those challenges and provide access to patients in regions where there’s a clear need. We’ve expanded geographically across Africa, opening an office in Kenya and operating in more than 10 markets. Sub-Saharan Africa is a key focus for us in improving access to medicine, including unlicensed and commercialized products. We’ve licensed some products in the region and taken over others from partners to supply them to these markets.
Africa is a major strategic area for us. With rapid population growth and rising healthcare needs, we see the continent as a growth driver. Our goal is to serve patients’ needs and help companies overcome barriers through a single point of contact that covers all therapeutic areas and the full life cycle of a pharmaceutical product.
EF: What mission did you set for yourself in the African region?
CB: Our mission aligns with what we say at Clinigen: the right patient, the right medicine, the right time. We’ve evolved that message to emphasize that access to medicine is global by design. That means we aim to provide medicines to patients in need who may not have the means or access to obtain them themselves.
In Africa, we've seen significant population growth, but many companies have also focused on low- and middle-income countries as part of their corporate responsibility efforts. It requires a lot of work for them, and it may not be their predominant focus. That’s where Clinigen steps in, offering end-to-end solutions and a flexible approach to ensure that medicines reach the territories where patients need them most and can access and use them.
EF: What are your expectations of the recent SSI acquisition Clinigen made, and how could this help the region grow?
CB: SSI provides strategic and specialized consulting services across medical affairs, pharmacovigilance, and product launch strategy. Combined with Clinigen’s strength in clinical supply, unlicensed access, and commercial distribution, we can deliver a seamless end-to-end solution for biopharma partners. Unifying strategic insight with executional excellence, a combined organization can accelerate pathways to patients by simplifying market access in complex regions and supporting products through every stage of their life cycle. It aligns perfectly with what we aim to achieve, not just operationally, but strategically. We can offer this integrated solution to emerging and growing biopharma companies working to make their assets available worldwide.
EF: What are your criteria when selecting new partners?
CB: We focus on therapeutic areas where we have a strong presence and can add meaningful value to both the asset and the accompanying team. We do that by engaging healthcare providers, securing market access, and coordinating with key stakeholders to ensure products are available where they’re needed.
A recent collaboration, particularly in oncology, shows how our involvement can make a real impact. We helped ensure the medicine reached the patients who could access and afford it, and over the past two years, the product has grown significantly. It’s a clear example of how we can support a partner and build a truly successful relationship for both sides.
EF: Could you give us an example of any special treatment or innovative medicine you are particularly excited about in your pipeline currently?
CB: We are working on a therapy currently under registration as a third-line treatment for graft-versus-host disease, which could be the first biotech product to be registered as a pharmaceutical treatment in this space.
Our focus is on providing early access to the therapy and, later, supporting its commercial rollout across multiple regions globally. It’s a highly promising asset in a very specific area of need, and we believe it will be well-received by clinicians. Most importantly, it has the potential to change outcomes for patients who currently have no alternatives when first-line treatments fail. That’s why we’re excited to bring it to market and help reshape the standard of care for these patients.
EF: How do you find balance between the company’s growth and expansion, and connecting it to patients’ needs?
CB: Our full portfolio of products, built over the years, remains at the heart of who we are and the relationships we’ve developed. It’s one of the most important parts of our organization. For us, people are our greatest asset. We invest in them to help strengthen relationships, grow personally, and deepen their understanding of the healthcare environment and our products. When we take on a new product or enter a new market, we build a dedicated team around it to support both the asset and the partnership. We’ve continued to grow our product portfolio and sales, and with that, our local FTEs have increased significantly over the past two to three years. Our people remain central to our success, and we will continue to invest in their growth by creating new opportunities within the company.
EF: With the shift in the multinational landscape, how do you sense the pulse of Africa for innovation and the development of new therapies?
CB: Globally, we’ve seen multinational companies focus on very specific disease areas. As therapies and technology advance, treatments have become more specialized and personalized. From what we’ve seen, most of these companies focus on bigger markets first. Africa and other regions usually come a bit later in their plans, which makes sense, since they start where their strengths are. For us, that creates an opportunity to establish ourselves by providing early access to the patients. We’ve seen growing interest from companies committed to evolving their support programs so that treatments are available not only to the wealthy but to all patients who truly need them.
It’s a long-term plan that aligns with how healthcare is shifting across the continent. People are becoming more informed, education is improving, and patients are increasingly speaking up about what they need. In the long term, growth and focus will increase as the population and education evolve, and the continent's GDP grows. It's going to be important to have that presence and for people to get experience with the product.
EF: As a transparent and passionate leader, how do you inspire new talent and new hires to follow that path?
CB: It works in a few ways. The first is being present and truly invested in our people. The second is empowering them. I want them to feel confident making decisions, think entrepreneurially, and stay flexible in how we approach and innovate. When we move into new markets or products, I hand it over to the team to design their approach, and then I support them as they implement it. Mistakes happen; that's part of learning. What matters is how we address them and make sure we don't repeat them. For our younger leaders, empowerment and support are key to both their development and the company’s growth. We’ve had many people stay with us for years, but we’re still evolving. I want them to keep growing personally and professionally; to feel they’re reaching the next level as the company grows, too. That’s one of the most important things I try to encourage.
EF: In embracing technology, how can we view AI and GenAI as important tools rather than obstacles?
CB: It’s critical. At our recent private equity owners’ conference, the message was clear: AI or die. We’re working to evolve the pharmaceutical sector with that in mind, embracing AI and encouraging the full use of new platforms. This is still developing, but we’re already seeing progress. In pharmacovigilance, which is a key part of our work, we’re building and using new systems that incorporate AI. We’re also using technology to create platforms for sourcing and acquiring medicines, bringing those solutions to market, and encouraging adoption.
AI will become an essential part of the pharmaceutical environment. AI can help make medicine more affordable, expand access to treatments people don’t easily get today, and provide better information on how to use those medicines. Over the next few years, it will play a big role in how our sector operates.
EF: When looking at different markets, what is the strategic importance of each market, and where is the growth for you?
CB: In the Middle East, we continue to work with partners, while also managing certain products exclusively. This region is especially important for us because it's often an early adopter of innovative medicines and therapies. The Middle East embraces technology, has early access to new treatments, and the financial means to support growth. Our key focus is on the GCC region. We've got partners in both Saudi Arabia and the Emirates that serve the GCC for us. Then we're looking at North Africa as well in our expansion portfolio. Over the next four or five years, whether we build our own capability facility or continue partnering with people who really have expertise in the market, we see strong potential. As we grow and secure more partnerships and product rights, we want to internalize more of our operations and extend our global platform, values, and mission to other regions.
Right now, the Middle East and LATAM are the only regions where we don't have our own setup, and both are high on our growth list. It's diverse, it moves quickly, and it's been a good learning curve for us as we keep growing and widening our portfolio.
EF: Do you have any closing messages you would like to send to any of the different communities?
CB: Africa should be seen as a place with a real need for medicines, where patients and doctors are open to new treatments and willing to learn from one another about access and care. It’s a growing region with changing regulations and developing infrastructure. Our role is to help companies navigate that complexity, ensuring medicines reach the people who need them in a compliant and ethical way. We want to see innovative therapies available across the continent. For us, it’s about being a true partner; someone companies can rely on to open doors to many markets through a single point of contact.
