DIALOGUE: Building Resiliency Amidst Disruption

The key to resilient supply chains is the availability of quick and accurate information, believes Sanjeev Sethi, COO of global healthcare company Viatris.

“The pandemic highlighted that we need to improve how we use information to better predict market conditions.”

Sanjeev Sethi, Chief Operating Officer, Viatris Inc.

Formed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 by the merger of Dutch-based generics and specialty pharmaceuticals company Mylan and Pfizer’s off-patient medicine division Upjohn, US-based Viatris Inc. is now a $17 billion global healthcare company employing 37,000 people and serving patients in over 165 countries via a global production network of more than 40 plants spanning five continents.  

In our latest Dialogue with a manufacturing industry thought leader, Viatris Chief Operating Officer Sanjeev Sethi talks to Manufacturing Leadership Council Executive Editor Paul Tate about the challenges of creating a newly merged company during the pandemic, how timely and accurate information helps create more resilient supply chains, and how a combination of smart connectivity and diligent execution will determine future industry success.

Q: What excites you about your role at Viatris?

A: The most exciting aspect of my role is the direct impact we can have on the lives of the patients we serve around the world. I have the opportunity to work closely with a great team of developers and a talented group of employees and we all understand and appreciate that our industry can have a significant and direct impact on patient’s lives. But at the same time, we must continue to evolve because, quite often, the innovation in our industry only reaches a fraction of the patients in need. As we experienced during COVID-19, the timely availability of the right treatment is a universal need, not just for a select few countries or for a select few populations. All this keeps us motivated and that’s what really drives us.

Q: Launching a newly merged company during 2020 in the midst of the pandemic can’t have been easy. What did you learn from that experience?

A: Absolutely. Launching a new company and integrating the two organizations was not easy during the pandemic. But it really showed us the importance of communication and close collaboration. It taught us new ways of communicating and collaborating because we were not able to meet face-to-face for quite some time.

We’d started the pre-merger process sometime around October 2019 when we had a big meeting with all the parties involved. But after that, the pandemic hit us. So, both legacy companies then had to adjust to a new working environment during the pandemic. This was really new for us because, before COVID, we would never have imagined that, even though our manufacturing facilities obviously had to continue to operate in person, a large proportion of the company would be working from home. That was a very new way of working for all of us.

EXECUTIVE PROFILE: Sanjeev Sethi
Title: Chief Operating Officer, Viatris Inc.
Nationality: Indian
Education: Master of Science degree in pharmaceutical sciences, Punjab University, India
Languages: English, Punjabi, Hindi
Previous Roles Include:
–  Chief Scientific Officer, Mylan
–  Head of Global Injectable Operations, Mylan
–  Head of Global Scientific Affairs, Mylan
–   Head of Global Generics R&D, Mylan
–  Senior Vice President, Head of Finished Dose Technical Operations, Matrix Laboratories Ltd.
–  Deputy Head, Development and Registration, Sandoz GmbH
–  Associate Director, R&D and Regulatory Affairs, Ranbaxy Research Laboratories.
Other Industry Roles/Awards/Board Memberships
–  40 International Patents