Northeastern Trustee Chris Viebacher shared his experience and advice with Bouvet College of Health Sciences graduates on Saturday.
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A diagnosis of ALS is usually a death sentence. But thanks to Biogen’s new drug to treat ALS patients and a rare genetic mutation, a young New Zealand father of three with ALS has gone from having difficulty walking to being able to move on his own again.
Chris Viebacher, Northeastern University Trustee and Biogen President and CEO, shared this anecdote Saturday with Bouvet College of Health Sciences graduates. But he reminded them that when it comes to health science, there are always new challenges.
“This morning, we stand with you all at the funeral of a dear friend who passed away this week from ALS,” Fiebacher said in front of alumni, friends and family at Matthews Arena on Northeastern University’s Boston campus. “But this is just a reminder that while we have accomplished so much, there is still much left to do.
But he said the hundreds of Bouvet students in the audience are just the ones whose co-op, research experience and Northeastern classes have equipped them to continue innovating in the health field.
“As an employer, I can say that your studies have provided a good foundation of knowledge and principles,” he said. “Biogen hosts 20 to 30 interns each year, and I know how valued Northeastern students are at my own company. As I take the next step toward my professional career, , you can be sure that you will learn and achieve great things.”
Fiebacher, who is also the parent of a 2018 Northeastern University graduate, cited his deep background in the intersection of innovation and public health at a ceremony honoring both undergraduate and graduate students who earned their degrees. I gave a lecture.
Mr. Wiebacher joined Biogen in November 2022 as President, CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Prior to that, he spent years working at major pharmaceutical companies and entrepreneurial biotech companies, including 20 years at GlaxoSmithKline and six years as global CEO at Sanofi. He recently co-founded Garnet His Point His Capital, a Cambridge-based healthcare investment fund, and has helped drive other creative ventures.
“You have paved the way for innovations that advance health and the common good,” Bouvet Dean Carmen Seppa said as she presented Wiebacher with the award. “Your accomplishments exemplify a career spent leading unprecedented change on the world stage.”
Fiebacher said he has seen many global public health crises throughout his career. In the late 1980s, he worked in Hamburg, Germany, for a company developing antiviral drugs to treat AIDS. He then worked with the French Minister of Health to bring low-cost antiviral drugs to Africa, participated in a trip to Uganda with Dr. Anthony Fauci (who, according to him, was “already a rock star at the time”), He inspected the current situation in the United States. He was going to stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
“We learned that innovation must be coupled with equitable access,” Wiebacher added.
Around this time, Viebacher said, biologics began to dominate the health sector, and Biogen was leading the charge with the goal of becoming the first biotech company on the U.S. East Coast. He added that while the city of Cambridge initially balked at the idea of ”Frankenstein medicine,” it eventually turned around and allowed the city to become a center for biopharmaceutical research. Since then, advances in technology involving genetics have enabled new approaches to fighting cancer and treating autoimmune diseases.
Fiebacher recalled this, emphasizing the importance of continued discovery and innovation in the health sciences, especially as millions of people still face untreatable diseases.
“If you look back at history, the industrial age transformed economies as financial capital and machinery developed,” he said. “In today’s world, our economy relies on brain power. Engineering and technology are certainly fields that can turn economic brains into economic power.”
But that also applies to the health sciences, Wiebacher says.
“You have seen that Northeastern University invests heavily in research,” he said. “It was an honor to help open the new EXP Research Facility this year. Academic research will be translated into medical and biopharmaceutical research, creating new treatments and improving health and, in turn, the productivity of society. …So we have opportunities, we have challenges, and we have tremendous needs.”
He also reminded students that there are always new problems to solve in health and science, such as why certain treatments work for particular mutations in ALS, or He said he is always trying to find a way to do so and provides opportunities for people in the field to explore. To improve access to health care.
The latter is particularly important to keep in mind, Viebacher said, because the disease affects everyone, regardless of age, race, gender, income status or other factors. And whether graduates pursue pharmacy, nursing, or other medical fields, they will be faced with these gaps in care and the need for innovation to increase access.
But he reminded them that they were up for the challenge.
“Healthcare is a unique service and industry. When faced with illness, people can feel like they are at their most vulnerable,” he said. “At that point, they want the compassion and expertise of health care workers, effective medicines, vaccines, equipment, and the ability to afford the care they need.”
Viebacher said entering the health field is more than just a job, it’s a calling.
“From the bench to the bedside, people are counting on each of us,” he says. “The people counting on us are not anonymous. It could be our own family, relatives, friends. But they all matter. …We need people like you.” …You can make an impact, bring new ideas, new energy, new passion, and help people.”