- We're now joined by Joaquin Duato who is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson.

Joaquin, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you, Steve.

- Lemme disclose that J&J, Johnson & Johnson, has been a long time supporter of public broadcasting and more specifically, of the Caucus Educational Corporation and our healthcare program for many years.

Joaquin, lemme ask you this.

Your background coming into the chairmanship and the CEO position at Johnson & Johnson.

Could you describe it please?

- Thank you, Steve, and let me start by saying that I'm talking from our headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The company has been here since it was founded 138 years ago.

So, we're a proud member of the New Jersey Innovation Ecosystem.

A proud contributor to the state.

I am a product of the development that Johnson & Johnson has offered me.

I work in the company for 34 years, and it's the result of the opportunity that company like Johnson & Johnson has given me working in different regions of the world, working in our consumer, in our pharmaceutical, and in our med tech sector, up until getting to the position of CEO.

And it makes me very proud to be able to represent our 130,000 employees, 16,000 of them right here in New Jersey.

- You know, Joaquin, it's interesting you mentioned innovation and it brings up an issue, a topic, that I don't think a lot of people understand.

Bringing a drug to market, if you will.

I'll talk about drug prices in a moment, prescription drug prices in a moment, but talk about the complexity of bringing a drug, regulated by the government, federal government, to market, if you will.

How complex is it?

- It's a complex endeavor.

Some people believe that developing a new medicine is more difficult than to put a man on the moon.

Just to give you an example.

And it's a long process.

It's a multi-decade process, and it requires a significant investment.

Our investment in R&D, as Johnson & Johnson was $14.6 billion.

So, it's a significant amount of money.

We are also a company not only focused on medicines, but also in medical technology.

Medical technology it's very important, especially in surgery, which is one of the most common medical interventions.

So, science is complex and it requires a lot of attention, and time, and investment, in order to be able to develop a medicine or a medical technology that is going to impact patient care.

Let me give you an example of one treatment modality that we are working on developing right here in New Jersey, is cell therapy.

Have you heard about cell therapy, Steve?

- Is it cell therapy?

- Cell therapy.

- Not T-cell, not is it T-cell therapy, or just cell therapy?

Because I'm not sure to understand it differently.

- Yeah, in this modality of cell therapy, what we do is to reprogram your T-cells in order to be able to recognize and attack cancer cells.

Specifically in this case, in hematological cancers like multiple myeloma.

So, we have seen tremendous results utilizing this cell therapy and we manufacture cell therapy right here in New Jersey.

So, that's an example of how science is progressing in a way that we are able now to address some diseases that were considerable uncurable, convert them into potentially chronic diseases.

- Let me shift gears and then I'll come back to the issue of drug prices in a moment.

But it's interesting how you talk about cancer and treatment of cancer and therapeutics that can be helpful potentially, but that's something we know exists.

Cancer, it's a disease that affects so many, millions and millions of Americans and family members.

But when something happens like a global pandemic, what happens in an organization, in a corporation, like Johnson & Johnson, particularly as it relates to vaccine, the race to vaccines, others, competitors and I don't even know if you're competitors at that point, Joaquin.

I don't know if everyone comes together.

We don't understand that.

Could you describe what COVID was like for your universe at that time?

- Yeah, great question.

Look, COVID had many aspects for us.

The most important one was that when we saw the pandemic coming, we step it up and we develop a vaccine ourselves.

And we dedicated thousands of people across the company to be able to develop and manufacture a vaccine that has been mostly used in low resource countries, and we are very proud of that.

Organizationally, I'm very proud too of the fact that we were able to continue the supply of our lifesaving medicines and medical devices along the world.

So, we had thousands of people in our supply chain going to work every day in order to be able to deliver those medicines and medical devices.

And overall, it made our company more sympathetic and it make us understand better that we are vulnerable and I think that helps us be more human overall.

And obviously, a big effect of the pandemic was that we accelerated technology and ways of working that we didn't have before.

So, that's been a change for our organization too.

- Joaquin, how do you believe, and I asked so many people this, on our public broadcasting programming, and also our Lessons in Leadership program, our sister program, and I'm fascinated by this, because I know the pandemic changed me as a leader on so many levels of a small not-for-profit production company and a leadership development company, our company outside of public broadcasting.

How do you believe COVID, the pandemic, has changed you as a leader?

- Clearly, I told you before, Steve, I think it has made us more human.

It has made us more understanding of the vulnerability.

It has made me more prepared to deal with uncertainty.

So, that's something that COVID has brought into me as a leader, but also, in the overall Johnson & Johnson organization.

It created a higher commitment with our mission.

It made it clear what an impact we can have in the world.

- Now, let's talk about drug pricing.

To those who say in Congress, consumers, others, drug prices are simply too high, big pharma, and that means a lot of things to different people.

It's big pharma, they are the ones that they're making profits that make no sense and we need to reduce the prices of prescription drugs.

Talk to those folks.

- I would say, look, our goal as a healthcare company, as Johnson & Johnson, is to be able to provide affordable, quality medical devices and pharmaceuticals to all Americans.

And I have to underscore, we are part of an ecosystem.

It's not only about the pharmaceutical companies, but it's also about the doctors, it's about the hospital, it's about the government, it's about all of us working together in order to have that goal.

If you step back for a second and you look at the healthcare costs, Steve, pharmaceuticals is 15% of the total healthcare costs.

So, when you think about cost- - 15 percent?

- 15, one-five, 15 of the total healthcare costs.

We need to also think about the 85% remaining.

Now, is there an issue of affordability, especially, in our senior citizens that are in Medicare in this country?

Yes, there is.

And I can tell you that we are a company that is always looking for the long-term and to look for solutions that involve constructively all players.

And we are very much willing to work with anybody that is willing to try to lower the out-of-pocket costs that the patients in the US, especially, in Medicare have.

So, that's something that you will always find Johnson & Johnson ready to collaborate, ready to do our part.

- It's interesting, Johnson & Johnson is a brand everyone knows and has they have their own respective perception of and what's curious to me is as we speak right now at the end of September, 2023, there's literally a brand change.

We're not gonna turn this into a commercial for J&J, but there's a brand change, after 135 years.

Is it the logo that's changed?

What's changed?

- The major changes, Steve, is that now we are a focused healthcare company.

So, we are focused exclusively in medicines and medical technologies.

And we have separated our consumer company, the company that has the products that people know us for, like Tylenol, Band-aids and shampoo in a new public company, which is an independent company called Kenvue.

So now, Johnson & Johnson is focused in research and development, in innovation, in healthcare through medicines and medical technology.

So, that's a big change for us.

And that means that we are gonna be able to concentrate all our efforts in trying to solve some of the difficult diseases, tough healthcare challenges that still remain unsolved.

- You know, you talked about the 15% of the overall healthcare costs, which is obviously, a decades long issue in terms of healthcare costs in this nation and how they're taking up a greater and greater percentage of the gross national product.

It's not a new issue, but you talked about the other 85%.

And what I'm curious about this, Joaquin.

The future of healthcare, not just in terms of innovation, and new drugs, and new therapies, and new treatment, all of them important.

Affordability, incredibly important.

But how do you believe COVID has changed, not just your company, not just pharma and related industries, but the overall healthcare universe, the other 85%, how do you believe COVID has changed forever the healthcare paradigm?

- Yeah, COVID has had an important impact in society in many different ways, not only healthcare.

One of the biggest impacts is the acceleration of the use of technology.

So now, we are seeing more telemedicine.

We are seeing that we are doing our appointments online.

And overall we are seeing an enhanced use of data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning to drive insights not only in better treatments to your point, but also, in how we can manage the overall end-to-end patient journey to improve the quality of care.

So, I think with that one positive outcome of COVID it's been the acceleration at all levels of the use of technology and that will be positive in my view to increase the quality and reduce waste in healthcare.

- One more item on COVID and the way we work.

And if I'm not mistaken, your company has 150,000 employees throughout the world?

Is that correct?

- Correct.

Yeah, now with the separation we have 130,000.

- Okay, so J&J has 130,000.

So, this is what I'm curious about.

Is it fair to say that J&J, that Johnson & Johnson, has been engaged in remote communication well before the rest of us were engaged in remote communication, because your folks are all over the world?

- Yes, certainly.

I mean, we were always working, you know, connected with all our affiliates around the world.

I believe that the common use of Zoom, or Teams, or other technologies has been vastly accelerated during the pandemic.

So now, it's more part of the operating mode, but we always have had different ways of communicating with our global affiliates.

- You've been listening to Joaquin Duato who is the Chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson.

130,000 employees now as he explained the separation with this new evolution of the organization.

Joaquin, I cannot thank you enough for joining us.

We appreciate your time.

All the best.

- Thank you, Steve.

And look, I want to put a final word about New Jersey.

New Jersey has been our home for the 138 years.

It's a great place for life science company to be.

It's incredibly diverse, very strong STEM education and academic institutions.

And I believe that New Jersey is the right place for life sciences to flourish.

And we are in a very competitive position versus other states in the country and also globally, to make New Jersey a global hub for innovation.

Thank you, Steve.

- Well said, thanks Joaquin.

I'm Steve Adubato, that's Joaquin Duato.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

RWJBarnabas Health.

New Jersey Institute of Technology.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The New Jersey Education Association.

IBEW Local 102.

Operating Engineers, Local 825.

And by Veolia.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

And by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

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