Diversity matters: BeiGene CEO feels state’s makeup will help improve clinical trials — and create better workforce

New Jersey’s history of being a life sciences center of the world — something BeiGene has been a part of throughout its 14-year history — certainly was a key factor in the company’s decision to create a 42-acre, state-of-the-art research and manufacturing facility at the Princeton West Innovation Center in Hopewell.

After all, 14 of the world’s 20 largest pharmaceutical companies are here — ensuring access to a world-class workforce.

But the state’s general population played a part, too.

As a next-generation oncology company that is determined to increase access of life-saving medicines to the entire globe, being in an area of such cultural diversity will help elevate the quality of its clinical trials and its ability to attract top researchers, CEO John Oyler said.

It starts with clinical trials, which historically have been undertaken in wealthy areas and with a large majority of white patients.

“Diversity in clinical trials is a huge challenge for the industry,” Oyler said. “It’s one that has rightly been pointed out as important to address.

“In most cases, there’s not likely to be much of a difference with medicine, either in the way that it’s absorbed and spends time in your body, or alternatively, the efficacy that it has. But, in some cases, we know enough to know it probably does make a difference. And, so, it is really important as we’re developing medicines to try to be enrolling and including diverse patients in clinical trials.”

While diversifying the makeup of those in trials may not necessarily produce different results, it will have a demonstrative impact on a different issue: trust.

“There’s work that needs to be done on building trust within communities — that it’s OK to be on these clinical trials,” Oyler said. “A lot of doctors in the centers that are enrolling the trials at this point in time don’t look like the some of the patients we need to attract.”

BeiGene has been working on correcting this issue long before it announced plans for the Hopewell campus, Oyler said.

“This is something that needs a lot of work,” he said. “We have been talking in New Jersey and across the country, really pushing the team to try to solve this problem for some time.”

Part of the problem in the sector is having companies commit to change. BeiGene has, Oyler said.

“Whether it’s in the United States or Brazil or Australia, we are trying to go to the next tier of sites,” he said.

Oyler said going away from traditional trial areas — which are oversubscribed and thus more costly to do — is another way to reduce research & development costs, which ultimately will help make new therapeutics more affordable.

It also will help BeiGene attract a more diverse workforce.

“Clinical diversity is nice, but I think workplace diversity is just as important, too,” he said. “Having a lot of people with a lot of different backgrounds and a lot of different perspectives brings a lot more to the table when you’re having conversations.

“This is an important part of who BeiGene is and wants to be.”