January 1 will not just mark the beginning of a new year for Anne Prener; it will also mark the beginning of a new chapter in the life of the current head of Novo Nordisk’s hemophilia division.

Following 21 years in the R&D division and management halls of the Danish drug giant, the 55-year-old Executive Vice President is opting for new adventures.

“When I was made EVP in Novo Nordisk, it was always a position with a time limit and a clearly predefined task in mind. The task was to bring our hemophilia portfolio, at the time including NovoSeven on the market and a bunch of products in research phases, through clinical development and on to the market. That task has now been completed, especially with the approval of NovoEight in both the US and Europe and with the approval of NovoThirteen. The next two products are not due for registration for another 18 months,” she explains to Medwatch.

Joint decision

Anne Prener was put in charge of turning around Novo Nordisk’s hemophilia division in 2008 and she believes her job is now done. She was hoping to secure an EVP position elsewhere in the Novo Nordisk group, but that did not pan out.

“I have obviously talked to the management about what should happen next. It hasn’t been possible to find a solution and find an executive position that fit my profile and also fit in terms of time. So we have reached this agreement, where I have chosen to seek new challenges,” the departing executive says, adding:

“I have been with Novo Nordisk for 21 years. I have been in charge of a wide range of areas and had the good fortune to work with many highly skilled people. Meanwhile, my children have left home and my husband's job is very flexible, so this also gives us the opportunity to make a move abroad. I have seen some opportunities in this and have chosen to seize them.”

Looking towards US or Europe

Anne Prener does not have a new job on her hands at the turn of the year, but she would like to try her luck outside of the country once again. From 1990-92 she worked for Epidemiology Resource in Boston and from 1992-94 she was a guest researcher at Harvard School of Public Health - and a return to that life is alluring.

“I’m looking at the options, in Denmark as well of course, but just as much in the rest of Europe and the US. I will probably continue to work within the field of pharma and stay in the R&D area, maybe in a company where the experience I have gathered in recent years in relation to rare diseases and small patient groups can be put to good use. I have also dealt with clinical operations for many years and that experience could also come in handy. Finally, I have 10 years of experience with product safety and pharmacovigilance.”

Runs smoothly

Anne Prener has previously stressed to Medwatch the benefits of having her area, hemophilia, represented in the management, so this relatively small field had a voice and representation in the management of the diabetes giant. But, as of the new year, her replacement, Henning Stennicke, will not operate at a managerial level, as the position has been downgraded one notch.

“It has been an immense task to figure out how to work with a small area like hemophilia in a company that is so focused on diabetes, to build up processes and relations. In that period it was most favorable to keep hemophilia as a separate managerial area, but that is no longer necessary. Now, it can easily be run as we run all other development projects in Novo Nordisk. It is completely fair to put it under Global Development in the same way as diabetes and obesity,” Anne Prener explains.

Would have liked to stay

So the fact that it would no longer be an executive position had nothing to do with your decision to leave?

“Of course I would have liked to stay in an executive position. But it’s not like Novo Nordisk has open management positions lying around, and it certainly didn’t fit into the time frame in connection with my task with the hemophilia division. I have agreed with the management that the decision I made was best for all parties.”

21 years in the same company are bound to offer both ups and downs, and Anne Prener points to three victories and one major defeat as the most vivid, when she looks back over her years in Novo.

“We won the approval of NovoEight in both Europe and the US, as well as a positive recommendation in Japan, within just two months. It has been a wonderful experience. It only took four and a half years from we first tested it in humans until we won approval. It has been a definite highlight to be able to finish off with so many approvals, and with the exact label we had hoped for,” she says and goes on:

“Going back even further, the task I was given back in 2004, when we had to change our entire development organization, was also very exciting. I was responsible for connecting clinical operations with our new development organization in a complicated matrix. Meanwhile, I also established a new outsourcing strategy and reinforced the processes with updated IT.”

The major setback

The third major experience was the ten years when Anne Prener worked with product safety in the diabetes group.

“I represented the voice of the patient in the company. I was in charge of the unit which – based on side effects reports and customer complaints – had to ensure that all issues were dealt with and patient safety was looked after.”

Which disappointment could you have done without during all those years?

“We have a fantastic profile on our factor IX – patients describe it as a miracle cure – but we have experienced delays, which we have also informed the market about, making it impossible for us to submit a registration application within the original time frame. That’s a real shame. We had initially planned to submit the application a year sooner than the current target. In terms of setbacks, that is probably the one that hurt the most. But it will happen in time.”

 Novo Nordisk-director quits the company 

 Novo in extensive management reshuffle 

 Novo’s younger sibling has growing pains 

- translated by Martin Havtorn Petersen

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