Brian Hilberdink on Boehringer’s U.S. Growth, AI & Pharma’s Next Frontier

Hello, and welcome to the BioTech 2,050 podcast. BioTech 2,050 is a think tank chronicling the disruptions changing the biotech industry over the next several decades. Check out our website at biotech2050.com. My name is Alok Tahee. I'm the CEO and cofounder of Vibe Bio. Vibe is an AI platform that helps pharma companies make strategic decisions. I'm really excited today to be recording this podcast interview live in San Francisco at JPM twenty twenty six. Today, I'm joined by Brian Hilberding, the president of The US business of Boehringer Ingelheim. And we're gonna be having a really interesting wide ranging conversation that spans the company, its foci across multiple therapeutic areas, how they think about growth in the future as well as everyone's favorite two letters, AI. Brian, thanks so much for joining us today. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. Yeah. Well, you know, maybe kick it off. Love to hear about your background and how you got to where you are today. Thirty years ish? I couldn't tell. Yeah. In the innovative pharmaceutical industry. Started in sales at Novo Nordisk in Canada. And, you know, I'll try not to go through the long bio, but basically spent twenty six years at Novo Nordisk. Absolutely fantastic opportunity. Made six cross border moves within that company. So I went from Canada to Denmark, USA, Canada, Denmark, back to Canada, and then back to The United States. Really great run. After twenty six years, really wanted to get back into general management. I was heading up the commercial business at Novo Nordisk, and a really unique opportunity came up to head up a company in The US called LEO Pharma. LEO is also Danish, and it's actually the company that made insulin on behalf of Novo Nordisk going back to 1923. So I've always known about this common history and heritage, but the mission of LEO Pharma being a privately held company was turn The US into the primary growth engine, build up the medical dermatology company because that's the focus of the company, and then the plan is an eventual IPO. So really terrific, kind of felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity to take that journey. Went to Leo, spent three absolutely fantastic years there, and just a company to keep an eye on as, you know, the IPO. Hopefully, it will happen one of these days, but the company's made great strides. But in line with it, making great strides and having a great management team in place and helping to build up the portfolio. I felt like, not that, you know, the job is completely done, but there was an opportunity to go to Boehringer and go home. And in consultation with some great colleagues at Leo, made the decision that I would take the jump over to Boehringer. Really what it was at this point in my life experience to be able to come back to a company and lead at scale. Lead …