Meeting the Needs of Patients Globally

“Producing efficacious plasma therapies makes a significant difference in our patients’ quality of life. That’s what motivates me and

makes me feel good about what we do every day. It’s an honor to be in this profession.”

— Gregory Rich, president and CEO of Grifols North America

GREGORY RICH has long maintained a collaborative leadership style that invites input from colleagues throughout the organization he leads. This “open-door policy” has served him well during his nearly decade-long tenure as president and CEO of Grifols North American operations. It also positioned him as the perfect person to lead the corporate transition following the company’s acquisition of Talecris Biotherapeutics last June. “Once the transition teams were in place, we recognized there was tremendous potential to grow and learn from one another as we pursued our goal of creating a unified team, while building on the successes we achieved as separate companies,” he says. “Our goal, then and now, is to build on the exceptional customer service and quality operations that our patients and customers have come to expect from both Grifols and Talecris. This is a very exciting time for us.”

The company’s new commercial operations have been divided into three divisions: immunology, hematology and pulmonology. According to Grifols S.A. President Victor Grifols, the union of the two biopharmaceutical leaders served to strengthen Grifols’ commitment to providing life-saving therapies to patients with rare, chronic diseases. By all accounts, the move has created a significantly expanded global footprint for Grifols that will ultimately increase the quantity of products and choices available to the patients who need them.

With a global presence in more than 90 countries, Grifols had long established itself as a standard-bearer within the plasma therapies industry. Since the Talecris acquisition, Grifols has become the world’s third-largest producer of plasma protein therapies; the combined 2010 U.S. sales for both companies were more than €2.3 billion or approximately $3.1 billion. “We bring a 70-year history, a pioneering spirit, a wealth of knowledge, and tried-and-true commitment to the community now as a larger company that will meet a broader range of patient needs,” says Rich. “The patient community can take comfort in the fact that Grifols is a company that has been around a long time, and they can now count on us establishing an even stronger presence in the U.S.”

A Patient-First Philosophy

Rich has more than 30 years of experience in the plasma industry associated with Grifols; since his appointment as CEO in 2003, he and his team have been instrumental in driving the company’s profitability in the U.S. Under his leadership, Grifols has grown and expanded without losing sight of its mission to meet the unique needs of chronically ill patients. One of the distinctive ways Grifols demonstrates that commitment is through a variety of patient assistance programs, including temporary assistance to patients in emergent financial need, patients without insurance coverage and those seeking coverage, and patients struggling to meet co-pay requirements. “Many of the patients who use our products face problems in obtaining and maintaining adequate health insurance,” says Rich. “The many avenues Grifols offers for obtaining patient assistance demonstrates our evergrowing commitment to helping those in need.” Patients living with various disease states, including hemophilia, primary immune deficiency disease (PIDD) and Alpha-1 lung disease, are among those who can benefit from Grifols’ programs.

An Eye on Expansion

A few years ago, Grifols began construction on a state-of-the-art intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) facility in Los Angeles, which it expects to be fully operational by 2013. The facility is currently undergoing the required industrial validation process, and represents a $55 million investment that will substantially increase the company’s manufacturing capacity for its IVIG products. “The new facility will further position Grifols as a proactive source of health innovation along with its corporate traits of persistent growth, partnership, character and cultural diversity,” Rich says.

The Los Angeles facility will utilize the same proprietary technologies and process flow designs employed at the company’s existing IVIG production facility in Barcelona, Spain. It will serve as a twin of that pioneering facility, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration licensed in 2007. A key component of Grifols’ multiyear global growth plan to meet demand for plasma therapies, the new Los Angeles facility will follow the recent securing of FDA approval of the company’s state-of-theart bulk processing and aseptic filling facility in the same city.

When it comes to promoting safety within the company and the industry, Grifols prioritizes education and training for its employees. Grifols formed the Academy of Plasmapheresis in Glendale, Ariz., — a combination state-of-the-art donor center and training facility — as part of its long history of continuous improvement and commitment to education. “We utilize this facility to train our plasma operations employees throughout the U.S.; last year,we trained over 550 employees in that facility,” Rich says. “We acquired the facility with the building next door to have an opportunity to expand theAcademy when needed, and now with the acquisition complete, we have substantially increased our donor staff and training needs.”

When asked to gaze into the proverbial corporate crystal ball, Rich says Grifols plans to continue investing in the future to meet the needs of patients in the U.S. and worldwide. “We’ve been around for 70 years, and we plan to be here for succeeding generations for another 70 — and 70 beyond that.”

Like many who work in industries that supply life-sustaining products to the chronically ill, Rich continually gains perspective and inspiration from interacting with those on the receiving end of the company’s multifaceted global operations: “I’ve been in this industry a long time, and I’ve had [the] opportunity to attend international conferences and meet with patients around the world. Doing so has helped me see firsthand that producing efficacious plasma therapies makes a significant difference in the quality of life of our patients. That’s what motivates me and makes me feel good about what we do every day.