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Christopher Viehbacher

President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Biogen

Search every verified Christopher Viehbacher interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Christopher Viehbacher, President and CEO of Biogen, participated in the USAIC 2026 panel "The State of BioPharma: Bold Bets, Big Shifts, and What Lies Ahead" on October 13, 2026. During the discussion, he commented on the competitive position of the United States in biopharmaceuticals, noting that the country has become "comfortable" after being a leader for an extended period. He contrasted the U.S. clinical trial infrastructure with China's, stating that hospitals in China are set up to conduct trials, while the U.S. faces bureaucratic hurdles such as IRB processes. He also discussed the history of drug development timelines, recalling that the FDA approval process was reduced from four years to one year due to HIV advocacy, and argued that it should be possible to shorten this further to three to six months without compromising safety. At the same event, Viehbacher presented a lifetime achievement award to Dr. Elias Zerhouni, praising his work in science policy and NIH funding advocacy. In his remarks, Viehbacher reflected on the challenges of drug development, describing the industry as "in the business of failing" and recounting the eight-year development timeline for the drug Dupixent, which he noted generates $20 billion annually. He also referenced his experience with pricing agreements for medicines sold at no cost or profit in Africa, stating that the U.S. government provided massive funding that "saved millions of lives."

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Notable quotes

“We had developed this understanding that is written nowhere that we could sell medicines for no cost no profit in Africa and the developed world would not take that into account in setting the price here and as I say nowhere where was that ever written down? The global fund had been created to help fund that. But it was really the US government that came to the rescue here with massive funding that has just saved mil”

“We're in the business of failing, but every now and then we succeed. And you know there's a lot of failing going on and you got to have people around you who bring hope, bring thoughtfulness, bring some sort of smart solution to the disaster we've just encountered. And I think that's what we had at that team. I think you probably are feeling that with just the speeches coming out. But you know the turnaround of Santa”

“I think I think we are going to have to think a lot about the competitiveness of the United States. Um, you know, when you look at at where we have been, I think we have become comfortable. um you know we have been top dogs now for quite some time and I don't think we've been as competitive if you look at getting clinical trials done every hospital in China is all set up to go and do clinical trials here yes we have ”

“Well, first I you know I would say you know if we step back a minute we're in a dis in a disruptive industry and um we're also a very much disrupted industry. you know when I when I started in this industry in Germany um over 35 years ago Europe was spending more money than the US on R&D and then there was the rise of the United States and um I think you know what we're seeing today with China is a little what Europe”

“We're coming back into an upswing in the biopharmaceutical sector... interest rates coming down certainly helps our industry. We are having discussions with European governments, for example, in a way that we haven't been able to have so that we can even out the pricing differences between the US and Europe.”

“In a world of MFN, because of the unmet need most governments are actually willing to offer a price that remunerates our research and development. So a Friedreich's ataxia program for instance could be somewhere from a billion to a billion and a half dollars if we do this right and find the patients.”

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