12 Questions with Patrick Oliver

Patrick Oliver, General Manager of Alfasigma UK and Ireland, brings 36 years of industry expertise to the role. Having held different positions in Market Access at leading pharmaceutical companies such as Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, and Abbott, Oliver offers valuable insights into his journey. He also reflects on Alfasigma’s recent entry into the UK market, the challenges faced, and the affiliate’s vision for the future.

What is your background prior to this role and how did it prepare you for the work you do now? Over the last 36 years, I’ve been fortunate enough to gain experience in a broad range of functions, from sales to marketing and market access. The latter of those is really where my critical understanding of the industry and the NHS comes from, such as how our customers work and what they need to make informed decisions. This has been crucial stepping into my current role as General Manager at Alfasigma UK & Ireland.

I’ve also come to realise throughout my career that a business is truly nothing without its people. Building relationships quickly, understanding what matters most to people and realising potential is what makes teams unstoppable and I am hugely motivated by this.

What is your proudest professional accomplishment to date? My proudest professional accomplishment to date has been leading my team through a period of transition. Over the past 20 months, we navigated a full restructure, including strategic shifts and multiple leadership changes, all while integrating within a new company. Through this, I focused on building a stable, inclusive culture, where our team felt valued and motivated. As a result, we maintained an impressively low turnover - a true testament to our resilience and teamwork.

What are some of the biggest ongoing challenges in your work? We are still navigating the complexities of a transitional stage, which involves extensive updates to processes and systems - something we’re still working through. Looking ahead, a key challenge, but an exciting one, is shaping an organisation ready for the future.

With ambitious goals over the next few months and years, retaining our positive culture whilst making sure we’ve got the right people with the right capabilities and experience to be able to deliver on our ambitions is a top priority.

What motivates you about working in pharma? The people. And this is two-fold.

What matters most is knowing that the goal in everything we do is to have a positive impact on patients. It’s very fulfilling going to work knowing your actions are actively contributing to better health and quality of life for people in this country.

None of this would be possible without the incredible people at Alfasigma. I’m deeply motivated by the chance to learn from this team and see their growth firsthand. For the last two years, we’ve worked really hard to live our ‘unstoppable team’ mantra internally, because that’s what we are. As a close-knit team, we work collaboratively so no decision is made in isolation, enabling us to cross the line together.

What are your biggest short-term goals for this year and next year? We’re currently very focused on completing our transition, while still being able to stay on track and maintain a focus on the business. In 2025, we’re enthusiastic to continue to establish Alfasigma UK & Ireland as a trusted pharmaceutical partner and build even deeper relationships with our customers and patients.

What are your biggest long-term goals for five years or 10 years from now? Whilst a number of my team have been working together for nearly five years, our presence as Alfasigma was only first established in the UK and Irish markets in February 2024 and, as such, continuing to grow that presence and build our reputation within our committed disease areas is going to be key.

In the long-term, we will focus on the ideas that will deliver the biggest impact to patients and the communities we serve.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the industry right now? There’s a clear opportunity for closer alignment between industry and the NHS. Often, we find that industry has solutions and is willing to collaborate with the NHS to deliver the best outcomes to patients. While the NHS, rightfully, tends to focus on the immediate needs, industry brings a broader vision, particularly around long-term goals and sustainability of the healthcare system. Without doubt, there is room for more collaboration, as both sides have shared a passion and capabilities to drive change. Ultimately, we are all working towards the same goal.

How do you foster diversity in your workplace? There are many buzzwords I could use, but really it comes down to having a sense of belonging, and that’s something we actively nurture within our team.

While we champion an inclusive environment, talk about important diversity topics together, and embrace everyone’s unique journeys and evolutions, what truly underpins all of that is that we have a have a culture built on trust. It’s our responsibility to maintain that, to educate and train each other, and at Alfasigma it’s an open door. By building that trust through openness and honesty, this creates an environment where everyone feels safe and has a sense of purpose.

How do you promote patient-centricity in your workplace? What’s really powerful and grounds us all is having the patient voice at the core of everything we do. Whether that’s bringing patients in to speak to teams about their experiences, or encouraging teams to keep up to date with changes in their respective therapy areas, we ensure everything we do comes back to the central question: how will this impact someone living with the condition?

With that in mind, we can guarantee we will always work towards a positive outcome for the people we’re fortunate enough to help.

What has changed most about the industry since the start of your career? At the start of my career, I remember the “simple life” of travelling to see primary care GPs. With all the many innovations in technology and communication, that can now be done at your fingertips, which has been a big change – when I first started, there weren’t even mobile phones!

The NHS has also changed beyond recognition. A lot of these have been positive, but there’s also an element of simplicity that seems to have faded. Regardless, I have enjoyed the challenge of adapting to the various new environments we now find ourselves in as an industry.

What sports do you follow and who do you root for? Technically, I am a Southampton supporter, but with four children, two of them being huge Liverpool fans, I’ve found myself supporting them as well – we are all quite happy at the moment with the current state of play!

Aside from football, I’ve followed Lewis Hamilton’s entire career from the start and have a real passion for F1. However, my allegiance might be changing to Lando Norris – I’m excited to see all the fresh talent emerging. It’s a bit like the team here at Alfasigma – full of fresh potential and energy.

If you could have any job other than the one you have now, what would you choose? As you might have guessed from the previous answer – anything to do with motor vehicles. My dad was a mechanic and by the time I was 20, I’d had 10 different cars.

If I had to choose anything, it would be an F1 driver. Aside from the adrenaline, I think it’s a great example of how a good business operates. There are many different functions working together to make incremental gains in performance, linked through their team spirit, which is also what we achieve together at Alfasigma.

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