Bayer’s Ashley Hesslein spent more than 10 years working on groundbreaking treatments for hemophilia. These days, she has shifted her focus to figuring out how to scale up other promising discoveries for the patients who can benefit. Researchers are currently discovering breakthrough cell and gene therapies that show promise when it comes to treating a host of devastating diseases, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and multiple forms of cancer. The problem: There isn’t enough manufacturing capacity to quickly move new treatments from the lab bench to the patients. Hesslein, as vice president of biologics process development for Bayer, is among those working to solve this bottleneck. She and her team design flexible, scalable and reproducible processes for manufacturing biomolecules, such as monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins and other biological products including cell therapy. “It’s so fulfilling being part of making novel treatments — particularly our first cell therapy candidates — accessible to patients by designing how these products can be manufactured,” she said. Holding one of the top executive positions at Bayer’s West Berkeley campus, Hesslein is a trailblazer, not just in her field but also as one of the few women globally to have reached this level in pharmaceutics. She was recently named one of the most influential women in Bay Area business by the San Francisco Business Times. Launching a science career Hesslein’s journey into the world of biotech began with her early love for the outdoors, which blossomed into an interest in science during high school and college. Encouraged by her professors and family, she pursued a doctorate in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University. Her passion for applied science led her to pharmaceuticals, where she found her niche in process development. Hesslein said her work on a new medicine to treat hemophilia, a life-threatening blood disorder, is one of her proudest accomplishments. She was the first person to purify a specific protein in the laboratory that went on to become a treatment Bayer launched in 2016. That treatment has since become a cornerstone of the company’s portfolio of hemophilia medicines — all manufactured in Berkeley and provided to people living with hemophilia in more than 50 countries. The treatment has been a game-changer for many patients, who can now personalize their dosing and require as few as two infusions per week. Bringing new medicine to patients is a long and expensive process. The prices of treatments have to cover the cost of the treatment itself as well as the innovation for future treatments for unmet medical needs, Hesslein said. “The work I do to bring new medicines into clinical trials is resource intensive because of the complexity and care that goes into each new experiment,” she said. “To develop a new, traditional biologic medicine averages $2.3 billion from the laboratory through clinical trials. And, while that’s the cost to get a product all the way to the market, 90% of drug candidates fail during clinical studies — a cost which also has to be offset.” Promoting sustainability In addition to her work in biotech, Hesslein is also deeply committed to sustainability. Bayer has made significant strides in lowering its water consumption, reducing the use of materials, recycling when reduction is not possible and choosing raw materials with lower carbon footprints. For example, the team at Berkeley has pioneered the reuse of what had been single-use plastic bags for a key stage in manufacturing protein therapeutics. The company also implemented a program to recondition and reuse the shipping containers to deliver medicines. Bayer aims to be climate-neutral by 2030 at all its sites worldwide. Looking to the future, Hesslein acknowledges the unique challenges women face in leadership roles, particularly the need to balance assertiveness and friendliness. Despite these challenges, she remains optimistic. “I love that my daughters feel confident in challenging where we are at today,” she said. “The progress we have made on everything from environmental protection to human rights is not enough in their eyes. They and others in their generation will be politically and community active adults and continue to challenge the ‘status quo.’” “*” indicates required fields
This content was originally published here.
