Viatris is a new kind of global healthcare company whose mission is to empower people worldwide to live healthier at every stage of life by expanding access to medicines regardless of geography or circumstance; advancing responsible, sustainable operations and targeted innovation to improve patient health; and leveraging its collective expertise to connect more people to more products and services.

Viatris has scientific, manufacturing and distribution expertise with proven regulatory, medical and global commercial capabilities to deliver high-quality medicines to patients in more than 165 countries and territories.

Viatris Australia is one of the leading suppliers of medicines to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, currently with 43 out of the top 50 PBS products distributed by volume being a Viatris medicine.

Their broad portfolio ranges from iconic brands, generic, complex generic and branded medicines, biosimilars and over-the-counter products across more than 10 major therapeutic areas.

In November, Viatris will be celebrating their second anniversary, following the combination of Mylan and Pfizer’s Upjohn business.

In Australia the manufacturing facility at Carole Park has been operational for 40 years – growing from 6 employees to over 600.

Viatris is a global pharmaceutical and healthcare corporation headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. The company has local offices in both Australia and New Zealand.

In 2021, Viatris sold more than 80 billion doses of medicine worldwide and reached approximately 90% of low- and lower-middle-income countries with approximately 7.7 billion doses of medicine.

In Australia the world class manufacturing facility at Carole Park, Queensland, exports medicine to more than 40 countries.

Viatris produces approximately 3 billion doses of medicine every year in approximately 450 different formulations and with the opening of the new manufacturing suite, this will increase to approximately 4 billion doses of medicine every year.

Sylvain Vigneault, Country Manager (pictured), believes that Viatris is in a really good position at the moment, and the challenges they experience are no different to those of other companies in the sector.

“As we have grown rapidly over the past two years, we are experiencing challenges of attracting talent in this competitive market. However, we are working alongside education partners to ensure we can work with students to have a robust talent pipeline and foster the skills of the next generation of professionals.”

He also says that maintaining a reliable supply of pharmaceutical products is always critical, but even more so – and often more challenging — after the pandemic. As an essential business, Viatris has taken action to avoid supply chain disruptions for critical medicines and reduce supply chain pressure.

Viatris has reported strong results for the second quarter of 2022 and provided an update to its full year 2022 financial guidance.

“We believe our strong and consistent operational execution reflects the resilience of a diversified business that has been built deliberately to ensure we are not dependent on any one market or product and allows us to remain agile and opportunistic to perform consistently across all geographies.

“Looking ahead, we will be building upon our strong legacy in development and leverage our extensive scientific capabilities to continue moving up the value chain.”

Since its creation Viatris, have remained focused on providing engaging and rewarding opportunities for colleagues to gain a sense of purpose as they learn, grow and make a difference.

The workforce is very engaged; from Day 1, colleagues around the world have been united by a shared purpose of empowering people worldwide to live healthier at every stage of life.

Viatris attracts employees and retains them through personal development programs. This is through learning through on-the-job experiences, special projects, development goals, training programs and interactive online courses.

Rob Elliot (pictured), Head of Operations says that active pharmaceutical ingredients, or API, are responsible for the therapeutic effects of medicines.

“Globally, Viatris is one of the world’s largest producers of APIs, providing them to customers in more than 100 countries. Being a manufacturer of API makes us one of the few global pharmaceutical companies with a comprehensive, vertically integrated supply chain.

“This provides us with an extra measure in the quality process that we can own, and it also helps us maintain deep insight into diverse markets and therapeutic segments.”

Viatris is leveraging the combined talents and deep knowledge of Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) professionals around the globe to minimise the company’s impact on the environment, whilst safeguarding a reliable supply of medicine.

The company is committed to responsible and sustainable operations, recognising that actions affect their stakeholders and the communities they serve.

This spans across patient health, employee health, community health, environmental health and global public health. Policies including the Global Environment Stewardship policy and Global Climate Change Policy ensure, as a business, the company is mitigating effects on the planet and protecting the health and wellbeing of patients and communities.

To support Viatris’ global approach to environmental stewardship, the company has also set a goal to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 42% by 2030 and reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions covering purchase goods and services, capital goods, fuel and energy-related alternatives and upstream transportation and distribution 25% by 2030.

As part of furthering the company’s commitment to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and supporting progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Viatris became signatories to the UNGC CEO Water Mandate and Women’s Empowerment Principles.

In Australia, Viatris is contributing to environmental sustainability with their manufacturing site in Queensland, which has used 4,265 KL of rainwater (15% of the total site water usage and in 2021), recycled 250 tonnes of materials (an increase of 10% compared to 2020).

Stephen Jenkins Head of Government Affairs and Policy ANZ says government is supporting Viatris and the broader manufacturing business community

Recently, the federal Government awarded Viatris Australia a grant of up to $1 million to build new production lines to help secure the supply of vital medicines for Australian patients, including crucial antibiotics and treatments for diabetes, heart disease and mental illness.

The grant is part of the Government’s Sovereign Manufacturing Capability Plan, which safeguards access to critical products, including in times of crisis, in partnership with Australian businesses.

“We have also worked alongside the Therapeutic Goods Administration to have the ‘Made in Australia’ symbol stamped on the packaging of some of our products so we can celebrate locally manufactured products.

“We work alongside the government as partners in healthcare for the Australian public to promote health policy discussion in Australia that recognises the importance of scientific innovation, as well as the need to make medicines accessible to patients who need them.

“We believe it’s important to contribute to ongoing debate to help shape the health system we want for the future.”