Could you share with us about your career path?

I graduated in 1992 and did my one year of pre-registration training in the Singapore General Hospital, before doing both sales and product registration in a multinational company, Ciba-Geigy (now merged with Sandoz to become Novartis). However, I wanted to see what was happening regionally, so I joined Hyphens as an employee. Hyphens was a small company but it provided regional coverage, and I stayed there for over four years. I covered all the South-East Asian markets, worked closely with French manufacturers and saw how their small and mid-sized companies developed in a very entrepreneurial way. When I left in 1998, I bought into Pan-Malayan and joined as a managing director. That’s when I started running the business, negotiating with my old boss to buy into Hyphens and developing business operations in Malaysia in 2004, Philippines in 2007 and Indonesia in 2011. We developed our own products, launching Ceradan in 2011, our first product for dry skin. In 2016, we acquired Ocean Health, and in 2018, we listed. That’s where we are today.

What is your vision or next step for Hyphens?

Currently, we are still at an early stage in our corporate development. We are looking to establish our presence in a broader network of markets within and beyond ASEAN, which could benefit from the products we are commercialising. Developing our own products is also an important focus in the overall strategy. We will leverage our capacities to translate our innovations into quality products, particularly in the areas of dermatology and clinical nutrition, in order to contribute to patient care.

Did you ever consider other career choices?

I did. In the earlier part of my career, I did consider going into research. But because the circumstances weren’t right, I did not take this path. We can link up and work with researchers now, but in my current work, the important thing is not just to understand the technical complexity of the research, but to be able to see the relevance of the research to our consumers so that we can commercialise useful products for them.

Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing?

I must say, running your own company is quite all-consuming, especially if you have a family. Whatever spare time I have, I spend it with my family. We enjoy going for ‘makan’! I’m also very curious, so I enjoy reading. I always encourage others to read biographies, because that is how you realise that people in very important positions face the same challenges as you. You realise that they are not Superman; they struggled to overcome these hurdles as well. That gives you inspiration, because you see that they’re just ordinary people who kept moving forward. Lee Kuan Yew has a few biographies, such as “From Third World to First”, and his insights about human nature are the most interesting. In order to be a leader, you must be able to understand human motivation. His insights on human nature are very useful if you want to become a better leader.

How has your pharmacy undergraduate life impacted your career?

Pharmacy prepared me very well for running my business, which requires me to be able to appreciate disease. My undergraduate days laid the foundation of human physiology and pathology for me, so I can learn through reading, talking to doctors or key opinion leaders. It is easier to understand disease and the significance of new upcoming innovations. There are so many options to treat diseases nowadays; understanding the pathology forms the basis by which you can differentiate products in terms of efficacy or safety profile. Pharmacy is a course with aspects of clinical, science, technology, and regulations. It is an interesting mix which makes it a very good curriculum.

What did you enjoy the most about your undergraduate days and what do you miss the most?

I actually enjoyed studying because I have so much curiosity. I find things that are evolving very exciting. During my time, there were no biologics, genetics or biotech, but today, a whole new area has opened up looking at protein-based products. There are more tools available; people are looking at RNA-based therapeutics, T-cell based therapeutics and others. I think I would really enjoy being a student today, because what I miss most about being a student is the opportunity to study and learn about the latest advancements in these areas.

Do you have any advice for our students?

Inter-disciplinary education is valuable. Many things that happen in the field of innovation occur across disciplines. Don’t limit your focus to therapeutics and healthcare because you are a pharmacist. Even in a hospital context, it is important that you forge cross-disciplinary collaborations to have interesting perspectives on problems and potential solutions. This mindset of cross-disciplinary collaboration is critical if we want to create interesting and exciting new futures. We must be open minded, have the right mindset and desire to work with others. Try to forge relationships with people from multiple disciplines in your undergraduate days. Friendships forged in the campus environment last a long time. Have fun with others, forge bonds, form teams, and solve problems together in future.

Anything else you would like to add?

There is a lot happening in the biomedical area. Not just in pharmaceuticals, but also in the medtech area, so watch that space. Watch it, and think about how you can be a player.