Finance to Pharma: Q&A with Renee Aguiar-Lucander

Renee Aguiar-Lucander
CEO
Calliditas Therapeutics

Renee Aguiar-Lucander has had an interesting career. She has the honor of being the first female managing director in corporate finance at Lehman Brothers, where she worked in London in the 1990’s. Currently, she’s transitioned away from banking and investing and now serves as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. She recently spoke with Pharmaceutical Executive about her new career path.

Pharmaceutical Executive: How did you transition from finance to biopharma?
Renee Aguiar-Lucander: I spent 12 years investing in life sciences prior to taking on the CEO role at Calliditas, so I had a significant amount of experience and insight into what had worked and what had not worked in terms of investment thesis, targets and the creation and building of life science companies. I also had significant management experience from my time in global investment banks.A critically important success factor in biopharma is the ability to finance the business over time, so my background was a key component in terms of the success of the company.

PE: What was the significance of Calliditas being the first to use a novel renal primary surrogate endpoint for a Phase III trial?
Aguiar-Lucander: The use of a novel renal primary surrogate endpoint was absolutely pivotal. Without this approach, there would have been no viable regulatory pathway for drug approval in a rare disease like IgA nephropathy (IgAN). Traditionally difficult endpoints in the renal space, such as kidney failure, death or dialysis, often require lengthy and large trials, making them impractical for any company developing treatments for rare diseases.

Based on our Phase 2b data set, robust meta-analyses conducted in collaboration with U.S. universities as well as renal interest organizations and representatives from the FDA, proteinuria reduction was identified as an endpoint reasonably likely to translate into clinical benefit.

This enabled us to execute a Phase 3 trial, in which the successful interim readout enabled Calliditas to be granted the first-ever accelerated approval by the FDA for a nephrology drug, setting a new precedent for the development of treatments for this rare disease and, hopefully, other renal diseases.

PE: Can you discuss your work championing women in leadership positions?
Aguiar-Lucander: I have always believed that a diversified team performs better, generates better insight into problems and creates superior solutions.I have therefore always tried to ensure that there was a qualified female candidate for the positions that I left, and I have prioritized recruiting from a broad base to ensure that I minimize selection bias from small or closed networks.I have also always tried to actively encourage and support younger women around me, by suggesting that they apply for more senior positions, boosting their self-confidence, including them in meetings or introducing them into relevant networks. I also try to connect with other women in leadership positions in order to share our experiences and stories and to provide support for what can be a pretty lonely and exposed position at times.

PE: How has Calliditas’ global footprint expanded in recent years?
Aguiar-Lucander: In terms of staff, we have doubled in size pretty much every year since 2018, and we have purposefully grown the organization to become a fully integrated biopharma company with R&D, regulatory and headquarter functions in Europe, a strong commercial infrastructure in the U.S. with over 100 field-based staff and three strong partnerships in China in 2019, Europe in 2021 and Japan in 2023. It has been a fantastic journey and a privilege to build Calliditas to what it is today.