Christine Côté was among 16 women honored last month by the Women’s Fund of New Jersey.
By: Steve Rauscher
Christine Côté doesn’t like to stay in one place too long.
The 50-year-old Brit has advanced from job to job through 30 years and three countries, accumulating experience as a medical researcher, family physician and marketing director that has given her unique insight into the pharmaceutical industry.
"Someone like me, who’s got the science and the medical background, as well as the marketing, is a bit unusual," she said from behind the desk in her office at Janssen Pharmaceutica in Titusville. "But it’s a great place to be, because you see both sides."
As vice-president of medical affairs at the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, Dr. Côté oversees the clinical studies and outcomes research that Janssen conducts. In recognition for her lifetime achievement, she was among 16 women honored last month by the Women’s Fund of New Jersey.
"You feel like you’re blowing your own horn a bit but it’s very pleasing," she said. "It’s a sort of an ‘I’m OK,’ endorsement of where you are and what you’ve done."
Dr. Côté grew up in England, attending Stockport High School for girls before obtaining a degree in physiology from Manchester University. In between, she worked as a lab assistant for ICI, the pharmaceutical company. She took a research and development position with the government-sponsored Medical Research Council after graduation. In 1970, an associate hired her to run an immunology lab in Toronto, where she ended up at medical school, entering family practice after her residency.
After five years, Dr. Côté felt it was time to move on again.
"I enjoyed it very much, but I thought ‘Do I really want to do this for the next 20 years?’ " she said. "Most patients react well to what you tell them, but there’s a core of patients who, no matter what you tell them, aren’t taking any notice and it kind of burns you out. Because you can see where they’re headed, and you do care. Sometimes you care too much."
She sought a job with her former employer, ICI, now Zeneca, eventually heading up its international division, where she was in charge of setting up regional medical centers around the world.
"Because I’ve got a lab background and a family practice background, its seems to me that working in the pharmaceutical industry brings all that together," she said. "You are dealing with patient-centered issues, so it is about practice and treatment … . You’ve really got more diverse opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry. What you miss is the hands-on patient care."
In 1997, Dr. Côté was coaxed into accepting a job with Johnson & Johnson, supervising the production and marketing of Eprex, used to treat kidney failure and anemia. With $4 billion a year in sales, Eprex, also called Procrit, is the pharmaceutical titan’s largest product. She just recently moved to her new job at Jannsen. Accepting new challenges is important, she said.
"I work probably more hours now than I did (when I was a doctor), but it’s more diverse," she said. "You’re dealing with teams of people, you’re talking at the strategic level, you’re talking at the operational level. You get to deal with different things."
Dr. Côté’s medical affairs division conducts research on the use of drugs among the general population after they have been approved for general use, assessing their economic as well as medical impact. As the population ages, drug companies will need to rely more on such research in developing treatment programs that go beyond providing medication, Dr. Côté said.
"One big trend in healthcare is that we’re all getting older, so we’re going to have to deal with elderly people living longer and longer, and demanding more quality of life," she said. "I think pharmaceutical companies are just going to have to come to grips with that and pull together to provide more integrated programs and services, not just sell pills."
Some of the finest healthcare in the world is available in the U.S., she said. Having also worked in the socialized health systems in the U.K and Canada, she said that the resources available in America are first-class, but those resources are not available to the whole population.
"It’s very clear that if you’ve got money and you live in America, then it’s a fantastic place to be," she said. "But if you don’t have money, then you’ve got problems, especially if you end up with major medical problems."
That said, she doesn’t think that the government should nationalize the healthcare system.
"I think there needs to be a compromise … there needs to be more fair balance," she said. "Given the complexities of American life, I’m not sure how you do that."
Working at Johnson & Johnson has given Dr. Côté the chance to be a part of that balancing act, and she is grateful, she said.
"Having the opportunity to be able to work in healthcare and the scientific environment has been great," she said. "It’s helping people, moving things forward and making a difference."