Impressively, Doina Ionescu is one of only two female bosses of major pharmaceutical companies in Britain.
She heads the major German healthcare group Merck in Britain and Ireland and is one of the leading women in the sector, along with Emma Walmsley, the CEO of GSK.
Her rise is all the more inspiring because she grew up in Romania in the 1970s and 1980s.
Her childhood was in the shadow of the repressive communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu, who was executed along with his wife on Christmas Day in 1989.
As a talented young scientist, Ionescu first focused on nuclear physics. Then, after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, she had a Damascene conversion about the nuclear industry.
Conversion: Doina Ionescu left nuclear physics after her father died of cancer following the Chernobyl disaster
Her father, along with several other men in her village, which was about 500 kilometers away from the disaster site, died prematurely of cancer in 1998.
‘On his deathbed, my father asked me to give up nuclear physics. I believe, as he believed, that one of the factors in his cancer was the radiation in the aftermath of Chernobyl.”
That same year, she joined Merck in Britain, where she had moved to complete her PhD.
Starting as a scientific researcher, the young woman rose through the ranks from behind the Iron Curtain and became general manager just over three years ago. ‘When my father passed away, that was the moment I knew I wanted to work in a healthcare company that gives people opportunities and hope. At the time, treatments were scarce in a communist country. My father had no choice, no opportunities.’
She is proud, she says, that Merck is developing a product against lung cancer, which her father had, along with other oncology treatments.
‘We focus on niche cancers where big companies don’t go.’
‘When it comes to cancer, the paradigm has shifted from prolonging life to finding cures.
‘It shows the progress humanity has made. Because of my personal story, I hope Merck joins in the healing.”
Her own experiences have also played a role in Merck’s approach to fertility treatment. The company has been a pioneer in this field since 1906 and more than five million babies have been born using its products.
Ionescu is about to launch a program that will provide financial support for fertility treatments for staff in Britain, both men and women, and their partners.
This includes fertility testing, in vitro fertilization and hormone treatments, which can be expensive and emotionally draining.
It can make a huge difference to staff struggling with the financial side of treatment. According to a recent survey by Fertility Network UK, 63 percent of people undergoing therapy paid all or part of the cost out of pocket.
The average spend was £13,750, but 12 per cent of people had to find more than £30,000 and a few spent more than £100,000.
“Society faces many challenges and Merck is in a position to help with some of them,” Ionescu said. ‘What’s more important than a child, if you want one?
‘I have personal experience. I have one daughter, but I wish I had been younger when I had her and had more children.
‘I encourage my 22-year-old daughter to save her eggs before age 25. The age of the eggs is really crucial. I told her I would pay to have them preserved before I was 25. It does cost something.’
Would she advise every young woman to do that?
‘Yes. Young men need education just as much as young women. This generation is much more aware than I was when I was twenty.
‘We were so driven by professional performance. I put off having a child until I was 30 and then I struggled a bit.
‘When I was twenty, I wanted to have a career, I didn’t want to have a child yet, the two didn’t go hand in hand.
‘I had a career and a family, but did that come at a price? Yes. Did I regret? Yes, and they are mainly about not being with my daughter at moments in her life that were so precious.
“When she went to high school, or when she went to a sporting event, I usually wasn’t there. So yeah, I have a few regrets.” However, she has forged a path for women at Merck, the world’s oldest pharmaceutical company, which was founded in 1668 by Friedrich Jacob Merck in Darmstadt, Germany.
When Ionescu joined the company in 1998, she was the only woman in the leadership program in Britain. “I came from a communist country where gender equality existed,” she says.
So was there more equality in Romania?
“Yes, yes, in Romania childcare was provided by the state, and the families were close,” she says.
‘But I’ve seen a lot of progress in the last 25 years. The pharmaceutical industry has a strong female presence.
“Now we have 56 percent women on our leadership team – before I was the only one.”
She admits that not enough girls study science, maths, engineering and technology, and she would encourage more people to do so. “Studying science gives you a great foundation in your life,” she says.
Merck’s American branch was spun off during World War I and operates as a separate company. The German company’s shares are listed, although the family still owns 70 percent of it.
The UK, Ionescu says, is a “strategic market” for the company, which has 64,000 employees around the world and will have global sales of more than €22 billion by 2022.
In Great Britain, the company employs approximately 1,800 employees at 12 locations, including research, development and production.
Ionescu says Britain is well placed to be a leader in the life sciences. “We have a great education system, great companies. All preconditions are present.
‘Britain has a great history. An inspiring figure for me was the Queen, because she was so consistent. And David Bowie, because he was so different and never saw barriers.’
In addition to her job at Merck, she sits on the board of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, where she pushes for more women and girls in the field.
Despite the pessimism of some Remainers, she argues that the British pharmaceutical industry can flourish after Brexit. ‘We have Project Orbis. This is one of the benefits of Brexit,” she says.
Orbis is a program set up post-Brexit by the medical health organization MHRA to provide faster access to cancer treatments, and is coordinated by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Other non-EU countries are also involved, including Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Israel. A number of products have been approved under the scheme.
“Britain is the birthplace of science and healthcare, and we just have to keep the momentum going,” Ionescu said. ‘From a scientific point of view, this is the place to be. It’s a great country, and when you come from a communist country, you see that.”
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