‘We deliver’: How CSL shares jumped 367 per cent under this CEO’s reign

“Patience is always a good idea,” he said.

Perreault will step down from his post as chief executive of one of Australia’s largest companies in March, after leading the business through a decade which included a pandemic, multibillion-dollar acquisitions and global expansion. When he stepped into the role in July 2013, CSL shares were trading about $65.50. At the end of last week, they closed above $304.

He says landing a CEO role was never on his career bucket list, but over the past decade, he’s made decisions which have reshaped the direction of the $145.6 billion company.

‘I didn’t become CEO in a blink of an eye. Patience is always a good idea.’

Paul Perreault, CSL chief executive

This includes overseeing the purchase of the Novartis influenza vaccine business in 2015 for $US275 million ($397 million), which helped transform the company’s vaccines business, CSL Seqirus, into a company generating $2 billion in revenue a year.

He was also at the wheel throughout COVID-19, including overseeing CSL’s involvement in the University of Queensland’s vaccine project, which was ultimately shelved when it was shown the product caused trial participants to return false positives on some HIV tests, and the manufacture of AstraZeneca’s vaccine for the Australian population.

It was during this time that messenger-RNA technologies captured the public’s imagination for the first time as the Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech products came to market.

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As “mRNA” became synonymous with vaccine innovation in the media, CSL was grilled about why it didn’t have the capacity to make this new generation of vaccines onshore. But the business was at capacity, not only retooling its Melbourne facilities to make AstraZeneca doses, but also continue to produce its flagship products: specialist medicines made from refined human blood plasma.

Now the dust has settled, US mRNA technology company Moderna has thrown down a challenge to companies such as CSL as it works to expand its portfolio to new products. Moderna’s global boss, Stephane Bancel, said last year that he believed CSL could lose its competitive edge on flu vaccines as messenger-RNA expanded. 

But Perreault has long refused to buy into the hype and frenzy surrounding mRNA, and cautions that products such as combination vaccines, which are designed to fight COVID-19 and flu at the same time, will take a long time to develop.

“There are things that people like to push out, and say, ‘it’s easy, we can do this, it will be here tomorrow’. [But] the regulators don’t really like combination products, you really have to prove a lot,” he said.

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“Combination products are difficult – to do the clinical trials, to actually see the results.”

Instead of following in the footsteps of companies such as Moderna and developing similar mRNA products, CSL is investing in the “next generation” of the technology, called self-amplifying mRNA.

These type of medicines differ from the mRNA vaccines on the market and typically require lower doses because they are designed so that the strand of messenger-RNA, which delivers instructions to the body on how to fight disease, replicates itself once inside the cell.

CSL did a deal with US biotech Arcturus last year to develop a range of vaccines using this strategy.

“The self-amplifying platform which we are working on has some real benefits,” Perreault said.

“We have a really good relationship with Arcturus. I think we’re well-placed to continue to work [on it], as CSL does. Probably a little bit quieter than most people, but we deliver.”

Perreault is keen to set CSL apart from pure-play mRNA therapy makers, and has made decisions over the past two years to diversify the company’s focus away from vaccine and plasma technologies.

The company’s $16.4 billion acquisition of Swiss iron deficiency and kidney disease products maker Vifor left some analysts scratching their heads last year, but Perreault championed the purchase as a way of getting exposure to a growing and traditionally unloved sector.

Three years on from the start of the pandemic, the seeds of major biotech investments in Australia are starting to bloom. Moderna has broken ground on a vaccine-manufacturing facility at Monash University, while CSL is pouring $800 million into a cell vaccine plant at Tullamarine.

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But as newer companies eye the Australian market post-pandemic, Perreault is emphatic that CSL has the edge with its breadth and depth.

“All of the people who want to come to Australia and set up a small shop, good on ’em. We’ve been here, staying here, we’ve invested the most, and we continue to invest the most. We know what we’re doing, on multiple fronts – not just one mRNA.”

Both sides of politics are enthused by the idea of backing biotech projects. Perreault says the support is there, but “the amount of investment is modest, I would say, compared to what it takes”.

If the country is really going to leverage the skills and knowledge of its researchers, there needs to be patience and consistency of policy, he believes.

“Regardless of who is in power, they need to have a consistent innovation policy for Australia, not for the party.”

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