Female chief executives remain extremely rare in the drug development industry. According to a BioPharma Dive analysis of 180 leading biotech companies, only 15 were led by women last year, representing less than 10%. Veracyte CEO Bonnie Anderson—one of the few women leading a biotech company—described this number as "shockingly low and absurdly so."

Several executives told BioPharma Dive that this imbalance has been slow to improve, putting pressure on the industry to address the issue more seriously. Much of the call for more action is directed at the biotech industry's main trade organization, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).

"I expect more from BIO," said Helen Torley, chair of BIO's diversity committee and CEO of Halozyme Therapeutics, when asked in June what message she would convey to the trade group's new chair. "I need more people, I need more support. If we want to achieve this goal, we have to push forward continuously, just like any marketing campaign."

BIO has 1,100 members, including pharmaceutical companies, but the organization declined to disclose the specific amount it invests in diversity efforts. However, its leaders said the organization recently decided to more than double the budget for its diversity committee.

Two years ago, BIO set industry targets: by 2025, women should make up 50% of management and 30% of company boards. But no target was set for the proportion of female CEOs.

The industry's top management remains a considerable distance from these goals. A BioPharma Dive review found that among the 50 largest pharmaceutical companies by market value, about a quarter of executives are women. In 12 of these companies, women make up more than a third of the executive team, and only one biotech company—Alexion Pharmaceuticals—has more women than men on its executive team.

Despite this, Torley remains "absolutely confident" that the industry can achieve the goals set by BIO.

So far, BIO's main initiative has been the launch of theBIO Boardlistwebsite, where industry executives can search for a list of diverse board candidates. According to the trade group, there are currently 47 women on the list. The platform has not yet led to direct appointments, but Torley added that board searches typically take time.

Torley said the list provides a concrete answer to executives who claim they want to hire female candidates but cannot find suitable ones. Other leaders in the drug industry called the effort a good start, but said it alone is not enough to bring about meaningful change.

"The list is just one piece of the puzzle," said Laurie Cooke, CEO of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association. "Who gets on boards and why is a much more complex issue."

To that end, BIO hascompiled dozens of tip sheets and presentations on diversity, covering topics such as networking, building an inclusive company culture, and how to conduct pay equity audits.

Although many groups, including Cooke's organization, are working to improve gender diversity, BIO, with its broad influence, can push the entire industry forward.

"BIO has a significant responsibility to help achieve this goal," said Veracyte's Anderson, who joined BIO's board last month and hopes to push for further action.

Past party controversies

Gender diversity remains a persistent challenge in most areas of the corporate world.

For the biotech industry, public scrutiny intensified in 2016, whenBloomberg reportedon a party featuring female models held during the industry's annual event, the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. This prompted two prominent female professionals in the life sciences to write awidely circulated open letterasking peers to do better.

Nearly two years later, in June 2018, a party held in conjunction with BIO's annual meetingfeatured topless dancerspainted with biotech company logos. The event was condemned as inappropriate and sexist, prompting then-BIO chair Maraganore tothreaten to expel any company that sponsors such events in the future from BIO。

Despite this, the long-standing party appeared again at this year's BIO conference in Philadelphia, but in a more subdued form,reportedly switching to a PowerPoint presentation。

Looking back, Veracyte's Anderson said these parties and the public attention they drew may actually have had a positive effect, prompting the trade group to react.

"It was such a provocative, absurd thing, exposed by a female reporter at Bloomberg, that in some ways it may have been a greater catalyst for raising awareness than anything else we could talk about," Anderson said.

Parties are not BIO's only diversity issue. The trade group's top ranks have historically resembled the industry it seeks to reform: predominantly white and male.

Since its founding in 1993, BIO has had only two white male chairs: Carl Feldbaum and James Greenwood.

The organization has not yet elected a non-white chair, and Rachel King is the only woman to have held the position. Her term ended in 2015, and since then three white men have succeeded her: Ron Cohen, John Maraganore, and Jeremy Levin.

After being named BIO's next chair last month, Levin, in an interview with BioPharma Dive, listed a series of priorities for his two-year term. He did not initially mention diversity or gender representation, instead discussing topics such as pricing policy, patient out-of-pocket costs, and digital tools.

When specifically asked whether gender diversity would be part of his agenda, Levin responded affirmatively, calling it a priority. "Ultimately, this situation will change," he said of the relative lack of women in senior industry positions.

Others said Levin's response illustrates exactly the key issue hindering significant change—prioritization.

"That's the deep problem we face. Everyone wants to believe it's a natural priority, but if it's not on your list, it won't happen," said Veracyte's Anderson.

Levin said BIO is "pushing hard to ensure diversity" and emphasized that funding for the diversity committee has increased significantly since he became chair.

"This is a cause I am passionate about, and we still have room for improvement," Levin said in a statement to BioPharma Dive on July 25.

Slow progress at the top

Other industry leaders are disappointed with the pace of progress.

"The progress I see is mainly that we are now starting to talk about this issue," said Lisa Suennen, a prominent health-sector venture investor and managing director at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. "My concern is that at the current rate, I will be long gone before the numbers fundamentally change. It's just too slow."

This is not an exaggeration—the World Economic Forum predictsthat, due to slow progress over the past decade, it will take more than 150 years to achieve gender economic equality across industries in North America.

"I don't think organizations understand the scale of the talent pipeline needed to achieve real change," said Christine Armstrong, associate director at AbbVie's Pharmacyclics unit and president of the San Francisco chapter of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association.

Armstrong added that picking women one by one for leadership roles is both "too slow and too small in scale."

The drug industry's top management confirms this criticism. In 2017, Emma Walmsley became the first female CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, taking the helm at GlaxoSmithKline.

More than two years later, she remains the only female CEO among the 25 largest pharmaceutical companies by market value, but that will change in April 2020 when Reshma Kewalramani takes the helm at Vertex.