Mr. Batra, you joined Waters Cooperation in the midst of the global pandemic in 2020. What inspired you to take this step, and what vision did you bring with you?
U.B: I have spent my entire career in healthcare and the life sciences; I am a trained engineer, and I have used many of the instruments that Waters sells. There was nowhere else I would rather have been during the pandemic than somewhere that could help people get through it. When the opportunity to join Waters arose, I did not hesitate. The company has a deep history in innovation, having designed some of the most important instruments that are used to make sure that the medicine we take, and the water we drink are safe.
In terms of vision, Waters had lost control of its own destiny for a time, and commercial performance had suffered; the goal was to revive the company. We worked hard on this over the past two years, and we were very successful. We have now entered a period of rapid growth and commercial momentum, which allows us to invest and bring more innovative products to market.
How has the pandemic affected the life sciences industry, particularly the innovation processes?
U.B: The way we innovate and the scientific environment have undoubtedly changed as a result of the pandemic. The first difference that struck us was the importance of undeniable facts, especially in the early days of COVID-19 when there were many vaccine controversies. We were in a unique position where we could examine the data for ourselves and create models to understand, for example, what would happen in a room at different rates of air flow and how many people could be in a space before an infection started. This influenced how we organized our team, when and how many people we brought back, and so on. Second, we learned to collaborate with our competitors to produce certain materials faster, in a resilient and highly responsible manner; the goal was not to win, but rather to get vaccines to people as soon as possible. I believe that this type of collaboration is now irreversible.
S.M: We also established a Scientific Advisory Council, which was initially reactive because, like everyone else, we were trying to figure out what was going on with the pandemic. From there, we took action, forming an Innovation Response Team with the primary goal of providing our expertise to the community at large and assisting with vaccine development. Understanding impurities is critical in vaccine development, so we invited scientific teams into our labs to take measurements so that the product could be ready on time. The UK government formed the Moonshot program in September 2020 in order to rationalize supply chain shortages for COVID testing. In addition to academicians and other life science companies, we had the opportunity to contribute to this endeavor, which resulted in a collaboratively developed assay that was commercialized as a research use only kit within eight months. This task would have taken years in a normal setup, but the need to address the virus drove collaboration at an incredible speed.
How would you describe Waters’ approach to innovation, and what accomplishments are you most proud of?
U.B:
When we consider a new innovation, we run it through three distinct filters: the value of the unmet need, proof of concept, and commercial viability.
We are acutely aware that we do not have universal expertise, so we chose a disaggregated research model. Immerse is a great example of that: a collection of laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts (the heart of biotech), and another at the University of Delaware (where the leading institutions for biologic processing are located). These spaces are available for our customers and collaborators to measure and analyze their products. The ultimate goal is to accelerate and reduce the cost of manufacturing, which is typically the most expensive step in developing gene therapies.
S.M: One of the areas of focus for Immerse is the characterization of very large particles that deliver vaccines (cell and gene therapies). We partnered with Megadalton a few years ago to use their prototypes in the lab with the express purpose of engaging the local scientific community to understand how their problems can be solved, the types of questions that need to be answered, and how we can develop new measurement technologies in such a way that those who need it can easily use it. Immerse is a concept that not only ensures that innovations are successfully transformed into key tools, but also demonstrates the incredible power of collaboration.
What have been your most significant challenges in recent years? How have you dealt with them?
U.B: The pandemic is the most practical example of this, from hybrid work challenges to supply chain deficiencies. Organizing a global company of 8,000 people can be difficult when trying to avoid infection while also performing all activities in-person. Furthermore, many factories shut down for several months during the early stages of the pandemic, and when the rhythm resumed, we were already burdened by demand that simply skyrocketed. On top of that, Waters Corporation was going through its commercial low point and when we mixed this with the shortage of chips, lack of workforce and high freight costs, we ended up in the perfect storm. As a solution to this problem, we needed to build personal relationships with the CEOs of chip manufacturing companies and explain how important their products are in vaccine development. Thankfully, this candid discussion struck a nerve, and we were able to obtain the much-needed components. Navigating those times demanded a great deal of creative problem solving, which we were fortunate to find within our teams.
What would you like to achieve with priority in the next five years?
U.B: The company's vision to solve problems that matter will remain the cornerstone of our business over the next five years. As molecule complexity increases, we will need to develop much more sophisticated instruments and separation techniques. But the desire to work in an environment where we respect and trust each other, and where each individual has their unique contribution definitely reigns over all our to-do lists.
