• USA Today, Monday, July 19, 2010 10:46 AM

Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter, a chemist by training and career-long company man, talks with Kathy Chu about the ornery challenges facing brand-name pharmaceuticals, including legal challenges from pharmacies alleging price fixing to looming government regulations. The biggest challenge, he maintains, is sustaining "the flow of innovative medicines" to compete against generic versions of "our own products."

Not a problem for Lilly, Lechleiter maintains, despite several patent expirations on the horizon. "We have the most exciting pipeline today in our history," he says. "Nearly 70 molecules are in some stage of clinical development, so we're confident that while not all those will make it, many of them will.

Lechleiter expects "significant" growth for the entire industry over the next decade from emerging markets and says Lilly is well positioned to take advantage of the situation. For one thing, it has been in China, which he expects to be the second-largest pharmaceutical market by the end of this decade, since 1918.

He also offers a little advice: Laugh out loud several times a day. "If you're doing something that matters and that you really enjoy, it ought to be great fun," he says.

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