Portfolio interviewed Patrik Jonsson, President of Lilly International, in Milan at the State of Health – The Milan Dialogue event organized by Eli Lilly and Company. Jonsson joined Lilly in Sweden in 1990 and has since led regional and functional businesses including Lilly’s operations in Scandinavia, Italy and Japan, Lilly USA, the global customer office, Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, and now Lilly International, which covers operations outside the United States.
Role and day-to-day focus
Jonsson said roughly half his time is spent outside the United States even though he is based in the US where Lilly’s headquarters are located. At the time of the interview he was attending EASD meetings to review the latest science, meet clinicians and patient advocacy groups, and engage policymakers to improve patient access to innovative medicines.
Leadership across cultures
Having led teams in diverse countries, Jonsson emphasized that core leadership needs—recognition, constructive feedback, mentorship—are universal, but their expression must be adapted to local culture. He contrasted early experiences in Italy with later work in Japan, noting that maintaining credibility and adjusting communication style are essential when leading outside one’s native culture.
European examples for cardiometabolic care
From his vantage point Jonsson highlighted France and Switzerland as strong European examples. He argued these countries show how to treat obesity as a chronic disease by making prevention, early detection and access to appropriate care part of health policy. He drew a parallel to type 2 diabetes management: ensuring patients can access modern treatments that improve long-term health outcomes.
What can a country like Hungary adopt?
Jonsson listed several enablers that would help translate new treatments into better outcomes:
- a formal declaration that obesity is a chronic disease, not just a rhetorical statement; this creates a starting point for systemic change;
- broad education within health systems and across the public so people understand obesity’s biological, genetic and environmental drivers rather than seeing it solely as a matter of willpower;
- simultaneous action on prevention, early risk identification and treatment of established disease;
- financing approaches that weigh not only short-term treatment costs but also long-term benefits, including avoided complications, hospital costs, reduced loss of work capacity and productivity.
He warned that perverse incentives and highly segmented decision and budget frameworks can block sound, long-term policymaking.
Assessing innovation beyond immediate expenditures
A recurring theme at the Milan dialogue was that the value of health innovation should be judged by the patient outcomes it delivers and its impact on the entire health system, not only by its upfront cost. Jonsson pointed to tools such as data collection on treatment outcomes, risk-sharing agreements between payers and manufacturers, and more organized care pathways as ways to enable adoption of new solutions.
Key stakeholders to involve
Changes require engagement with patients and providers so that recognised policy shifts translate into real improvements, as well as with governments and health authorities to implement those policies. Jonsson stressed the need for cross-government dialogue—including health, finance and innovation ministries—because improving population health is also an economic and social priority.
Modernizing care models and using digital tools
Jonsson observed that many systems were designed in the 1970s–1980s around acute care and hospitalisation, whereas today chronic disease management and digital tools demand different models. Care delivery should reflect current evidence, the needs of people living with chronic conditions, and make better use of technology and digitalisation.
Artificial intelligence: early stage but high potential
He said AI in healthcare is still at an early stage, but identified several promising applications:
- using AI to identify earlier mechanistic signals that could separate unmet medical needs (Lilly announced an AI collaboration with NVIDIA late last year aimed at this);
- identifying clinical trial sites that are most effective at enrolling patients, which could shorten the long III-phase trial timelines;
- accelerating regulatory submissions by using AI to prepare documentation and responses across multiple agencies simultaneously, enabling more rapid multi-market filings and earlier patient access in smaller markets;
- practical system-level uses such as pre-visit triage to save clinician time and improve the quality of doctor–patient interactions.
Why remain at one company for more than three decades?
Jonsson named three plus one reasons: the company’s mission—to make people’s lives better and longer worldwide; its values of respect, integrity and excellence; the people—committed colleagues; and persistent unmet patient needs that require continued R&D investment. He noted Lilly reinvests nearly 25 percent of revenue into research and development and has pursued long-term challenges such as Alzheimer’s disease for decades.
Conclusion
Jonsson argued that recognizing obesity as a chronic disease, scaling education, intervening early and adopting long-term financing perspectives are all necessary to turn scientific breakthroughs into real patient benefit. He pointed to France and Switzerland as instructive examples, and suggested that AI and digital approaches can speed diagnosis, trial recruitment and regulatory processes. However, he maintained that durable change depends on political commitment, integrated policy dialogue and financing frameworks that promote long-term value.
