Australian biopharma CSL has a rich history. The company, which was originally called Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, was started by the government during World War I as a means to get critical medical supplies to Australia, which was then cut off from the rest of the world.
It’s not surprising that the company wanted to keep the historic CSL branding front and center, uniting all business units under one CSL global brand umbrella. This means influenza vaccine provider Seqirus is now CSL Seqirus; the same will become of its recent acquisition Vifor Pharma, which will be known as CSL Vifor. CSL Behring and CSL Plasma will remain the same.
“The rebrand really brings together the different business units of CSL for the first time with a common identity and a purpose and fosters that spirit of collaboration, which I think is important across the business units,” Ken Lim, CSL Seqirus’ senior vice president for strategy and finance, said.
Lim says even though the internal launch was only a few weeks ago, the rebrand is already getting the reaction that was hoped for with people embracing the change, referring to the company by the new name with ease. There is already a feeling of deeper connection with the other CSL companies.
Prior to the official name change, there was a small “A CSL company” in the logo underneath the Seqirus name, but it wasn’t really that obvious.
Getting the message out externally will be a little more gradual, going through the usually communication channels with outside stakeholders—small tweaks to how products look, how the company positions itself, etc.
Visually, the rebrand will be subtle, slow and steady as, of course, in the pharma industry there are regulations for medicines and pharma product names and logos that need to be adhered to globally. But Lim says the current rebrand is a strong start.
“I think it's important for a business as large as ours with operations in 100 different countries, with 30,000 people where we're talking to governments and customers and patients all over the world to have that common identity. Sometimes it was not actually appreciated by some of the external stakeholders that CSL Behring and Seqirus are actually part of the same group and I think it makes us a more significant and valuable partner and contributor to the various stakeholders that we have.”