MassBio: Biotech CEOs reflect on past failures

por Julie M. Donnelly

MassBio last Thursday convened a panel of biotech CEOs to talk about failures and setbacks in their businesses. The executives talked about the importance of not just money and good science – but board relations, building the right team, asking for help and the cruel luck of timing.

One of the key takeaways from the group was, ask for more money when you can, because you’ll need it. Carolyn Green, President of Newton, Mass.-based Atreaon, Inc, is the former CEO of Foxboro-based Logical Therapeutics. Green said raising $30 million before the recession helped the company to avoid having to look for cash when investors were reeling after 2008. Logical Therapeutics suffered a major disappointment when it failed to get its pain killer approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, at a time when concern about safety risks with painkiller Vioxx were at fever pitch.

Another theme was, protect your assets. Indu Javeri was the CEO of Andover, Mass.-based contract manufacturing company Formatech, which filed for bankruptcy in 2011 after a number of manufacturing problems. Javeri said if she had it all to do over again, she would have spun off a company that included the firm’s one drug asset, so it wouldn’t have been sold off once she filed for Chapter 7 liquidation. She also said she wished she would have reached out to her network in search of funding when times got rough. She said two weeks after filing for bankruptcy, a large pharmaceutical company client said it would have been willing to invest to save Formatech.

Bonnie Fendrock, who left her CEO post at Medford, Mass.-based Hepregen Corp. after a number of setbacks, said she had underestimated the importance of finessing and managing the board. And she said “always always always under-promise and over-deliver." She also advised colleagues to think hard when building their team and to think about what kind of people you need for he future, not just where the company is now.

And Michael Koeris founder of Sample6, said always be ready to pivot when you hit a roadblock. Sample6, a tools company based in Boston's Seaport district, first went after an application for the oil and gas industry. But after realizing the company would have to purchase an oil field in order to test the technology, the company changed tacks, instead retrofitting the instrument to measure food safety.

Lou Arcudi, the Chief Financial Officer of Cambridge, Mass.-based Idera Pharmaceuticals, was also hit hard by bad timing. The company abandoned work on its potential therapy for hepatitis C after Merck and Co. and Vertex Corp. beat Idera to market with similar drugs. He said that while conventional wisdom says it’s important as a company to have multiple shots on goal, sometimes you have to re-trench and focus on fewer products. Idera decided to put other programs on hold while it focused all its money and energy on pushing forward two compounds as potential treatments for autoimmune diseases and a certain type of lymphoma.

Fuente: Boston Business Journal

Haciendo click en el link de abajo, accederás a los Contenidos del

Programa Ejecutivo en PENSAMIENTO ESTRATÉGICO

http://msg-latam-meic.blogspot.com.ar/2014/03/programa-ejecutivo-en-pensamiento.html

INICIA Lunes 21 de Abril de 2014 en UTN, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional

Consultar por opción IN COMPANY a: msg.latam@gmail.com