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【drug-news】Sirtris被收购之后：对话风险投资家克
在他的企业被顺利收购之后，他的作用，去向，个人兴趣及企业发展如何？这是许多人所关心的，克里斯托夫，他没有选择离去，重操风险投资旧业，而是加入GSK高管行列，长期作战，要把Sirtris做大做强。 最近波士顿一家媒体采访了他，以下是他与记者的对话
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc. CEO and co-founder Christoph Westphal and vice president of corporate development Michelle Dipp have been appointed to new positions at British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline’s Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD) in order to assist in new drug discovery development outside of GSK.
In addition to his CEO post at Sirtris, Westphal has been named senior vice president, Sirtris and Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery, GSK. He will work with biotech companies to help funnel advances in life sciences into the GSK portfolio. Westphal will continue to direct Sirtris’ sirtuins therapeutic developments associated with anti-aging effects and potentially uses to treat diabetes, cancer and other major diseases.
Dipp, in addition to her current role at Sirtris, will join as a leader of the CEEDD.
GSK completed its acquisition of Cambridge-based Sirtris in June, paying $720 million in cash. The British company said it would keep Sirtris as an autonomous unit of its drug discovery business.
Westphal was named a Mass High Tech All-Star in 2007. He has also co-founded three other Massachusetts biotechnology firms -- Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Acceleron Pharma Inc.
采访对话录
Sirtris’ Westphal Enjoying Life Under GSK Ownership; Hints at Positive Human Data on Next-Gen Drugs to Extend Healthy Life (and Still Partying on Fridays)
Sirtris is now part of pharmaceutical behemoth GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), but the British giant has allowed its acquisition a unique dose of autonomy since it bought the small, Cambridge, MA-based biotech in June for $720 million. For those who still haven’t heard, Sirtris is known around the world for the dazzling potential of its drugs to lengthen healthy human lifespan. Christoph Westphal, CEO of Sirtris, says his company will have some exciting news to share next month about the first human tests of its next-generation drugs—which will likely make it even better-known. Yet, when I caught up with him last week, the news about its trials was just one of several insights Westphal shared about what’s been brewing at Sirtris this summer.
Xconomy: What are the perks of Big Pharma ownership?
Christoph Westphal: There’s actually a lot of perks. I think the most important one is we think it is much more likely we’re going to get a drug to market than it was before. And there are several reasons for that. We have a budget that we’ve just been given for the next three years, which is 30 to 50 percent greater than we could have afforded as an independent company. Secondly, we have an opportunity to leverage global GSK, so there’s a lot of skill sets and abilities and machines and scale-up capabilities. It’s literally dozens and dozens of things that we never could have done on our own that we can now do as part of GSK.
X: What makes Sirtris unique from other biotechs acquired by Big Pharma?
CW: Both GSK and we were interested in keeping Sirtris independent and autonomous, which is why we’ve retained our name, we’ve retained our management structure [no more board of directors anymore, of course], we had a strong incentive to retain our employees, which we’ve done, and really almost all decisions are made almost exactly the same way they were before. That may be a little bit different than some acquisitions, where quickly the company was no longer autonomous. Literally, there’s no one here from GSK, five months after we announced the acquisition. And they’ve been very hands-off in all of our decisions. I think they are very smart and careful and thoughtful. So we pitched them on what our three-year plan is, but they are basically funding us like venture guys would fund us or public market folks would fund us, saying, ‘Day-to-day decisions are totally up to you, but we do expect in the next several years you to generate significant value,’ which I think is fair.
X: How long do you plan to stay with Sirtris?
CW: GSK asked for my commitment for the longer term, and as part of the acquisition I gave up my forward vesting. I got the same deal for myself as I did for every employee at the company, even though my contract had a guaranteed full forward vesting. I thought it was important as a signal to GSK and to the employees to indicate that I was committed to making this company successful as part of GSK. [See Wade's post for more on Westphal's deal with GSK.]
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-03-12 23:55
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