Medicinal oxen and tech tycoon: Professor Raymond Schinazzi

In the previous blog post, I have introduced the two innovation and entrepreneurship experts of MIT's Bob Lang and Harvard's Wilding. Today I will recommend a chemical medicine man and a tech rich man. He is in the field of antivirus Daniel, Professor Raymond Scinnati, Professor of Pharmacy, Emory University. This article was written at the end of 2011 and was published in the Journal of Medical Economics on January 11, 2012. Some statements are outdated. Please understand.

For the acquisition of Pharmasset by Gilead Science for $ 11 billion, Wall Street stock analysts and some investors may think that the M & A party paid too much. Indeed, there are currently less than 10 biotechnology companies with a market value of more than 10 billion US dollars. Moreover, this is a company whose main product is still in clinical trials and the most promising new drug is expected to be approved for sale in 2014. The valuation is a bit high. At that time, Abbott bought BASF ’s Noel Pharmaceuticals, with a starting price of 6.9 billion, but they were a company with 2 billion years of sales. More importantly, Abbott checked the big bargain and automatically obtained adalimumab. In 2013, it is estimated that global sales will be $ 10 billion.

The biggest personal beneficiary of this acquisition surfaced, and he was Professor Raymond Schinazi of Emory University. He is a master of innovative research and development of antiviral drugs and an expert in the company's equity and asset trading.

Super tech rich

In 1998, Schinazi and his colleagues co-founded Pharmasset. At that time, Pharmasset may not be very eye-catching, and the future is still uncertain, but now it is a "sweet and sour". The company's stock price has been rising. The stock price has increased nearly three times in the first nine months of this year. Almost doubled.

Schinazi was quite touched by this acquisition: "In 2004, Gilead could have bought Pharmasset at a price of US $ 300 million or less, but some people hesitated and decided to wait until the new drug research and development project has new progress. This was a big mistake. "Schinazi was the chairman of the company's board of directors and signed a cooperation agreement with Roche on the development of new drugs for the treatment of hepatitis on behalf of the company. Roche agreed to prepay the huge amount of the first payment and a potential value of 168 million milestone transfer funds .

Pharmasset was listed on NASDAQ on April 27, 2007. The IPO price was US $ 9, and only US $ 45 million was raised. The company originally hoped to raise 75 million because the market response was poor, so it had to lower the issue price. One year after the company went public, the stock price still fluctuated around $ 10. However, there has been a great improvement since 2009, and it has doubled several years later. "Now they have to pay a high price to acquire us." The purchase price reached 11 billion US dollars, which was unexpected by many people, perhaps including Schinazi himself.

Schinazi is 61 years old. He is Pharmasset's largest individual shareholder. He is not only a fruitful scientist, but also a technology rich man in the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical entrepreneur holds a 4% stake in Pharmasset, with a paper value of $ 440 million. Schinazi is the director of the AIDS Research Center of Emory University, the star of AIDS treatment research in the world, and a busy person who undertakes scientific research and teaching tasks. He also founded 5 companies to develop antiviral drugs, which involve viral diseases such as AIDS, hepatitis and herpes.

Multi-company founder

Schinazi is no stranger to Gilead. He has already done many single business and cooperative transactions with this company and buyer. He and Dennis Liotta, also a scientist at Emory University, established a company called Triangle Pharmaceuticals, which developed drugs for the treatment of AIDS and hepatitis B, and then sold them to Gilead in 2003 at a price of $ 464 million. At that time, the share price was at a premium of 33%.

He and scientists from the University of Atlanta also developed the first anti-AIDS blockbuster drug Emtriva (emtricitabine) to treat AIDS caused by this viral infection. This drug has become an extremely important part of the treatment plan. The compound HIV drugs Truvada and Atripla, which are sold and widely used by Gilead, contain the active ingredients of Emtriva.

According to information provided by Emory University, at least more than 90% of people with HIV are using drugs developed by Professor Schinazi's laboratory.

In addition to buying Triangle Pharmaceuticals, Gilead also paid Emory University $ 540 million as a right to pay off Emtriva ’s future sales commission revenue, and as a reward, the school gave about $ 200 million of it to Schinazi, Liota and another co-developer Woo-BaegChoi.

"Gilead's transactions with us have a good return every time." Schinazi said. Schinazi used the money from the Emtriva project to start another pharmaceutical company called RFS.

Schinazi is also the founder of Idenix's pharmaceutical company. The company just went public more than a month ago, and investors include Novartis.

Schinazi believes that the company is currently undervalued. Idenix has made significant progress in developing new drug product lines, including hepatitis treatment drugs, which are very promising products and assets. Idenix Pharmaceuticals has a market value of only $ 790 million, which is a very small company compared to Pharmasset. But don't underestimate this company. "The company I created is expected to be the next Pharmassets." Shortly after Schinazi pointed out that the company's valuation is underestimated, Idenix's stock price rose sharply. The reason is that the big companies Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that they will cooperate in the development of compound drugs, hoping to stop using interferon and other drugs with side effects, and Idenix Pharmaceutical ’s product IDX184 is just in response to such market demand. At this stage, although it has not officially signed a contract with a large company for development, it is likely to cooperate with Johnson & Johnson or Bristol-Myers Squibb. "Mersand and Johnson & Johnson are also potential buyers." Schinazi said. Idenix is ​​no stranger to the cooperation of large pharmaceutical companies. Novartis once signed a contract to obtain the global market rights of its new hepatitis B drug Tyzeka.

Schinazi has traversed the path of unusual scientific invention creation and accumulation of wealth. Pharmasset was acquired at a high price, making Schinazi, an already wealthy researcher, more valuable.

Schinazi enjoys world-class reputation and significant contributions in AIDS treatment drugs. The research team he leads has independently developed or cooperated with people to develop d4T (stavudine), 3TC (lamivudine) FTC (emtriva), LdT (telbivudine), RCV (racivir) and DAPD (amdoxovir), these drugs have been approved by the FDA, six drug times are used to develop compound drugs, a total of 10 NDA declarations. 90% of AIDS patients worldwide take at least one of the AIDS treatment drugs he invented. He also Enthusiastically doing public welfare, sponsoring the famous HIV-DART an and HEP-DART conference promoters and conference chairpersons.

He received a bachelor's degree and a doctorate in chemistry from Bath University in the United Kingdom in 1972 and 1976.He received postdoctoral training in pharmacy at Yale University and Emory University, and then became a professor at Emory University. He has published 480 papers and 7 monographs. He has won many important awards and honors. In October 2012, he won the Legend of Intellectual Property Award and in January 2013 became an academician of the American Institute of Inventors.

At present, his company and the laboratory of Emory University he is leading are working hard to treat and eliminate hepatitis B, hepatitis C and AIDS diseases and hazards. He believes that Pharmasset drugs can eliminate hepatitis C and prevent millions of people from liver transplantation and cancer.

His philosophy of life is: "Developed new drugs can both save lives and make a fortune." He is quite optimistic about this and has a deep understanding.

Postscript >>> Selected directors and professors can also successfully run enterprises

As a famous scholar in the university, a top expert in innovation and R & D, and founded 5 companies, why can Schinazi be so successful, so productive, and so profitable? One of the tricks is to do what you like to do, take advantage of various advantages, and make the most effective Study and research combination. As a scholar, he is very focused on innovative R & D, training and identifying talents; as a technology entrepreneur, he is well aware of the importance of professional investors and professional managers. Among the five biotechnology companies he founded, he not only provided good technical guidance and R & D strategies, but also relied heavily on experienced practicing managers to exert his or her own strengths so that he could continuously focus on scientific research and innovation.

University professors are generally at the forefront of cutting-edge science, but they are not necessarily masters of company management and operation. Let them take care of the company's daily operations, which is a bit of a clue. Scientists or inventors are better to be technology founders of enterprises, transfer their scientific research results from schools or research institutes to their own companies, hire professional managers to manage the company, and raise money from venture investors or other professional investment institutions. Can create very good benefits and value.

In this way, the professor himself can also have more use and use his skills.

Imagine that if the professor is also the CEO of the company, then not only is the company's operation and management poor, it is estimated that even his own learning and scientific research will be dragged down. Therefore, in the United States, university professors generally do not run and manage their own companies, but let their students, social elites or corporate executives take care of the company's business. According to the regulations of foreign universities, professors can only use one day or weekend evenings to do things for their own companies, otherwise they will not be qualified as full-time professors.

Professor Schinazi's successful experience very vividly showed us the bright road of technology enrichment. The professors of Chinese universities also have many good ideas and ideas, and there are many innovative inventions and technological achievements with industrialization prospects. However, once you want to start your own company, it is difficult to correct your position and establish a good mentality, often in order to increase Control, not willing to let go and let foreign professional managers manage. In this way, sufficient funds cannot be mobilized. At most, it only borrows school resources and cheap student labor to do some tasks and experiments. As a result, the development is slow and many business opportunities are missed. Although the company's shares are concentrated, it has never been able to grow, and the professors are so busy that they can't do professional or business well. This is a common problem in China's science and technology education sector, and it also hinders the efficiency of China's scientific and technological achievements. Source: Science Net

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