HIM / Biotech Alumni Newsletter

Kellogg Biotech Conference 2003

The theme of this year’s biotech conference, “The Evolution of Biotechnology,” and the stellar line-up of top-quality speakers brought an outstanding audience to Kellogg again for the third such student-run program. The program, which was held April 4-5, 2003 primarily at Kellogg’s Donald Jacobs Center, focused on the increasingly blurred lines between biotech and pharma.

Daniel Shufrin and Jeanne Lukacek were the conference co-chairs. They and a cadre of student volunteers planned another very extensive program, with some “value addeds,” a first-ever case study (on Renessen, a joint venture between Cargill and Monsanto) and a business plan competition.

Two opening keynote addresses on Friday evening in Kellogg’s Owen L. Coon Forum were given by Stelios Papadopoulos, PhD, Vice Chairman of S.G. Cohen Securities Corporation, and Murray MacIntyre Lumpkin, MD, MSc, Chief Medical Officer of the Office of the FDA Commissioner.
Stelios Papadopoulos is the Vice Chairman of SG Cowen, and as an investment banker, he focuses on the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. Prior to joining SG Cowen in February 2000, he spent 13 years as an investment banker at PaineWebber, Incorporated, where he was most recently Chairman of PaineWebber Development Corporation, focusing on biotechnology. He joined PaineWebber from Drexel Burnham Lambert and started as a biotechnology analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette. Before coming to Wall Street, Dr. Papadopoulos was on the faculty of the Department of Cell Biology at New York University Medical Center. He holds a PhD in biophysics and an MBA in finance, both from New York University.

Dr. Papadopoulos is co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Exelixis, Inc. and is also co-founder and member of the Board of CellZome AG and Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Diacrin, Inc. and Structural GenomiX, Inc. In the not-for-profit sector, Dr. Papdopoulos is co-founder and Chairman of Foundation Santé.

The FDA's Murray Lumpkin, MD, MSc, gave one of the keynote addresses at the third annual biotech bash.
Professor Fred Turek, PhD, Morrison Professor of Biology, poses a question for Dr. Lumpkin.
Each speaker saved time for Q & A sessions with the audience.

The second speaker was Dr. Murray Lumpkin, presently the Principal Associate Commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration and the Senior Medical Officer in the Office of the Commissioner. He was recruited to the FDA in 1989 as Director of the Division of Anti-Infective Drug Products (DAIDP), a position he served in until 1994. This was one of ten new drug divisions within FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at that time.

For six and one-half years (1994-2000), Dr. Lumpkin served as Deputy Center Director for CDER. In this position, his main responsibilities included oversight and management of the five Offices of Drug Evaluation and the now 15 drug review divisions. There are approximately 900 staff working in these various components over which he had line management and senior scientific responsibilities. Under his direction, these components provided statutory oversight of the following three major phases of the life of prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceutical products in the United States: (1) the oversight and management of drugs during their development (testing) phases in humans; (2) the evaluation of the adequacy of the scientific efficacy and safety data (the clinical benefit:risk analysis) to support approval of the product for sale in the United States once the formal testing phase is completed; and (3) the evaluation of the continued clinical benefit:risk profile of the product once it is introduced into the American market, and the management of new risks discovered post-marketing.

Dr. Lumpkin received his baccalaureate degree from Davidson College in 1975 and his medical doctorate degree from Wake Forest University in 1979. His postgraduate medical education consisted of a three-year residency in pediatrics and a two-year fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In 1984, Dr. Lumpkin attended the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a Fullbright Fellow and also received an M.Sc. in Medical Parasitology from the University of London. His professional certifications include pediatrics and tropical medicine.

Following the two keynotes, a networking reception was held. The Saturday morning keynote opened the full-day program and Joshua Boger, PhD, was the opener. Dr. Boger is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Boger was Vertex’s scientific founder and was Senior Director of Basic Chemistry at Merck Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories. In 10 years at Merck, he developed an international reputation as a leader in the applications of computer modeling to the chemistry of drug design. He applied these techniques to the design of compounds in a number of therapeutic areas, including aspartic protease inhibitors. Dr. Boger received his BA from Wesleyan University, and MA and PhD degrees in Chemistry from Harvard University.

As usual, the conference had a variety of very interesting panels to select from, all with panelists who have stellar credentials. Among the many offerings were: “Life Science Investing: Winning Strategies in a Down Market” (with alumnus Scott Minnick of ARCH Venture Partners as moderator); “Drugs and Devices: Redefining Product Boundaries” (with alumnus Michael Webb, CEO of Epix, as moderator); and “Platform Technologies: Can they Deliver on their Promise?” (with KSM Professor Scott Stern, PhD, as moderator).

In addition to the general luncheon, the conference had a special luncheon at the Allen Center for KSM alumni attending the program. Kellogg’s Dean, Dipak Jain, PhD, and Northwestern University President Henry Bienen, PhD, both attended and offered words of welcome. KSM Alumnus Richard Brewer, Chairman and CEO of SCIOS, a biotech firm in San Diego that had recently been purchased by Johnson & Johnson, Inc., spoke to the audience about how he and his team pulled this firm up by the bootstraps, redirecting the potential and purpose of its primary product, and thus making it a very attractive acquisition target, and how the eventual sale to Johnson & Johnson transpired.

The final plenary session keynoter was given by a rising star at the pharma giant Merck, Bradley T. Sheares, PhD. Dr. Sheares is president of the U.S. Human Health division of Merck & Co., Inc., reporting to Merck Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Raymond V. Gilmartin. Well recognized within Merck for his leadership abilities, he was promoted to president, U.S. Human Health, in 2001 with responsibility for sales and marketing for infectious disease and specialty medicines, marketing planning for drugs in late-stage development and physician and consumer communications. Dr. Sheares joined Merck in 1987 as a research fellow in the Merck Research Laboratories and moved to the U.S. marketing organization in 1990.

Raised in Chicago, Dr. Sheares is a graduate of Fisk University in Nashville and earned his PhD in biochemistry from Purdue University. He was also a Lucille P. Markey Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Sheares was awarded the Distinguished Agricultural Alumnus Award by the Purdue School of Agriculture in 2002. He serves on the board of directors for the National Pharmaceutical Council, which focuses on broadly communicating the economic, clinical and societal value of pharmaceuticals.

The Biotech 2003 Conference was sponsored by an impressive array of firms: PLATINUM LEVEL: Lundbeck; GOLD LEVEL: Biospace and Takeda; SILVER LEVEL: Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Neopharm, Pfizer, PiperRudnick and TAP; BRONZE LEVEL: Baxter, Fujisawra, ITEC and KMZ Rosenman.