{"id":644,"date":"2010-04-08T16:10:52","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T00:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2010\/04\/08\/who-am-i-2\/"},"modified":"2010-04-08T16:10:52","modified_gmt":"2010-04-09T00:10:52","slug":"who-am-i-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2010\/04\/08\/who-am-i-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Who am I?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I figure that I may be getting some traffic from the Huffington Post article<\/a> so an introduction.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve been working in the field of biotechnology since the early 80s, spending 16 years as a researcher at Immunex, the premier biotech in the Seattle area until it was bought by Amgen. It was an incredible crucible of top-notch researchers working with little money to find cures for important diseases. There were, I believe, less than 50 employees when I started and several thousand when I left. So I had first hand knowledge of many of the needs of a small biotech as it grew. I was a small part in the development of a biologic that changed people’s lives – ENBREL<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

I left Immunex when Amgen finalized the merger and spent some time thinking about what to do next. Luckily Immunex stock options, which were given to all Immunex employees when I started, provided some economic buffer. I worked with the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association<\/a> on several projects and helped form a philanthropic organization called the Sustainable Path Foundation<\/a>, where I am still a Board member.<\/i><\/p>\n

I started a blog called A Man With a PhD<\/a>, something I continue to this day, as well as a science-based blog called Living Code for Corante, that Forbes picked as the 3rd best Medical blog in 2003<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

In 2004, I became the third employee of a startup biotechnology company called Etubics<\/a>. As VP in charge of Research, I did everything from ordering lab equipment, growing cells, negotiating contracts and having to fly cross country to talk with suppliers. All while trying to raise money so we could have a hope of producing the vaccines that I believe can change the world.<\/i><\/p>\n

So I got to see firsthand and at the highest levels, what it takes to start and run a company. I left last year as the company was entering a new phase, where clinical development and manufacturing were at the forefront and research was on the back burner. Not only were these areas I did not have a lot of expertise or interest, but I also was pretty well burned out. The stress of a small company is enormous, particularly in an industry where it takes over 15 years for a therapeutic to get from the research lab to the patient.<\/i><\/p>\n

I left to pursue one of my real passions – how to understand why Immunex was such a powerhouse of research, why it is was one of the few biotech companies started in the 80s to produce a blockbuster drugs, along with several other good drugs, and whether this could be replicated.<\/i><\/p>\n

That is what SpreadingScience<\/a> is about – how to create organizations that are resilient to change, that can adapt in ways that increase the successful outcomes need. You can read some of the material<\/a> or follow my blog<\/a> to get an idea of how I am accomplishing this.<\/i><\/p>\n


<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I figure that I may be getting some traffic from the Huffington Post article so an introduction. I’ve been working in the field of biotechnology since the early 80s, spending 16 years as a researcher at Immunex, the premier biotech in the Seattle area until it was bought by Amgen. It was an incredible crucible … Continue reading Who am I?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1,7,3,4],"tags":[35,32,31,33],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-open-access","category-science","category-web-20","tag-general","tag-open-access","tag-science","tag-web-20"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe2yp-ao","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":593,"url":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2009\/10\/15\/red-flags-of-understanding\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":0},"title":"Red flags of understanding","date":"October 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Luke Hoagland Five Red Flags to Watch Out For in a Biotech, From Dendreon Co-Founder Chris Henney [Via Xconomy ] Biotech, people, cancer Luke Timmerman wrote: Yesterday, we provided a rundown of the six hallmarks of a successful biotech company, according to Christopher Henney, the biotech pioneer who co-founded\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/200910151301.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":433,"url":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2008\/11\/06\/successful-failure\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":1},"title":"Successful failure","date":"November 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jordi Armengol (Xip)Clarity of vision: [Via business|bytes|genes|molecules] Be stubborn on vision and flexible on details \u2013 Jeff Bezos Those words, which I heard recently, have stuck in my head (or rather in Evernote, as I typed them on my iPhone furiously as I heard them). Over the years, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Knowledge Creation"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/vision.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":649,"url":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2010\/05\/24\/how-an-efficient-company-makes-a-ton-of-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":2},"title":"How an efficient company makes a ton of money","date":"May 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by NeoGaboXApple\u2019s Incredibly Efficient Growth [Via Daring Fireball] Steve Cheney analyzes Apple\u2019s R&D expenditures and acquisition pace: Organic growth is the term coined for growing internally, not via merger or acquisition. Apple has embraced this strategy over its existence, averaging only about 1 acquisition per year during the past 25\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Web 2.0"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/amanwithaphd.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/05\/201005241511.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":749,"url":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2011\/05\/08\/describing-a-21st-century-company\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":3},"title":"Describing a 21st century company","date":"May 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Codifying asymmetry: How Apple became Jobsian [Via asymco] Any student of organizational theory must struggle with the question of how to assign weight to the influence of the leadership of a company. In the case of Apple, the question is: Is Jobs is the embodiment of Apple or is Apple\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "21st Century Company"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":124,"url":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2008\/04\/21\/the-community-speaks\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":4},"title":"The Community Speaks","date":"April 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by twoblueday These three posts run the gamut from exuberance to wonder to doubt to reconciliation: A Breakthrough In Taxonomy?: So Much For Taxonomies: Taxonomies Again -- What Behavior Do We Want?: [Via A Journey In Social Media] They describe the process of creating taxonomies for a group of communities,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":549,"url":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2009\/06\/01\/innovation-in-a-time-of-abundance\/","url_meta":{"origin":644,"position":5},"title":"Innovation in a time of abundance","date":"June 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by John-Morgan The Role Of Abundance In Innovation: [Via Techdirt] A few weeks back, Dennis wrote about a recent Malcolm Gladwell article in the New Yorker about innovation, but I was just shown another article from the same issue, by Adam Gropnik, which may be even more interesting. Gopnik points\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Web 2.0"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}