Greene Plans to Leave Hybritech

Hybritech Chairman Howard E. Greene said Monday that he will probably step down from his post at the San Diego-based biotechnology company, which was acquired earlier this year by Eli Lilly & Co. in a deal valued at more than $400 million.

“I’ve been acting in an advisory capacity while thinking about what to do next,” said Greene, who joined the firm in 1982 as president and chief executive. He said he is now in a “transition period” but refused to discuss any timetable on leaving the firm.

Greene, who said he will maintain a “close relationship with Hybritech,” is considering starting a venture capital firm that will cater to the needs of biotechnology start-ups.

“I learned as much as one can about taking a technology out of the university and creating a business out of it,” Greene said. “I’m thinking that maybe I should put some of that expertise to work.”

Greene said the proposed venture capital company would capitalize on “some elements at Hybritech that can be done again. . . . The biotech area is where electronics and solid state physics were back in the 1960s, so there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity out there that just hasn’t been focused.”