Hybritech President to Join New Company : David Hale to Become Chief Officer of Gensia, a Start-Up Drug Firm
Hybritech Inc. President David Hale, who helped mold the company into one of the nation’s most visible and innovative biotechnology companies, is resigning to become chief executive of Gensia Pharmaceuticals Inc., a San Diego-based start-up company trying to develop therapeutic cardiovascular drugs.
Hale, whose resignation is effective May 31, has been president of Hybritech since 1982, a period over which Hybritech’s annual sales grew from $400,000 to $46 million in 1986. A manufacturer of monoclonal antibody-based diagnostic kits, Hybritech was acquired last year by Eli Lilly & Co. for $490 million in cash and securities.
Founded by two UC San Diego professors in November, 1986, Gensia is developing purine-pyrimidine compounds for use in drugs for heart attack victims and angina sufferers. Paul Laikind, who described the compounds as “building blocks” of DNA and RNA, said Thursday that Gensia is three to five years away from bringing a product to market.
A former assistant research biochemist at UCSD, Laikind said the U.S. market for drugs for angina treatment alone exceeds $1 billion per year. Gensia plans to apply late this year for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to begin clinical testing of products. Laikind, 31, and UCSD medical professor Harry Gruber, 36, are Gensia’s co-founders.
Larry Selwitz, a medical products analyst with Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards Inc. investment house in Los Angeles said Gensia’s chosen field is “not virgin territory.”
“I have files on new biotechnology companies, and it’s amazing how many are promoting cardiovascular drugs. It seems the three big areas (of interest for start-up companies) these days are AIDS, cancer and cardiovascular products,” Selwitz said.
Hale had been rumored to be leaving Hybritech for several months. In an interview Thursday, he described his departure from Hybritech as amicable and said he was taking the new job because the new position gives him an opportunity to “build a company from start-up to fully integrated health-care company.”
Hale’s replacement as Hybritech president will be Stephen Stitle, who is also president of Lilly’s monoclonal diagnostics and therapeutic division.
As part of his agreement to join Gensia, Hale said he will be given the chance to buy between 5% and 10% of outstanding stock in closely held Gensia.
After a current round of private financing is completed later this month, venture capital investors will have invested a total of $4.6 million in Gensia. Investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers of San Francisco, Domain Partners of Princeton, N.J., Fairfield Venture Partners of Newport Beach and Biotechnology Investments Ltd. of London.
Domain Partners principal James Blair has been named Gensia chairman.
