My list is brief, but the innovations that stood out for me in the past decade were first-in-class drugs that can treat or prevent major unmet medical needs.
1. Genentech’s ranibizumab (Lucentis)—The first treatment of its kind for the “wet” form of macular degeneration. It has high efficacy rates and low side effects, has saved vision for people with this common disease.
2. Novartis’ imatinib (Gleevec)—An effective and safe treatment for various leukemia syndromes, saving countless lives. It set off massive searches in the industry for kinase inhibitors like it.
3. Merck’s sitagliptin (Januvia)—The first-in-class DPP4 inhibitor for diabetes. It may be the last new mechanism for diabetes for a while.
4. Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals’ (erlotinib) Tarceva—An effective non-chemo approach to solid tumors.
5. Merck’s human papillomavirus vaccine (Gardasil)—The first vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer caused by HPV.
[Editor’s Note: As the decade comes to an end, we’ve asked Xconomists and other technology leaders around the country to identify the top innovations they’ve seen in their fields the past 10 years, or predict the top disruptive technologies that will impact the next decade.]
Author: Jay Lichter
Jay B. Lichter, Ph.D., is president & CEO of COI Pharma, and a managing director of San Diego's Avalon Ventures.
Lichter is an experienced biotechnology and pharmaceutical business executive research, with over 30 years of experience in management, scientific research, and business development. Throughout his career, he has combined his business acumen and deep technical knowledge to create commercially successful biotech companies, collaborations, and to identify the commercial potential of scientific discoveries at their earliest stages. Lichter is the inventor on 260 patents and patent applications for six Avalon portfolio companies, including 55 issued patents. He has been either directly responsible for or participated in licensing or merger and acquisition deals valued in excess of $1 billion.
At Avalon, Lichter led investments in Afraxis, Carolus Therapeutics, Otonomy, Zacharon Pharmaceuticals, RQx Pharmaceuticals, Sova Pharmaceuticals, Aratana Therapeutics, (NASDAQ: [[ticker:PETX]]); AristaMD, Synthorx, Sitari Pharma, Silarus Therapeutics, Cardherx Therapeutics, Thyritope Biosciences, Calporta, Iron Hourse Therapeutics, and Adrenergics. He also led investments in PDI (a GSK company), Fortis, Cellular Approaches, and Ignition.
Lichter is CEO of COI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and on its board of directors
Prior to joining Avalon as a member of the firm's eighth fund, Lichter collaborated with Avalon and founding partner Kevin Kinsella on six investments.
Kinsella recruited Lichter to serve as the CEO of XenoPharm, a drug safety company that Kinsella co-founded, and that was acquired by Deltagen.
Earlier in his career, Lichter was executive vice president of business development at Sequenom (Nasdaq: [[ticker:SQNM]]), where he negotiated strategic transactions with Bristol-Myers Squibb and Proctor & Gamble, and served as the in-licensing manager for genomics and discovery central nervous system (CNS) research at Pfizer. At Pfizer, Lichter led the company’s investments in Incyte and Celera, both involved in studying innovative links between genetics and disease. Lichter participated in seven other Pfizer-biotech collaborations and completed over 50 university licensing deals.
Upon completion of his doctorate, Lichter held postdoctoral positions in Human Genetics at Yale University and at the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.
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