[Editor’s Note: We asked selected Xconomists a series of questions designed to zero in on the big issues of the year, including “What would you be willing to throw a punch over?”]
The FDA is the easy target for those of us who are in drug development. But what I am most mad about is the unwillingness of our industry to focus and invest in innovative, high-impact drugs instead of “me too” knockoffs. Thus, my “anger” is focused on institutions that myopically insist on investing in low-risk, copycat ideas that undermine the true strength of our industry over the long term.
Risk-taking and innovation in drug discovery are critical to our field. Aspiring merely to be fast followers instead of striving for innovation is putting our competitive advantage at risk. The entrepreneurial spirit has been key to America’s success in many industries, especially biotech, but there have been several recent events that are stifling innovation.
The downturn in the economy has obviously dampened the financing of new ideas. Changes to patent law arguably encourage long, drawn-out opposition hearings that could be detrimental to the smaller inventor. However, my key concern for our industry is the lack of new and innovative drugs, despite the stunning pace of scientific progress over the last several decades. Not enough companies are focused on innovation and not enough people in charge are taking the right level of risk to actually come up with a new idea that can have a substantial impact on human health. Innovation is the alpha and the omega of our industry and should always be cherished as a way to create valuable and meaningful high-impact drugs.
Author: Kleanthis Xanthopoulos
Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., is a serial entrepreneur whose passion is building healthcare companies focused on innovation. He has over two decades of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical research industries as an executive, company founder, chief executive officer, investor, and board member. Xanthopoulos has founded three companies, introduced two life science companies to NASDAQ, and financed and brokered numerous creative strategic alliances and significant partnership deals with large pharmaceutical partners.
Xanthopoulos is currently the executive chairman of IRRAS AB, a medical device and drug delivery company, and a principal at the Vandel-Group, focusing on investing and building innovative biotechnology companies. Xanthopoulos served as president and CEO of Regulus Therapeutics from the time of its formation in 2007 until June of 2015. Prior to that, he was a managing director of Enterprise Partners Venture Capital. Xanthopoulos co-founded and served as president and CEO of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, from 2000 to 2006, and remained a director until Roche acquired the company in 2011. He was vice president at Aurora Biosciences (acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals) from 1997 to 2000. Xanthopoulos participated in The Human Genome Project as a Section Head of the National Human Genome Research Institute from 1995 to 1997. Prior to this, he was an Associate Professor at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden after completing a postdoctoral research fellowship at The Rockefeller University, New York. An Onassis Foundation scholar, he was named the E&Y Entrepreneur of the year in 2006 in San Diego. Dr. Xanthopoulos received his B.Sc. in Biology with honors from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and received both his M.Sc. in Microbiology and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Stockholm, Sweden.
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