Sam Waksal On Biotech’s New Paradigm—and Implications for New York

When it comes to building biotech companies in New York, there is arguably no one who knows more about the subject than Sam Waksal. He founded ImClone back in 1984, and now is building a new biotech company called Kadmon Corporation that is headquartered right in Manhattan.

So we are especially pleased that Waksal will deliver the opening keynote tomorrow night, Thursday, Oct. 4, at our special evening forum: Reinventing Biotech’s Business Model for the Big Apple. The event will take place from 6:00-8:30 pm at the Apella event space at the Alexandria Center for Life Science on the lower east side of Manhattan.

I caught up with Waksal on the phone earlier this week and asked him for preview of what he will cover in his talk, He obliged with this quick overview:

“I will start out talking about what’s really going on in biotech nationally,” Waksal told me. “I’m going to talk about the original paradigm, what biotech was all about, the shifts that have occurred, and how I think the paradigm has changed–and how that can be applied to New York.”

There are some real challenges both nationally and locally, and Waksal says he will lay them out candidly. “That way it will give a lot of ammunition for the audience to ask questions.”

Waksal isn’t the only great speaker we will have lined up for tomorrow night. After his talk, our keynote panel will take the stage. It will feature Cancer Research Institute CEO Jill O’Donnell-Tormey; Arthur Tinkelenberg, CEO of virtual NY biotech Enumeral Biomedica;, and Kevin Kinsella, founder and managing director of Avalon Ventures, who helped pioneer the biotech cluster in San Diego, where he’s from. Kinsella is also the largest individual producer of Jersey Boys, so he’s already helped bring some mojo to New York.

The panel, moderated by Dennis Purcell, senior managing partner at Aisling Capital, will discuss the major issues facing New York’s emerging biotech cluster, with plenty of time for audience Q&A.

So come join this incredible group and hear what they have to say firsthand. Get your tickets for Reinventing Biotech’s Business Model right here.

 

Author: Robert Buderi

Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative. Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.