![]() The idea for Unity arrived in David's email inbox in 2011, from multiple senders at the same time. The idea was to use algae to make a substitute for petroleum, but even as the science succeeded, oil prices plummeted, making the economics unworkable. In 2009 he helped hire his replacement as chief scientific officer and left to work full-time as a venture partner at Arch, where his penchant for big ideas meshed well with the go-big-or-go-home tendencies of Arch madman Robert Nelsen, who ranks fifth on Forbes’ annual Midas List of the top VCs.ĭavid’s first Arch company, Sapphire Energy, was his worst bet. As the focus narrowed on Kybella, the chin-fat drug, David’s attention wandered. Three drugs failed, including a project partly funded by the CIA that would have created a substance that could be used to fundamentally reshape someone’s face, perhaps even making him or her look like someone else. With Leonard, “I’m allowed to be the person I am.” He adds: “The best professional time in my life is being able to work with Keith.”Īt Kythera, David tried to hit lots of home runs. “A lot of time in my life I felt judged for the things I wasn't good at,” David says. Leonard, David says, figures out how to execute his wild brainstorms. Cami Samuels, a biotech venture capitalist then at Versant, introduced them. Kythera turned out to be life-changing, because it gave David a long-term business partner: Leonard, who became Kythera's chairman and chief executive in 2005. his scientists have filled with chemical formulas and scientific ideas. ![]() Keith Leonard, the 6-foot-5 chief executive of Unity Biotechnology, towers in front of a blackboard. The idea was to apply a more rigorous scientific lens to the aesthetics industry. ![]() The second was Kythera, the company with the chin-fat drug. The first, founded in 2002, was Achaogen, an antibiotics company that went public in 2014 and currently has experimental drugs in late-stage trials. as a diabetes treatment in 2013.Īfter Syrrx he was on to new projects, working on two companies at once as an entrepreneur-in-residence at San Francisco VC firm Versant Ventures. One Syrrx drug, Nesina, was approved in the U.S. It raised $79 million from venture capitalists and was sold to Takeda for $270 million in 2005. In his last year as a grad student, just before he turned 31, he started his first company, Syrrx, which aimed to use cutting-edge biology to develop drugs. He remembers that time as “the most thoroughly enjoyable period in my life,” splitting his efforts between science and triathlons. in molecular and cellular biology at UC Berkeley. But can they combat the wear and tear of aging in a fundamental way?ĭavid received an undergraduate degree in biology at Harvard and a Ph.D. David and Leonard have both had the injection, and it probably makes them look younger. It developed a shot, called Kybella, that destroys double chins. Their previous company, Kythera, was sold to Allergan for $2.1 billion in 2015. She has known David since he was in graduate school and has backed four of his startups.ĭavid has even made it to biotech's finish line-an approved drug-twice, first with a diabetes drug from his first startup and again with Leonard as his CEO. “He's probably the best person in the world at finding great academic science and shaping it into a fundable story and a sellable business plan,” says Kristina Burow, managing director at Arch Venture Partners. David’s five companies have raised $1.5 billion and made investors close to $2 billion without ever actually turning a profit. But since he was a doctoral student at Berkeley, David’s career has turned into a blueprint for success in biotech, transforming ideas from university laboratories into viable companies, investment gains and, maybe, drugs. When a medicine is just beginning human tests, the odds it will make it to market are 10%. But achieving that goal also entails incredible risk. It’s an amazing goal, backed by great science, not to mention $222 million in venture capital and $85 million raised from a May initial public offering, which valued Unity at $700 million, flat with its last fundraising.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |