June 26, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Before co-founding GlycoMimetics, Rachel King was an Executive in Residence at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the nation’s leading venture capital firms. King came to NEA after serving as a Senior Vice President of Novartis Corporation. Before joining Novartis, King spent 10 years with Genetic Therapy, Inc. (GTI), a biotechnology company, where she served in a number of roles as part of the executive team, through that company’s initial public offering and later acquisition by Novartis.
After the acquisition by Novartis, she served as CEO of Genetic Therapy, which was then a wholly owned subsidiary of Novartis. King also worked previously at ALZA Corporation in Palo Alto, Calif., and at Bain and Company in Boston. She received her B.A. degree from Dartmouth College and her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She currently serves as Chair of the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Association (BIO). At BIO, she is also on the Executive Committee and is a former Chair of the Emerging Companies Governing Body. She is also Chair of the Maryland Life Sciences Advisory Board.
Has being a woman been more difficult in this career field?
That’s hard to say, having nothing to compare this to! No career is easy, and it is true that there are not too many women in leadership in biotech. But this is a great industry in which to make a career, and I am happy to see more women joining our ranks in the industry as a whole as well as at senior levels.
Company milestones coming
We now have our lead compound in a Phase 3 sickle cell study being run by Pfizer Inc. . Our second compound is in a Phase 1/ 2 study in AML patients, and we plan to enter the clinic with a third compound next year. We look forward to continued progress in all three programs!
Walk us through your typical workday.
My typical workday can best be summed up by recalling a visit to my office from my daughter when she was young. She said happily at the end of the day, “Mommy, now I understand what you do for your work!” I asked her what that was, and she said, “You have meetings and you talk on the phone.” My day does have a lot of both! I meet with people to discuss scientific and clinical plans, and to address business development and administrative issues. I also find that since we took GlycoMimetics public, there are a lot of meetings with investors, which I really enjoy – I love telling our story.
What’s your proudest career achievement to date?
My experience starting GlycoMimetics and advancing the company has been very gratifying, especially getting the positive Phase 2 clinical data from our trial in people experiencing sickle cell crisis. People with sickle cell disease are often marginalized in our healthcare system. Some are treated like drug addicts when they need narcotics for their intense pain. In our study, we showed that participants receiving our drug candidate used much less narcotics than those getting placebo – those were exciting results!
When did you start focusing on science as a career?
I embarked in the world of science after business school when I realized I could combine a business background with my interest in biology. That was when I started working at ALZA. Ever since then, I have been working in biotech/pharma.
What makes a great team, in your opinion?
Diversity of skills, experience and perspective; commitment to a common goal; trust among the team members.
Do you think there’s a biotech bubble?
That really depends on the company. I do feel concerned about the rapid growth in some valuations.
If you had to choose between a startup or an established company, which would you pick?
I would do a startup again – I love that environment.
Any pieces of advice for people looking to get to where you are now?
If you can do it, follow your deep interests, and work with the best people you can. People who you can learn from and whom you’d like to emulate.
What’s your hometown and do you get back there often?
My family moved around a lot when I was growing up, so I do not feel I have a single hometown. My dad is still living, and he is Buffalo NY now, where I do like to visit.
Why have you stayed doing what you do for so long? What makes it worth it?
I feel very lucky that the work we do in biotechnology is so meaningful to me. Every job has its up and downs, but in biotech, I feel the work is so important that it makes it easier to keep going when things are hard. To me, the long hours and long drug development timelines are worth it given the possible impact we can have on peoples’ lives if we are successful.
Have you always wanted to be in the C-level suite?
I admit that for most of my career, I hoped to have the chance to run a company!
As Rumors Swirl About GlaxoSmithKline Bid, Who Could Suitors Be?
Rumors are swirling that Swiss-based Roche and U.S.-based Johnson & Johnson are eying the U.K. company for approximately $143 billion. But Roche and J&J aren’t the only companies though who have been thought could go after the elephant that is Glaxo.
Last month there was buzz that Pfizer Inc. was considering acquiring Glaxo, a year after it failed to acquire AstraZeneca PLC . Just this month over a third of respondents in a poll conducted by BioSpace believe that AstraZeneca PLC could be in the running to acquire struggling GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
So BioSpace wants to ask our readers again what they predict for this new dealmaking bonanza. Will Glaxo go—and if so, to whom?