June 22, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Pharnext is an advanced clinical stage biopharmaceutical company based in France. It was founded in 2007 by Daniel Cohen, a professor and pioneer in genomics, co-founder of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and his main collaborators. The company develops new therapeutics for severe orphan and common neurological diseases. Cohen is a professor of medical genetics, co-founder of CEPH, Genethon and Millennium, former CSO at Genset. He is also a founder of modern genetics, genomics and pharmacogenomics, with over 100 papers in peer reviewed journals, 28 in high-wire journals, more than 25 granted patents, national and international awards and honors. He has received the French Knight of the Legion of Honor. BioSpace chatted with him about what makes him tick—and what the road to the C-level suite looked like.
• When did you start focusing on science as a career?
Into my initial career as a pianist, I was fascinated by the potential of human creativity; then as a physician, I started to envision becoming a scientist after an internship experience where I worked to treat children with leukemia. These children had no cure for their disease - which both exasperated me and drove my interest in drug discovery. The next step I took was to go into the lab and begin looking for solutions.
• Company milestones coming up?
The most telling milestone thus far is the announcement of our Phase II study results for Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease. These results demonstrate the strength of network pharmacology in treating complex diseases with large unmet medical need. The data in fact show patient improvement beyond stabilization, which is exciting as we additionally tackle treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The next tremendous breakthroughs for network pharmacology would be the approval of a CMT drug in adults and children that prevents disease and the collecting of evidence of long lasting benefit when treating Alzheimer’s patients
• Did you found your company? Why?
I founded Pharnext in 2007 with Ilya Chumakov and Serguei Nabirotchkin. For us, both a concern and a driving force at the time, despite the fact that science had entered the era of genetics, were the many drug failures in the field and the few significant approvals. As a founder of GWAS, I realized that there was a revolution waiting to happen. The key to this revolution is the use of genomics and network pharmacology to create a true change in medicine. Network pharmacology is the realized goal of the genome project. It has taken us 25 years to get to this point since the time we made the first map of the human genome and founded GWAS.
• What’s your proudest career achievement to date?
My proudest career achievement to date is the work I’ve done in creating the first map of the human genome in the 1990s and inventing the genome-wide association studies or GWAS. These studies have enabled scientists to identify genes involved in disease through the analysis of hundreds or thousands of genome variations at a time. This seminal work with Pharnext co-founder, Ilya Chumakov, led to the discovery of network pharmacology in 2007 and the foundation on which Pharnext was built. The use of network pharmacology for drug discovery can be considered as the next paradigm in drug development and the drug combinations discovered by our approach are becoming industry’s “we must have” in novel therapeutics.
•If you had to choose between a startup or an established company, which would you pick?
I would choose the startup company every time for the freedom, agility, team spirit and ability to remain both flexible and highly creative.
•What’s your hometown and do you get back there often?
I was born in Tunisia but rarely have the opportunity to go back. Nowadays, my hometown is anywhere near Paris with a beautiful garden and a large house enabling me to play music without disturbing the neighborhood. I use the time to relax, but mostly to play classical music very loudly at night with my children. I am actually a pianist and started playing before my time in medicine.
•Pets? Hobbies?
A symphonic orchestra is the quintessence of complexity on which I have thrived for so many years. Conducting large symphonic orchestra and teaching music to my kids are great joys of mine. I’ve taught the love of music to all of my kids. My 10-year-old, Nathan, is a gifted pianist that plays concerts in large halls around the world. We spend one to two hours playing together every day. I also love cooking world cuisine and sophisticated recipes that are healthy and tasty. I love spices – in fact I feel that both life and science must be spicy.
•Why have you stayed doing what you do for so long? What makes it worth it?
I’ve stayed in this field because no matter who you are, you have the opportunity to progress and learn every day. You not only learn from others, but you also learn from your own discoveries. Further, treating patients has remained a focus of mine since my days as a physician and it continues to drive me.
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?