June 2, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Robert (Bob) Ward is president and chief executive officer of Radius Health , biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new therapeutics for patients with osteoporosis as well as other serious endocrine-mediated diseases. Ward has managed all stages of drug development, commercialization, and strategic dealmaking and partnerships across multiple therapeutic areas.
Prior to joining Radius, Ward was vice president for Strategy and External Alliances for the New Opportunities iMed of AstraZeneca PLC , where he led search and evaluate activities in areas outside of AZ’s historical therapeutic focus, including orphan drugs and endocrinology. In addition, he served as co-chair of the Joint Development Committees in AZN’s drug development partnerships with Alcon Laboratories, Inc. and Galderma.
After starting his career in the Molecular Biology discovery group at Genentech , Ward progressed through a series of management and executive roles with established biopharmaceutical companies including NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , Schering-Plough (Merck & Co. , and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company . Ward received a B.A. in Biology and a B.S. in Physiological Psychology, both from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB); an M.S. in Management from the New Jersey Institute of Technology; and an M.A. in Immunology from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
BioSpace chatted with Bob about what makes him tick and what a Day in the Life of A CEO really looks like.
Company milestones coming up?
This is a very exciting time for Radius as next month, June 2015, we will report the topline results from the first 6 months of the ACTIVExtend trial, the final step in our development program for our investigational agent abaloparatide-SC as a potential treatment for post-menopausal osteoporosis. At the end of 2014 we reported the positive topline results from our 18 month Phase III ACTIVE trial. The 18 month and first six month results from these two trials will be combined for the 24 month data set we intend to submit as a new drug application (“NDA”) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and as a marketing authorization application (“MAA”) to the European Medicines Agency.
In the Phase III ACTIVE clinical trial, we reported an 86 percent reduction in new vertebral fractures versus placebo and a 43 percent reduction in non-vertebral fractures versus placebo – very exciting results – as this is the largest reduction in new vertebral fractures ever reported in a major osteoporosis trial. Also this year we are continuing to enroll patients in our Phase 1 metastatic breast cancer study for our investigational SERD (selective estrogen receptor degrader) RAD1901.
How did you know science was the career for you?
When I was an undergraduate student at UCSB my dream was to someday discover a cure for a disease – at the time I was working in a laboratory studying retinal diseases. Later, as a grad student at Johns Hopkins, I came to appreciate that complex diseases really needed to be tackled by collaborative teams, and this changed my view on what it would take for my “dream of a cure” to come true. Today I am amazed at the network of people and technologies that have emerged to enable biotech to grow so rapidly. Personally, I enjoy reading the basic science literature and I find science “fun”. I’m not sure there’s any other pursuit that I would find as complex, challenging and interesting.
Do you think there’s a biotech bubble?
We have the good fortune to be living in a time of significant scientific innovation in biomedical research which is fueling a surge in interest in biotechnology, and a massive flow of funds into a new generation of companies. These companies are now sufficiently funded to pursue the development of novel therapies which may dramatically change how we treat disease, expand the number of diseases we can treat, and enhance patient care, treatment outcomes, and potentially reduce the overall burden of disease. Clearly, anytime there is an increase in early stage investment there is a subsequent period where these technologies sort out into winners and losers – we are in the expansion stage now so that sorting hasn’t occurred yet.
For Radius, the favorable investment climate has allowed us to go public and complete two successful secondary offerings. These funds enabled us to complete our key multinational Phase III osteoporosis trial and start new Phase I oncology trials. Radius is considered a late stage company since we are focusing on regulatory submissions and potential approval of our lead investigational new drug– typically late stage assets have a bit of a magnifying glass applied to them. Right now, we believe that many of the Phase III assets across the industry are undervalued as there appears to be a heightened degree of attention on the early stage technologies.
If you had to choose between a startup or an established company, which would you pick?
I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of major global pharmaceutical companies Bristol-Myers Squibb Company , AstraZeneca PLC and pre-commercial biotech companies (Genentech , NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. before leading Radius Health. Start-up companies grow based on the individual talents of the employees and the larger companies succeed based on high performance teams. I love the energy and the creative freedom of the start-up environment but also believe that the learnings I bring from my experiences with the major global pharma companies will prove critical to ensuring that our programs achieve their potential.
Any pieces of advice for people looking to get to where you are now?
It’s critical to find mentors and to be a part of a successful high performance team. A mentor can provide a role model, advice, and most importantly teach you how to grow beyond the inevitable challenges that one will encounter during the course of a career. I was fortunate to work in organizations where personal development was a priority and I was given the chance to “try something new”, “work outside my comfort zone”, and I was asked to solve “impossible problems”. The best experiences came in the context of teams where my colleagues collectively “stepped up” so we could tackle challenges. Always take advantage of situations to learn and never give up--the rest is easy!
Will PfizerKline Become the Next Pharma Player?
The speculation surrounding a possible bid from Pfizer Inc. for struggling GlaxoSmithKline is heating up, after one closely-watched biotech analyst said in a note last week that Pfizer buying the company would “unlock access to its balance sheet and improve its tax situation.”
Gregg Gilbert, a biotech analyst at Deutsche Bank, wrote in a note to investors “Introducing PfizerKline” that he thinks a deal would be “materially accretive” for both companies. Gilbert estimated that a bid priced at $29.86 a share, via half stock and half cash, which would push up Pfizer’s earnings per share by 10 percent to 16 percent beginning in 2016.
“We believe that the company has a sense of urgency to create value by leveraging the power of its balance sheet to do needle-moving deals,” Gilbert wrote. “Since media reports in the past have pointed to the potential for a Pfizer/GSK combination, we are revisiting that theme.”
We want to know, dear readers, if you agree? Should Glaxo continue going it alone, or might Pfizer buy it and create one of the world’s largest pharma players in history?