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 Viehbacher, pushed out amid declining sales of Sanofi's top-selling
diabetes drug, is now managing partner of Gurnet Point Capital, a
healthcare investment fund started in 2013. The firm said on
Thursday it had created a new drug-development company, Boston
Pharmaceuticals, that can tap in to $600 million in available funds.
Viehbacher, who will be chairman of the Boston-based startup, said
he has always been most interested in the science and innovative
aspects of the industry.
"I could never devote enough time to that as a big company CEO.
That's what I get to do now," he told Reuters in an interview on
Thursday.
Viehbacher, whose resume also includes a 20-year stint at British
drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc, now spends his work week in Boston
and also has homes in Florida and Paris. In his new role he will
help oversee a staff of 20 to 25 employees with expertise in
developing drugs and dealing with health regulators. That is a far
cry from his 110,000 employees and $5.2 billion research budget at
Sanofi.
Robert Armstrong, a former research executive at Amgen Inc and Eli
Lilly and Co, will be chief executive of Boston Pharmaceuticals. At
Lilly, he focused on spotting promising new drugs.
The new company will also be on the hunt for drugs that are ready to
prove themselves in human trials, but will outsource their
development to contract research organizations.
Viehbacher said Boston Pharmaceuticals will spend little upfront for
its drug candidates, and instead offer innovators equity stakes in
them.
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"We will find the molecules in academia, biotechs and big pharma"
companies, he said. "There has been a significant increase in
research productivity and there are probably more molecules around
than anyone is able to develop."
Rather than focusing on specific therapeutic areas, such as diabetes
or asthma, the new company will look at underlying causes that could
have applications in multiple diseases, such as inflammation or
immune system ailments, Viehbacher said.
"In big pharma R&D your role is to try to make sure that you can
continue these therapeutic franchises. The reality is some of the
science may not be the best in that area," he said. "That's why
we're shying away from some of the classical therapeutic areas."
(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson in New York; Editing by Matthew
Lewis)
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