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Sam Waksal, the former Founder and CEO of ImClone Systems who was convicted in 2003 of insider stock trading and spent about five years in prison is trying to make a comeback as a biotechnology entrepreneur.

Shortly after his release from prison, Sam started a new, privately-held, biotechnology company called Kadmon (a moniker taken from the Kabbalah). He reportedly was able to raise over $50 million in venture capital (much of it allegedly coming from Carl Icahn a long time investor, business partner and friend.*

Kadmon which has been operating in stealth mode for the past two years today announced that it had acquired Three Rivers Pharmaceuticals, a privately held company in Warrendale, PA that develops and sells drugs to treat hepatitis C infection. Three Rivers was acquired to provide Kadmon with an ongoing source of revenue to help develop other drugs. It sells versions of the drugs alpha interferon and ribavirin, mainstays of hepatitis C treatment.

According to a company spokesperson, Kadmon acquired Three Rivers for over $100 million. Previously, Kadmon quietly acquired PhytoCeutica a company developing a cancer drug derived from traditional Chinese medicine and Flux Therapeutics a company co-found by Thomas E. Shenk, PhD a Princeton University virologist. Coincidentally, Dr. Shenk works in the Carl Icahn Laboratories at Princeton University.

Despite his conviction for insider trading, Sam is a seasoned and successful biotechnology entrepreneur who almost single handedly brought the blockbuster anti-cancer drug Erbitux to market. Sam who has a PhD degree in Immunology from Ohio State University and  has a "leg-up" on many biotechnology entrepreneurs because he understand both science and business.  As you may recall, ImClone System (the company that he founded in the 1980s) was sold two years ago to Eli Lilly for $6.5 billion—a deal brokered by ImClone’s Chairman, Carl Icahn. 

Interestingly, Sam is prohibited by a settlement he made with the Securities and Exchange Commission from serving as a director or executive of a publicly traded company. It will be interesting to see whether or not Kadmon decides to remain private. I suspect that won’t be the case if the IPO window opens up a bit more over the next few years. Once biotechnology companies go public, there is no longer a need for entrepreneurial founders like Sam to stick around!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try Kadmon, they have lots of cash)

 * An NY Times article published on Nov 1, 2010 contends that Carl Icahn had initially considered investing $30 million in Kadmon but ultimately decided to pass.

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As many of you may recall, in 2001, Sam Waksal, founder and former CEO of the biotechnology company ImClone was convicted (along with his good friend Martha Stewart) for fraud and insider trading of ImClone stock. Waksal, who was released from prison in late 2008 and lived in a half way house for several months had kept a relatively low profile until earlier this month. Rumor has it that Sam along with Richard Mulligan, PhD a Harvard professor and former ImClone director and Dr. Larry Witte, a current executive vice president in the ImClone division of Eli Lilly are attempting raise about $50 million for the privately-held new venture called Kadmon. Other reports indicate that Waksal and other members of the Kadmon team are putting up $50 million as well. 

According to insider reports the company will ostensibly focus on cancer and infectious disease targets and—taking a page out of the Cubist, Celgene and Sepracor play books—re-purpose once promising drug candidates discarded by other companies. To that end, according an article in TheStreet, the company's drug research programs include a "statin inhibitor for influenza" from a "leading Ivy League university" along with a variety of monoclonal antibodies for use as targeted cancer treatments, similar to Erbitux. Kadmon is also eyeing several existing cancer-focused drug companies, one of which already has a marketed product, as acquisition targets, according to the prospectus. For those of you who may be wondering about whether or not Waksal can legally start another biotechnology company, an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission bars Waksal from serving as an officer in a publicly traded company, but as previously mentioned, Kadmon is a private venture.

Whether you like Waksal or not, his track record in the biotechnology industry speaks for itself. Unlike the vast majority of his rivals, Waksal shepherded a molecule from discovery through commercialization. That molecule, a monoclonal antibody called Erbitux, became a multibillion dollar a year treatment for certain forms of colorectal cancer. More importantly, Waksal was one of the first to recognize that humanized monoclonal antibodies directed against certain cellular receptors could be used to treat a variety of oncology indications—a concept that is driving a large portion of discovery and product development in the oncology space. For those of you who may not know, Eli Lilly purchased ImClone two years ago for $7.0 billion dollars after a very public and acrimonious fight over the sale price of ImClone erupted between Carl Icahn, ImClone’s Chairman, and Jim Cornelius, CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). ImClone and BMS co-marketed Eribitux prior to the sale.

Waksal has been in and around the biotechnology industry for over 30 years and many consider him to be one of the early industry pioneers. Unfortunately, despite his dubious past, Waksal represents a dying breed of visionaries whose entrepreneurial spirit and unorthodox approach to new drug development is largely responsible the biotechnology industry’s current largess. Like other ex-felons Waksal did his time and like all Americans he is entitled to a second chance.

Let’s hope that Sam learned a few things during his incarceration and is smarter and wiser for his second and possibly final act. I wish Waksal success in his new venture and I hope that he and his team still possess the insight, creativity and tenacity required to discover and develop innovative oncology and infectious diseases drugs.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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