Thomas P. Mathers realized in late 2003 that it was time to pump up Peptimmune's pipeline. After being spun off with $5 million in seed money from Genzyme in 2002, the Boston company collected $42 million in venture capital and added a third autoimmune disease program based on its founding technology in 2003. "We were chugging along and building the franchise, growing the company, and I realized... that we had a lot of very early stage, very cogent programs, but all early stage," Mathers, the company's president and CEO, recalls. "Unfortunately in our business you're rewarded for products, not platform technology."