Lone-star pharma

A researcher at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Credit: Courtesy of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals" />A researcher at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Credit: Courtesy of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Thirty miles north of Houston, texas - and a world away from the biopharmaceutical industry's hubs in California and New Jersey - sits The Woodlands, a sylvan community and home to the headquarters of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals. The compan

Written byBob Grant

| 2 min read

Save for Later

Listen with Speechify

0:00

2:00

Thirty miles north of Houston, texas - and a world away from the biopharmaceutical industry's hubs in California and New Jersey - sits The Woodlands, a sylvan community and home to the headquarters of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals.

The company was founded in 1995 as Lexicon Genetics, and until last year focused almost exclusively on creating knockout models by the thousands for drug target discovery. This past year, Lexicon shifted gears, moving into the commercial development of drugs. With the organizational change came a new name, Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, soon followed by layoffs of 120 people out of a workforce of about 700 people. Despite the change, Lexicon employees gave their company good marks, winning ninth place in this year's Best Places to Work in Industry overall list, up from 26th place the previous year.

"We all agree that we have a common goal," says Lexicon's associate director of oncology, Rick Finch. "We're ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!

Join for free today

Already a member? Login Here

Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
View Full Profile