When Biotechs get Makeovers

It was the beginning of 2002, and employees of Renovis, a biopharmaceutical company based in San Francisco had many reasons to celebrate.

| 9 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
9:00
Share

It was the beginning of 2002, and employees of Renovis, a biopharmaceutical company based in San Francisco had many reasons to celebrate. They had just received $35 million in financing, and had another $10 million in the bank – enough to last several years. But CEO Corey Goodman was uneasy. The company was focusing its efforts on finding early drug targets and was a long way away from potential revenue, a strategy Goodman could see was quickly becoming unattractive to investors. Goodman knew the company needed to find a way to make money more quickly – and soon. "As good as the science was at Renovis, we needed to change or we were going to fail," he recalls. "We decided we had to go shopping."

When London-based SR Pharma's only product, a biological that showed early promise in treating tuberculosis and cancer, did not produce positive results in Phase III ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
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!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • Alison McCook

    This person does not yet have a bio.

Published In

Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

sartorius logo
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo

Products

Photo of a researcher overseeing large scale production processes in a laboratory.

Scaling Lentiviral Vector Manufacturing for Optimal Productivity

Thermo Fisher Logo
Collage-style urban graphic of wastewater surveillance and treatment

Putting Pathogens to the Test with Wastewater Surveillance

An illustration of an mRNA molecule in front of a multicolored background.

Generating High-Quality mRNA for In Vivo Delivery with lipid nanoparticles

Thermo Fisher Logo
Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide