BIOGEN NAMES CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
PHARMACEUTICAL OFFICIAL TO SUCCEED BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANY FOUNDER
Author: By Jane Meredith Adams, Globe Staff
Date: Tuesday, October 1, 1985
Page: 53
Section: BUSINESS
Biogen Inc. announced a successor yesterday to Walter Gilbert, the former
Harvard University professor and Nobel Prize-winning biochemist who resigned
as the company's chief executive officer 10 months ago.
As expected, the Biogen board chose an executive with management experience
in the pharmaceutical field, James L. Vincent, 46, a group vice president of
the industrial company Allied-Signal Inc. At Allied, Vincent was president of
the Health and Scientific Products Co., Allied's entry into health care. He
reported directly to chairman Edward Hennessey.
Gilbert, a Biogen founder, acknowledged last December that the company had
grown to the point where it made sense to seek "fresh management." The
transition in leadership from scientist to business manager is critical in
technology and biotechnology companies.
Gilbert continues as a member of the Biogen board and is now back at
Harvard, where he runs a research laboratory. President Mark Skaletsky was
acting chief executive until Vincent was named. The company said it expects
Vincent to be named chairman of Biogen, a position left vacant by Gilbert, at
the board meeting in December.
Biogen, a Swiss-based company with US headquarters in Cambridge, is a
leading genetic-engineering firm in pharmaceuticals. In March 1982, the stock
went public at $23 a share. At the time of Gilbert's resignation it traded at
around 4. Yesterday it closed at 8 7/8, up 3/8.
Biogen has taken the strategy of bearing the cost of much of its research
and development, in contrast to Genentech Inc., which lined up financing
sources to offset nearly all of its research expenses. As a result, Biogen has
been operating at a loss while Genentech has shown profits.
In a telephone interview, Vincent said, "It has been apparent at Biogen and
other biotech companies that the loss has to be brought into equilibrium at
the appropriate time." He said the company has stated its intention to ''bring
it into equilibrium by and in 1987."
In the second quarter ended June 30, Biogen lost $2.78 million, down from a
$4.53 million loss in the same period a year ago. Revenues were $6.69 million,
down from $7.79 million in the quarter last year.
Biogen has no products for sale in the United States. It has developed
alpha interferon, which may be effective against viruses like the common cold
as well as some rare forms of cancer. Schering-Plough Corp. markets the
product in Ireland and the Philippines and is waiting for federal drug
administration approval to sell it in the United States.
Before joining Allied-Signal in 1982, Vincent was executive vice president
and chief operating officer of Abbott Laboratories Inc. He spent 10 years at
Abbott and held several other positions including vice president of the radio
pharmaceutical division and vice president of diagnostic operations.
Before Abbott, Vincent was president of Texas Instruments-Asia based in
Tokyo and spent five years in Europe managing Texas Instruments-Germany.
He is a graduate of Duke University and holds a master's degree in business
administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
ADAMS ;09/30,16:57 NKELLY;10/02,15:08 BIOGEN01
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