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Biotech builder: Michael Abrams discusses his plans to put Inimex Pharmaceuticals on the right development track and recalls the rough ride in his final days with Anormed
Mission: Retool Inimex’s clinical trial development strategy Assets: Expertise that meets at the crossroads of business and scientific development Yield: Took one of B.C.’s few commercial successes in biotechnology from an idea to the last stages of development
 By Curt Cherewayko BC’s biotechnology sector hasn’t heard much from Michael Abrams since he left Anormed Inc. in 2006. But he hasn’t retired to the ski slopes to enjoy the fruits of the labour that came with being the founder of one of B.C.’s largest biotechnology exits. And while he’s kept busy behind the scenes as a director of Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. (TSX:TKM) and the Centre for Drug Research and Development, he has suddenly come back into full focus as the new CEO of Inimex Pharmaceuticals Inc. The early-stage spinoff from the University of British Columbia thinks it might have an alternative treatment for the antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” that lurk in waiting for patients in hospitals. But having hit some bumps on the development path, the company required the expertise of someone who had more experience running the biotech gauntlet than the company’s other executives. Abrams places his expertise at the intersection of business and science. “That makes me not quite a scientist’s scientist, but I’m not a business guy’s business guy either,” said Abrams from his office in Inimex’s small headquarters in a Burnaby industrial park. Pat Brady, an Inimex director and a vice-president of Growthworks Capital, has known Abrams for years. Growthworks was a long-time Anormed investor. He made the call to Abrams after the company pegged him as the ideal candidate for CEO. “[He] has that later-stage clinical experience,” said Brady. “He has that network; it was good timing for us to get that talent on board.” Founded in 2001, Inimex has undergone two rounds of financing – the most recent being $22 million in 2008 – to support the early-stage clinical studies of a drug that triggers the body’s innate immune response. Unlike the body’s adaptive immune response, the innate immune response – the body’s first line of defence – reacts to infections immediately, and bacteria can’t evolve around the innate immunity, as it can with the antibodies produced by the adaptive system. As a result, Inimex’s drug could be an effective treatment against bacteria and pathogens that have developed a resistance to antibodies and other adaptive immune system responses. But Inimex’s drug targets infections that occur in roughly one in 10 patients following surgery, which means that the company has to use a large cross-section of patients in its studies to ensure the drug is effective. That will raise study costs and shareholder anxiety. The drug could also be used to treat inflammation, immune system complications and other ailments. “So it is quite a milieu of diseases that we could explore,” said Brady, “and that presents an overburden of information.” Abrams’ role is to identify which ailments are the ideal targets for Inimex’s therapy and to re-jig the company’s development path so that fewer trial patients and expenses are required to test the therapy’s efficacy. Abrams and Inimex’s team – which has remained intact aside from the addition of Abrams – expect to have developed a solution by summer. John North, the former CEO, remains with the company as COO. “A lot of the proposals that John and the team came up with were scientifically pretty good,” said Abrams. “But I think they were probably more expensive and bigger scale than the board had hoped for.” If the company can resolve its clinical trial issues, it will likely hit the road this fall for another round of financing that will support further clinical trials. If it doesn’t find a way to cut trial expenses, Abrams will have to answer to impatient shareholders. That’s something Abrams is familiar with: he was pushed out as head of Anormed in 2006 after a group of dissident shareholders led by a New York-based fund manager convinced other company shareholders to bring in a new slate of directors. The group had become dissatisfied with Anormed’s low share price, which Abrams attributed to uncertainty about the company’s market potential. But while the street had trouble putting a value on Anormed, the biotech industry didn’t. After a months-long bidding war between it and another company, Genzyme Corp. (Nasdaq:GENZ) acquired Anormed for US$580 million in 2006. The object of their affection was Mozobil, a therapy that rapidly increases the number of stem cells in circulation in the blood – an important step in preparing a patient for a stem-cell transplant. Genzyme anticipates peak sales of Mozobil in the transplant setting could reach US$400 million annually. Mozobil received approval last year, making Abrams the founder of one of the few drugs developed in B.C. to make it all the way to the world’s largest commercial market. Abrams said it was regrettable that Genzyme pulled the final development stages of Mozobil out of B.C. and essentially disbanded the Anormed team. “I was committed to building Anormed as an entity,” Abrams said. “I thought there was a lot of value there.” But he doesn’t hold a grudge. “That all pales in comparison with the fact that, in the end, the drug made it. We made a difference.” Last year, Abrams got to relive the other big discovery in his scientific career when the Society of Nuclear Medicine presented him with the Georg Charles de Hevesy Nuclear Medicine Pioneer Award for outstanding contributions to the field of nuclear medicine. He and two other scientists received the award for developing an imaging agent known as Cardiolite that is used in a non-invasive nuclear imaging test that millions of heart-attack patients have undergone. Abrams was a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he co-discovered Cardiolite. •
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This article from Business in Vancouver Februrary 2-8, 2010; issue 1058 Photograph: Dominic Schaefer |
