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Climbing
Steep Learning and Growth Curves in Biotech and
Pharmaceuticals
By Dorothy Wright
George Morrow, M.A. ’77,
is happiest when he is applying his combined knowledge
of business and science to make an impact on an
entrepreneurial company’s growth. As executive
vice president of worldwide sales and marketing
for Amgen, a $3.7 billion biotechnology company,
he’ll have plenty of opportunities to do
just that.
"Amgen’s success
over its first 20 years has been built on two
products — EPOGEN® and NEUPOGEN®
— both breakthrough products," Morrow
says.
EPOGEN (Epoetin alfa),
the company’s first product, stimulates and
regulates the production of oxygen-carrying red
blood cells. Approved to treat anemia associated
with chronic renal failure in patients on dialysis,
EPOGEN earned $2 billion in sales for 2000. NEUPOGEN
(Filgrastim), a recombinant granulocyte-stimulating
factor that selectively stimulates the growth
of white blood cells, is approved for use in cancer
chemotherapy to decrease the incidence of infection.
NEUPOGEN had sales of approximately $1.2 billion
in 2000.
"Now we’re on
the verge of launching a number of new products
into highly competitive markets," Morrow
says.
The Cusp
of Growth
That’s right where he
wants to be. Before joining Amgen in January 2001,
Morrow had just been appointed president of U.S.
operations for Glaxo SmithKline, which was formed
in late 2000 by the merger of SmithKline Beecham
and GlaxoWellcome. Morrow was president and CEO
of GlaxoWellcome at the time of the merger.
"I guess I was at a crossroads,"
he recalls. "One was to be a co-president
of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical
companies. The other was to work for what I would
call young but rapidly growing human therapeutics
company, which was on a very steep growth curve
and getting ready to go to the next level.
"Amgen was at an
inflection point in the company’s history,
and, to me, working for a smaller, dynamic company
poised to undergo explosive growth was much more
attractive."
Morrow had similar motives
for joining Glaxo, Inc. in 1992. "When I
went to Glaxo from Merck, I would have characterized
Glaxo at the time as a relatively adolescent,
high-growth company, a place where, at that point,
I could have more impact."
Morrow had begun his career
in the pharmaceutical industry in 1981 at Merck
and Company in West Point, Pa., where he rose
from professional sales representative to vice
president of marketing.
After he joined Glaxo
as manager of the company’s Cerenex division,
he built the 800-person division responsible for
the company’s successful CNS products, Zofran
and Imitrex. Later, as group vice president of
commercial operations, he was responsible for
five business divisions. After the GlaxoWellcome
merger, he held the same responsibilities for
the combined companies.
He enjoys being on the
cusp of growth. "It’s a very exciting
time, and it’s a bit of a risky time, but
it’s very rewarding once you accomplish certain
goals and grow a company," he says. "You
really feel more connectivity with the results
than you would with a huge company."
Steep Learning
Curve
Morrow has found plenty to
challenge him at Amgen. "The science wasn’t
tremendously different, but it was enough so that
I was once again on a very steep learning curve.
For the first few months, I was ‘drinking
out of a fire hose’ — learning new technologies,
new markets and new government reimbursement systems.
It was incredibly stimulating once again for me."
Founded in Thousand Oaks,
Calif., in 1980 as Applied Molecular Genetics,
Amgen currently is exploiting biological science
to identify potential new drugs. "Genomics
and genetics are probably the way we are going
to find more targets, and that’s what biotech
companies and pharmaceutical companies are both
looking for," Morrow explains. "We are
seeing that convergence because of the work on
the human genome, which identified lots of targets
for large proteins, monoclonal antibodies and
small molecules.
"We’ve stated
at Amgen that we are going to focus on four therapeutic
areas and three modalities. We are the world’s
best in proteins, and we’re going to move
into monoclonal antibodies and also into small
molecules eventually — and I think you’ll
find the big pharmaceutical companies moving in
our direction."
It will be Morrow’s
job, first, to successfully launch those new products
and, second, to build a commercialization process.
"That requires a deep collaboration between
marketing and research and development,"
he says. "We in the marketing area understand
the global markets well enough to bring our insights
into what doctors are looking for into the research
and development process at a relatively early
stage."
That kind of collaboration
is critically important considering the odds of
success. "Only 1 in 10,000 molecules ever
makes it to market, and just a fraction are commercially
successful," Morrow says.
Patent protection is another
critical issue. "It is incredibly important
in that the amount of money we spend to get a
product to market is phenomenal. The estimates
are $300 million to $500 million, and as high
as $800 million, from bench discovery to FDA approval
and launch. Most people, both consumers and a
fair number of people in government, have a difficult
time understanding those economics."
Combining
Economics and Science
It is Morrow’s understanding
both of economics and science that has shaped
his career. After graduating from Long Island’s
Southampton College, he came to Bryn Mawr in the
mid-70s to work on his master’s degree in
biochemistry. "At Bryn Mawr I got a fantastic
overview of biochemistry," he recalls, "and
while I really loved the science, I discovered
I didn’t like the bench work."
At Bryn Mawr, Morrow also
met his wife, Katherine, who received her Ph.D.
in archaeology in 1980. The couple has three children.
Later, as an instructor
at Bryn Mawr in general chemistry, Morrow took
a few economics courses at Haverford College "…and
absolutely loved it," he says.
The true "aha"
moment came during an internship at Eli Lilly
for his M.B.A. at Duke University. "After
the second day I said, ‘This is it —
a business application of my love of science.
It’s the perfect combination of all my interests.’
And I’ve never looked back."
About the Author
Dorothy Wright contributes
news and feature articles on science, technology,
engineering and general interest topics to a variety
of publications, including Civil Engineering,
Engineering News Record and Bryn Mawr
Now.
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