Pharmasset science founder lands a fortune from $11B Gilead buyout

Posted under Blog, Companies, Diagnostics, drug development, Emtriva, Funding, Gilead Sciences, Hepatitis C, HIV, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Pharmasset, Startups, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

Emory University researcher and prolific biotech entrepreneur Raymond Schinazi will be $440 million richer once Gilead's ($GILD) $11 billion buyout of Pharmasset ($VRUS) goes through. That four percent slice of the company is now worth more than he was willing to sell the entire company for back in 2004, he tells Reuters.

"They could have had the company for $300 million or less in 2004. Somebody made a huge mistake," Schinazi tells Reuters correspondent Bill Berkrot, who also chronicles the investigator's lucrative career setting up drug developers. The researcher was part of a team that created Emtriva, one of the original HIV blockbusters.

Over the years Schinazi has helped found five biotech companies, including Triangle Pharmaceuticals ($VIRS), sold to Gilead in 2003 for the relatively modest sum of $464 million. He also was a principal founder of Idenix ($IDIX), which is now being touted as one of the next big takeover targets in the hepatitis C field.

Schinazi, of course, isn't the only insider to come away from the rich deal with a fortune, reports The Wall Street Journal. CEO Schaefer Price holds three percent of the company, which is worth $255 million. That's the reward he gets for hanging on to the company's drug assets until they hit their peak. If only he had held on to the 240,000 shares he had sold since June. He could have earned an extra $20 million.

- read the article from Reuters
- here's The Wall Street Journal story

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Gilead Sciences, J&J up the ante on new HIV drug combos

Posted under Blog, Companies, Diagnostics, Emtriva, Funding, Gilead Sciences, HIV/AIDS, Johnson & Johnson, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Prezista, Startups, Tibotec, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

Gilead Sciences ($GILD) and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) are taking their close partnership on new HIV drug combos to the proverbial next level. About four months since their deal to mix Gilead's boosting agent cobicistat with J&J's Prezista, a protease inhibitor, the developers will now ramp up a second program that combines Gilead's Emtriva and the experimental GS 7340 into a single pill.

"This is the first time we are developing a protease inhibitor-containing single-tablet regimen, and we're able to do that based on the small milligram size of GS 7340, which is less than one tenth of the amount of the 300 mg of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate contained in Viread and Truvada," said Gilead R&D chief Norbert Bischofberger.

Foster City, CA-based Gilead is the dominant developer in the HIV sphere, pushing ahead with the prospective launch of Quad, one of the top possible blockbusters in late-stage development. The trend here is to come up with better treatments that ease the burdensome dosing requirements HIV patients have faced for years.

This new program is mostly Gilead's responsibility. J&J's Tibotec unit has the rights to co-detail the combo treatment in some major markets. And it builds on their collaboration on Complera, which was approved last August.

- here's the press release

Special Report: Quad - 15 top blockbuster contenders

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