Actelion reached profitability in record time by focusing from the start on the development and commercial end of the business. It in-licensed an unusually late-stage pipeline made up of compounds its founders helped develop, and built its own global sales and marketing infrastructure to maximize the value of its projects. Now Actelion plans to leverage growing profits to go back and nurture earlier stage research-a top-down biotech-building model that may prove inspirational to others.
When Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd. reported maiden profits in the first quarter of 2003, it set a record for doing so faster than any other European biotech: the Swiss group had taken less than six years since inception—and three years since going public—to become profitable.
Actelion's profits came a year ahead of the market's expectations on the back of stronger-than-anticipated sales of the company's first...