From Supertankers To Speedboats: Executives Make The Leap From Big Pharma To Start-Ups

Trade-Offs Include Faster Decision-Making, Greater Risk-Taking

 
• By Mandy Jackson

Vir’s George Scangos, Westlake Village BioPartners’ Sean Harper, Kronos Bio’s Norbert Bischofberger, Scorpion’s Axel Hoos and Eikon’s Roy Baynes discuss the experiences they bring and the challenges they have faced in the transition from large drug makers to small biotechs. 

Motor boat in navigation
The speed of start-up decision-making is attractive to pharma veterans • Source: Alamy

There is a time-honored tradition of jumping ship from big-sized big pharma careers to leadership positions at biotech start-ups, where the mission of introducing new medicines is the same but the drug discovery and development effort requires a more hands-on approach. In Vivo spoke with five executives who made the leap from large organizations to small companies between 2017 and 2022, and all are enthusiastic about the opportunities ahead but acknowledge the challenges they face.

One executive compared biotech firms to speedboats, where decisions are made much faster than at a large corporation, which is...

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