Spotlight on Québec
québec
By: Shawn Lawrence
Transformation Strategy Aeterna Zentaris president and CEO David Dodd
A
new CEO and president is said to have 100 days to make a real difference in their organization. For David Dodd, stepping into the role of CEO and president of Aeterna Zentaris in April of this year, those first hundred days may have gone by rather quickly, but he is already well on his way to implementing his strategy for the company, going from a sole focus on R&D to becoming a company that is ready to take the next step, commercializing the promising compounds in its pipeline. One would say it’s because of the maturity of this pipeline that Dodd was sought out to head up the Québec-based company in the first place. While his wealth of experience in the sector made him a leading candidate for the role, it wasn’t just a case of Aeterna Zentaris wanting him. Dodd also wanted to be part of Aeterna Zentaris. In fact, he was so impressed by what he saw in the company and its potential when the courting process started, that prior to assuming the role of president and CEO, he also became a shareholder in the company. “I wanted to send them a clear message of interest not in just the position but also in the company. My goal was to find a company that I could really sink my teeth into, one that was well positioned, and Aeterna Zentaris was exactly what I was looking for,” he says. If there’s an individual who knows an opportunity when he sees it, it’s Dodd. A business oriented individual, Dodd’s executive management experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries
18
Biotechnology Focus / October 2013
spans more than 35 years. He’s worked with small biotech firms (Serologicals, BioReliance, Stem Cell Sciences, Geo Vax) mid-sized pharma (Solvay) as well as big pharma (Abbott, BMS and Wyeth). One of his greatest achievements was during his six-year tenure as president, CEO and director of Serologicals Corporation, where he increased the market value of that company from $85 million in June 2000 to the point where it was acquired in an all-cash sale by Millipore Corporation in July 2006 for $1.5 billion. He believes that Aeterna Zentaris has the pipeline to achieve the same type of success. “I guess for starters, I really like the idea of a biopharmaceutical company that has products in oncology and endocrinology. These are two very speciality type markets where I believe you’ll find a lot of opportunity if you deliver good products and services,” he says. It all starts with the company’s lead product: macimorelin acetate (formerly AEZS-130). Macimorelin acetate is an oral diagnostic for adult growth hormone deficiency (AGHD), a condition where there is a negative impact to the pituitary gland which causes hormonal imbalance or disruption. The product is an orally-active ghrelin agonist that when ingested it stimulates a GH secretion in a patient, making it easier to diagnose AGHD. “Typically it’s hard to diagnose AGHD, most current means need to be injected. Ours is the first that can be taken orally; it works faster and has a favorable safety profile. You simply take the blood from a patient who has taken AEZS-130, and conduct a confirmatory test on the blood sample to determine whether the patient has AGHD. The product can be used in a confirmatory manner, and there’s opportunity to expand that very rapidly from a marketing standpoint.” Even more exciting is the fact that the company is now in the final stages of filing a NDA for a commercial licence in the U.S. Moreover, the same product is also being assessed in Phase 2 trials as a therapeutic treatment for severe chronic diseases such as cancer induced cachexia. Likewise, on the oncology side, the company has a second lead product in its pipeline, zoptarelin doxorubicin (formerly AEZS-108) which is in a Phase 3 program for endometrial cancer. Endometrial cancer develops when cells in the inner lining of the uterus (the endometrium) become abnormal and grow uncontrollably. “This molecule is part of a targeted cancer treatment; it allows specific targeting of tumour cells expressing the LHRH receptor. For example, when you use standard chemotherapy to treat a patient,
