Ivor Royston

Last updated
Ivor Royston
Ivor Royston headshot.jpg
Born
Retford, England
Scientific career
Fields Oncologist, researcher, scientist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist

Ivor Royston is an American oncologist, researcher, scientist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, recognized for his efforts to develop treatments for multiple disease targets and to fund biotechnology companies with promising science, technology or medicines. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] He speaks regularly at healthcare conferences and symposia throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. [7] [8]

Contents

One of Royston's most significant achievements may be his successful efforts to partner academic medical research with industry to take potential treatments more quickly from the benchtop to the bedside. [1] [2] [3] [5]

After co-founding the first biotechnology company in San Diego, California, he and his associates went on to form or invest in dozens of other biotechs, laying the foundation of the region's thriving biotech cluster, one of the three largest in the United States. As a venture capitalist, Royston invests in start-up companies that have promising technologies for treating and potentially curing diseases, including various forms of cancer. [9] [10] [11]

Born in Retford, England, Royston emigrated to the United States with his family in 1954 at age 9, and later, as a 14-year-old, he declared that he would devote his life to curing cancer. Unlike many future scientists, his passion also extended to commerce. This early interest in business manifested itself in a Washington, D.C., high-school investment club of 16 boys—dubbed the Chessmen—that he founded with friends. He also bought and operated an ice cream truck to earn money for college.

These divergent interests—medicine and business—would one day catapult Royston beyond his peers, transforming San Diego's economy while improving the health and lives of tens of thousands of patients along the way. [12]

Accomplishments


In 1978 Royston, then an assistant professor at the University of California-San Diego, bridged a chasm between academia and the marketplace, triggering a paradigm shift that forever changed San Diego's medical research community and led to the region's establishment as a leading international biotech clusters. [2] [3] [13]

Royston's reasoning was that private enterprise clearly provided the fastest way to get new, life-saving medicines from the research bench top to the patient's bedside. While serving as a researcher and a practicing physician at UCSD, Royston felt the frustration at the long process required to deliver innovative treatments to patients. That frustration fueled his decisive action to work towards eliminating the disconnect between research and clinical application by founding Hybritech with fellow scientist Howard Birndorf in 1978. [14]

The idea behind Hybritech was to harness monoclonal antibodies to quickly diagnose and treat diseases. Financier Brook Byers, of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, realized the importance of the science and recognized the longer-term value of the budding entrepreneurs' passion, energy and commitment. His firm provided the $300,000 start-up funding, and Hybritech's first product, antibodies for the hepatitis B virus, reached the research market in 1980. The PSA test developed later by the company for the early diagnosis of prostate cancer has benefited countless victims of this deadly disease and set the stage for new blood tests for the early detection of cancer. Hybritech went public in 1981 and, five years later, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company paid $480 million for the company. [15] [16]

Tina Nova, one of the senior scientists at Hybritech, reflects that “It was like “Animal House”' meets “The Waltons” [17]

Royston went on to co-found IDEC Pharmaceuticals (later Biogen Idec) in 1985. Other co-founders included Howard Birndorf, Richard Miller and Brook Byers. [18] He also co-founded the San Diego Regional Cancer Center, of which he was president and CEO 1990 until 2000. Renamed the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in 1995, it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. [19]

More than 50 San Diego companies trace their lineage directly to Hybritech, its founders and early employees. Among those are IDEC, San Diego's biggest biotech success story, with a billion dollars in sales for its lymphoma treatment Rituxan. Others include Amylin, Cancervax, Gen-Probe, Ligand Pharmaceuticals and Nanogen. [9]


In addition to Hybritech, Royston has been directly involved in the founding or funding of many biotech companies as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. These companies include: Applied Molecular Evolution, Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Combichem (acquired by Dupont), Corixa, Dynavax Technologies Corporation, Genesys Therapeutics (merged with Somatix and acquired by Cell Genesys), Genquest (acquired by Corixa), HenaQuest, IDEC Pharmaceuticals (merged with Biogen), LigoCyte, Micromet (formerly CancerVax), Morphotek (Acquired by Eisai Corporation), Sequana Therapeutics (merged with Arris to form AXYS and acquired by Celera Genomics), Syndax, Targegen, Triangle Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Gilead) and Variagenics (merged with Hyseq Pharmaceuticals to form Nuvelo). [9] [20]

Royston is impassioned. Some people are steady keeled, but he's not like that. Royston is always passionately on, wheeling and dealing, or he's exhausted. Those are his only two states. [5]

— Daniel Gold

Career milestones

Philanthropy

In 1987, Royston and his wife established the Ivor and Colette Carson Royston Advised Fund at the San Diego Foundation to support a variety of healthcare and cultural organizations. The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, San Diego Opera, La Jolla Playhouse, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Jewish Community Center and Congregation Beth Israel are among those organizations to benefit from the Roystons' generosity. [24]

In 2002, they presented the Ivor and Colette Royston Research Program Award to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. [25]

Personal

Royston is married to Colette and they have two children.[ citation needed ]

Awards

Related Research Articles

Genentech, Inc. is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It became an independent subsidiary of Roche in 2009. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent center within Roche. Historically, the company is regarded as the world's first biotechnology company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biogen</span> Pharmaceutical company

Biogen Inc. is an American multinational biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States specializing in the discovery, development, and delivery of therapies for the treatment of neurological diseases to patients worldwide. Biogen operates in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brook Byers</span>

Brook Byers is a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the brother of Stanford University Professor Tom Byers and Atlanta, Georgia engineering entrepreneur Ken Byers.

Howard Civian Birndorf is a biotechnology entrepreneur and one of the founders of the biotech industry in San Diego, California.

The Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization based in Saratoga, California. The organization applies a collaborative business model to the process of medical research with the aim of accelerating the identification and development of new patient treatments. MRF's goal is to license its first drug target for commercial drug development by July 1, 2009, five years after the organization began funding research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swedish Orphan Biovitrum</span> Swedish pharmaceutical company

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB is an international biopharmaceutical company dedicated to treatments in the areas of haematology, immunology and specialty care, based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Christoph Westphal is an American biomedical businessman.

Connect is a non-profit serving the San Diego and Southern California region. Connect elevates innovators and entrepreneurs throughout their growth journey by providing educational programming, mentorship, networking events, and access to capital. The current CEO is Mike Krenn.

Willem P. C. "Pim" Stemmer was a Dutch scientist and entrepreneur who invented numerous biotechnologies. He was the founder and CEO of Amunix Inc., a company that creates "pharmaceutical proteins with extended dosing frequency". His other prominent inventions include DNA shuffling, now referred to as molecular breeding. He holds more than 97 patents. Stemmer was honored with the Charles Stark Draper Prize in 2011 for the pioneering contributions to directed evolution which won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018. He was elected as member of National Academy of Engineering.

Life Sciences Foundation (LSF) was a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that was established in 2011 to collect, preserve, interpret, and promote the history of biotechnology. LSF conducted historical research, maintained archives and published historically relevant materials and information.

Arie S. Belldegrun, FACS, is an Israeli-American urologic oncologist, billionaire businessman and investor.

Ambit was an American pharmaceutical company focused on development of kinase inhibitor therapeutics to treat a variety of human diseases. As of March 2014, the company was based in San Diego, California, and consisted of a single facility. Ambit made an initial public offering in May 2013, and was listed on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol "AMBI". Ambit was acquired by Daiichi Sankyo in 2014 and is no longer traded on the NASDAQ exchange.

BioMotiv is an accelerator company associated with The Harrington Project, an initiative centered at University Hospitals of Cleveland. Therapeutic opportunities were identified through relationships with The Harrington Discovery Institute, university and research institutions, disease foundations, and industry sources. Once opportunities are identified, BioMotiv oversees the development, funding, active management, and partnering of the therapeutic products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Termeer</span>

Henri A. Termeer was a Dutch biotechnology executive and entrepreneur who is considered a pioneer in corporate strategy in the biotechnology industry for his tenure as CEO at Genzyme. Termeer created a business model adopted by many others in the biotech industry by garnering steep prices— mainly from insurers and government payers— for therapies for rare genetic disorders known as orphan diseases that mainly affect children. Genzyme uses biological processes to manufacture drugs that are not easily copied by generic-drug makers. The drugs are also protected by orphan drug acts in various countries which provides extensive protection from competition and ensures coverage by publicly funded insurers. As CEO of Genzyme from 1981 to 2011, he developed corporate strategies for growth including optimizing institutional embeddedness nurturing vast networks of influential groups and clusters: doctors, private equity, patient-groups, insurance, healthcare umbrella organizations, state and local government, and alumni. Termeer was "connected to 311 board members in 17 different organizations across 20 different industries" He has the legacy of being the "longest-serving CEO in the biotechnology industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ionis Pharmaceuticals</span> Biotechnology company

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biotechnology company based in Carlsbad, California, that specializes in discovering and developing RNA-targeted therapeutics. The company has three commercially approved medicines: Spinraza (Nusinersen), Tegsedi (Inotersen), and Waylivra (Volanesorsen), and has four drugs in pivotal studies: tominersen for Huntington's disease, tofersen for SOD1-ALS, AKCEA-APO(a)-LRx for cardiovascular disease, and AKCEA-TTR-LRx for all forms of TTR amyloidosis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aurora Biosciences</span>

Aurora Biosciences was a biotechnology company founded in 1995 in San Diego to commercialize fluorescence assays based on Roger Y. Tsien's discoveries concerning green fluorescent protein and its uses in basic research - work for which Tsien eventually won the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry along with two other chemists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biotechnology industry in Boston</span>

Greater Boston, primarily Boston and Cambridge, is home to more than 1,000 biotechnology companies, ranging from small start-ups to billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies. The many universities in the area give the region a large network of scientists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Rastetter</span> American scientist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist

William H.Rastetter, a scientist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, is the chair of Neurocrine Biosciences, of Fate Therapeutics, and of Daré Bioscience, Inc. in San Diego, California. He was a founding board member and investor in GRAIL, Inc. in Menlo Park, California, and served for a period as the company's interim CEO (2017) and chair (2017-2018). Rastetter is also a director of Regulus Therapeutics and Iambic Therapeutics. He was a partner in the venture firm Venrock (2006-2013), and a trustee at Caltech (2015-2018). He has served as a director (1998-2016) and as chair of Illumina (2005-2016). He advised SVB Leerink (2014-2019) and currently advises Illumina Ventures.

John Maraganore is an American scientist, entrepreneur, and life sciences industry leader.

George A. Scangos was a pharmaceutical executive and former chief executive officer of Vir Biotechnology from 2017 to 2023. Scangos was previously the chief executive officer of Biogen from 2010 to 2016 and of Exelixis from 1996 to 2010. Prior to joining industry, Scangos was a professor of biology at Johns Hopkins University.

References

  1. 1 2 Fikes, Bradley J. Only time eludes forever quizzical science maverick: Ivor Royston, president of San Diego Regional Cancer Center,San Diego Business Journal, June 13, 1994.
  2. 1 2 3 "Why San Diego Has Biotech" Archived 2007-07-04 at the Wayback Machine , Fikes, Bradley J. San Diego Metropolitan, April 1999. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  3. 1 2 3 "Biotech Eden", Wilson, Elizabeth K. Chemical & Engineering News, March 5, 2001. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  4. ↑ "CONNECT Inducts Dr. Ivor Royston into Entrepreneur Hall of Fame", Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, June 14, 2006. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  5. 1 2 3 "A legend in biotech world", Crabtree, Penni. The San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 14, 2004. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  6. ↑ "Innovation Prospectors: San Diegans ply a river of ideas for biotech gold" Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine , Acello, Rich. San Diego Magazine, June 2008. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  7. ↑ "Profiles in Innovation Series: Von Liebig Forum", UCTV: UC San Diego, June 26, 2006. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  8. ↑ "8th Shanghai International Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Forum" Archived 2007-12-24 at the Wayback Machine Bio-Forum 2006, Apr. 25-27, 2006. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  9. 1 2 3 "Ivor Royston". Forward Ventures. 2007.
  10. ↑ "Ivor Royston, MD", VentureForth, 2005. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  11. ↑ "Ivor Royston profile", LinkedIn, 2008. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  12. ↑ "Ivor Royston, MD", Conde Nast Portfolio.com:, 2008. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  13. ↑ "Innovation Prospectors: San Diegans ply a river of ideas for biotech gold" Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine , Acello, Rich. San Diego Magazine, June 2008. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  14. ↑ "Cancer Researcher Turned Venture Capitalist" Archived 2009-01-08 at the Wayback Machine , San Diego Metropolitan, November 2002. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  15. ↑ "The Birth of Biotech: How one company helped seed San Diego's industry" Archived 2008-10-06 at the Wayback Machine , Chi, Kelly Rae. The Scientist. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  16. ↑ "Forbes Profile: Ivor Royston, MD" [ dead link ], Forbes.com, 2008. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  17. ↑ Casper, Steven (2007). Creating Silicon Valley in Europe public policy towards new technology industries. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0199269525 . Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  18. ↑ "Exhibit 99.1 Biogen and IDEC Pharmaceuticals Announce Merger To Create a New Biotechnology Industry Leader". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 1 December 2018. IDEC — Founded in 1985 to develop monoclonal antibodies. Founders include Ivor Royston, Howard Birndorf, Richard Miller and Brook Byers
  19. ↑ Moran, Greg (April 8, 2009). "Funding problems hit cancer facility". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  20. ↑ Dionisio, Jennifer (Spring 2007). "Ivor Royston, Adventures in Biotechnology". Chemical Heritage Newsmagazine. 25 (1): 40. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008. Retrieved June 20, 2008.
  21. 1 2 "Ivor Royston, Producer", Internet Broadway Database, 2006. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  22. ↑ "Xconomy: Stealthy San Diego-based Viracta Steps Into Light with $18.5M". Xconomy. 2017-04-04. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
  23. ↑ Fikes, Bradley J. "World's largest biotech convention will showcase hot areas of life science". sandiegouniontribune.com. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
  24. ↑ "2005 Annual Report" Archived 2008-08-08 at the Wayback Machine , The San Diego Foundation, 2005. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  25. ↑ "Ivor and Colette Royston Research Program Award", Johns Hopkins University, 2002. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  26. ↑ "Dr. Ivor Royston, CONNECT Hall of Fame Inductee" Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine , CONNECT.org, Nov. 8, 2006. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  27. ↑ "CONNECT Inducts Dr. Ivor Royston into Entrepreneur Hall of Fame", Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, June 14, 2006. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  28. ↑ "2008 Visionary Awards" Archived 2010-04-13 at the Wayback Machine , LEAD San Diego, March 25, 2008. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  29. ↑ "Royston's risks pay off with award", Bell, Diane. The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 11, 2006. Accessed June 20, 2008.
  30. ↑ "Biotechnology Heritage Award". Science History Institute. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.