Joshua Boger

Last updated
Josh Boger
Joshua Boger 2012 BIO Convention.jpg
Born (1951-04-12) April 12, 1951 (age 71)
Concord, North Carolina, U.S.
Education Wesleyan University (BA)
Harvard University (MA, PhD)
SpouseAmy Schafer
Awards Biotechnology Heritage Award
Othmer Gold Medal
External video
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg “Joshua Boger '73: Cure Entrepreneur”, Wesleyan University, Apr 6, 2011
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg “The Innovator's Business, Managing in Balance”, Joshua Boger, February 25, 2014

Joshua S. Boger (born April 12, 1951) is an organic chemist and the founder of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. He is considered a pioneer in the field of structure-based rational drug design. Drugs developed include amprenavir, an HIV protease inhibitor; telaprevir, a protease inhibitor for treatment of hepatitis C; and Kalydeco, for the treatment of cystic fibrosis. In 2003, Vertex was listed as one of forty worldwide Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum. As of 2012, Boger became executive chairman of Alkeus Pharmaceuticals.

Contents

Childhood

Joshua S. Boger was born on April 12, 1951, in Concord, North Carolina [1] to Charles E. Boger, Jr., a textile chemist and Mary Snead Boger, an actress and writer. [2]

Education

From 1970 to 1973, Boger attended Wesleyan University. [3] During this time Max Tishler, formerly the president of Merck Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories, became Boger's mentor. [3] [4] Boger received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and philosophy from Wesleyan in 1973. [5]

Boger then attended Harvard University, where he worked with Jeremy R. Knowles on the chemistry of cyclodextrin. [4] He received his master's degree in 1975 and doctorate degree in chemistry in 1979. [6] He did postdoctoral research in molecular recognition with Jean-Marie Lehn from the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France. [7]

Career

Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories

On the recommendation of Max Tishler, Boger was hired by Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in 1978. He initially worked on hypertension drugs, [3] developing a highly potent renin inhibitor. [8] An important step in this process was the application of computer modeling to the chemistry of drug design. [9]

Within 2 years, Boger was leading a group at Merck where he developed novel rational drug design techniques and applied them to pharmaceutical discovery and development. [10] [11] By 1987 Boger became senior director of basic chemistry at Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories, in charge of the departments of Biophysical Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry of Immunology and Inflammation. [9]

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

In 1989, Boger founded Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. He has served variously as its president, CEO and chairman of the board. [12]

At Vertex, Boger pioneered an approach to structure-based rational drug design that changed the way that drug development occurred. [11] [13] The analogy often used for structure-based design is that of a lock and key: first understand the type of lock involved, and then design a key to fit that lock. Researchers sought to understand the structure of the molecules that might affect disease processes (the "lock") and then to design drugs capable of interacting with the target molecules to alter their functions (the "key"). [14] Employees worked in multi-disciplinary teams, combined technologies from biophysics, chemistry and computer science, and applied them to drug discovery [15] and the development of small molecule drugs. [16] As of 2003, Vertex was listed as one of forty worldwide Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum, for advancing drug discovery through this approach. [15]

While under Boger's leadership, the company worked on several potentially valuable drug treatments. Agenerase (amprenavir), an HIV protease inhibitor, was co-developed by Vertex and GlaxoSmithKline for the treatment of HIV/AIDS and approved by the FDA in 1999. [17] A second related drug was submitted for approval in 2002. [18] Lexiva (fosamprenavir) was approved by U.S. regulators on October 20, 2003. [19]

Vertex also developed Telaprevir, a protease inhibitor for treatment of hepatitis C. [20] Telaprevir works by disabling a protein that the virus requires for replication. Scientists at Vertex first published the crystal structure for the protease of the hepatitis C virus in 1996. [21] [22] As part of the development process for the drug, the company developed an elaborate systems biology model in which they modeled hepatitis C's dynamics to the level of individual patient response. [23] Telaprevir was approved by the Food and Drug Administration as Incivek in May 2011. [24]

A third product, an orally administered pill for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, grew out of the acquisition of Aurora Biosciences Corporation by Vertex in 2001. The San Diego research company had a contract with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, a nonprofit for patient advocacy and research, to create an assay for the disease. After the acquisition, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation approached Vertex about expanding the contract to search for a drug treatment. The potential market for such a drug was small, unlikely to return a profit. The problem required a new approach: finding a way to turn on a non-functioning protein. Boger's decision to investigate a new area has been treated as a case study by the Harvard Business School. It is one of the first examples of venture philanthropy funding, in which a charity buys equity in a company, which then tries to solve a specific problem for them. Vertex has since developed several possible drugs for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, the first of which was Kalydeco in 2012. [25] [26]

Boger retired as CEO of Vertex as of May 23, 2009, [27] but remained on the Vertex Board of directors until June 2017. [28] The history of Vertex has been chronicled by journalist Barry Werth in The Billion-Dollar Molecule (1995) [9] [3] and The Antidote. [29]

Alkeus Pharmaceuticals

In May 2012 Boger became executive chairman of Alkeus Pharmaceuticals. [5] Alkeus is developing a possible drug treatment for Stargardt disease, a progressive genetic condition that is a major cause of juvenile macular degeneration. [30] [4]

As of 2014, Boger was the author of over 50 scientific publications and held 32 issued U.S. patents. [9]

Philanthropy

Boger is a founding director and chairman of NEHI (Network for Excellence in Health Innovation), [31] established in 2002. [32] He is a founding director and vice-chairman of the Alliance for Business Leadership (formerly the Progressive Business Leaders Network), established in 2006. [33] [34] [35] Boger is a member of the board of fellows of the Harvard Medical School. [6]

Boger is an advocate of liberal education who has been strongly involved with his alma mater, Wesleyan University. [36] Boger became a member of the board of trustees of Wesleyan University as of 1999, and chairman of the board of trustees as of 2009. [5] On his retirement from the board of trustees in 2016, he and his family donated $20 million to Wesleyan, over half of which established an endowed scholarship program. [36]

“In an age of instant information access, the core skills for the 21st century are information curation, critical analysis, and cross-discipline integration. Increasingly, it is apparent that needed progress in complex fields like healthcare innovation requires balance and judgment across technical, social and political areas."

Boger has been the chairman of the board of directors of the Celebrity Series of Boston. [37] Boger has also served as the vice-chairman of the Boston Museum of Science. [1]

He supports a variety of progressive and social justice causes, including the Greater Boston Food Bank. [38] [39] With Paul Sagan he has funded the Massachusetts' ACLU Technology for Liberty & Justice for All initiative. [40] He has been honored by the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action of Boston for his activities. [1]

Photography

In 2000, Boger combined his interests in scuba diving and photography by photographing the coral reefs off Wakaya Island near Fiji. By 2014, he was showing his underwater photography in one-man gallery shows. [41] [42] A permanent exhibit of 22 photographs, “Wakaya Octocorals and Giants,” is on display at the Exley Science Center at Wesleyan University. [36]

Awards

Related Research Articles

Protease inhibitors (PIs) are medications that act by interfering with enzymes that cleave proteins. Some of the most well known are antiviral drugs widely used to treat HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. These protease inhibitors prevent viral replication by selectively binding to viral proteases and blocking proteolytic cleavage of protein precursors that are necessary for the production of infectious viral particles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ritonavir</span> Antiretroviral medication

Ritonavir, a protease inhibitor sold under the brand name Norvir, is an antiretroviral medication used along with other medications to treat HIV/AIDS. This combination treatment is known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Often a low dose is used with other protease inhibitors. It may also be used in combination with other medications to treat hepatitis C. It is taken by mouth. Tablets of ritonavir are not bioequivalent to capsules, as the tablets may result in higher peak plasma concentrations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vertex Pharmaceuticals</span> American pharmaceutical company

Vertex Pharmaceuticals is an American biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of the first biotech firms to use an explicit strategy of rational drug design rather than combinatorial chemistry. It maintains headquarters in South Boston, Massachusetts, and three research facilities, in San Diego, California, and Milton Park, near Oxford, England.

Stuart L. Schreiber is a scientist at Harvard University and co-Founder of the Broad Institute. He has been active in chemical biology, especially the use of small molecules as probes of biology and medicine. Small molecules are the molecules of life most associated with dynamic information flow; these work in concert with the macromolecules that are the basis for inherited information flow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Tishler</span>

Max Tishler (October 30, 1906 – March 18, 1989) was president of Merck Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories where he led the research teams that synthesized ascorbic acid, riboflavin, cortisone, pyridoxine, pantothenic acid, nicotinamide, methionine, threonine, and tryptophan. He also developed the fermentation processes for actinomycin, vitamin B12, streptomycin, and penicillin. Tishler invented sulfaquinoxaline for the treatment for coccidiosis.

Vorinostat (rINN) also known as Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid is a member of a larger class of compounds that inhibit histone deacetylases (HDAC). Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDI) have a broad spectrum of epigenetic activities.

Venture philanthropy is a type of impact investment that takes concepts and techniques from venture capital finance and business management and applies them to achieving philanthropic goals. The term was first used in 1969 by John D. Rockefeller III to describe an imaginative and risk-taking approach to philanthropy that may be undertaken by charitable organizations.

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

Boceprevir is a protease inhibitor used to treat hepatitis caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1. It binds to the HCV nonstructural protein 3 active site.

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

Telaprevir (VX-950), marketed under the brand names Incivek and Incivo, is a pharmaceutical drug for the treatment of hepatitis C co-developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson. It is a member of a class of antiviral drugs known as protease inhibitors. Specifically, telaprevir inhibits the hepatitis C viral enzyme NS3/4A serine protease. Telaprevir is only indicated for use against hepatitis C genotype 1 viral infections and has not been proven to be safe or effective when used for other genotypes of the virus. The standard therapy of pegylated interferon and ribavirin is less effective than telaprevir in those with genotype 1.

Many major physiological processes depend on regulation of proteolytic enzyme activity and there can be dramatic consequences when equilibrium between an enzyme and its substrates is disturbed. In this prospective, the discovery of small-molecule ligands, like protease inhibitors, that can modulate catalytic activities has an enormous therapeutic effect. Hence, inhibition of the HIV protease is one of the most important approaches for the therapeutic intervention in HIV infection and their development is regarded as major success of structure-based drug design. They are highly effective against HIV and have, since the 1990s, been a key component of anti-retroviral therapies for HIV/AIDS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kunitz domain</span>

Kunitz domains are the active domains of proteins that inhibit the function of protein degrading enzymes or, more specifically, domains of Kunitz-type are protease inhibitors. They are relatively small with a length of about 50 to 60 amino acids and a molecular weight of 6 kDa. Examples of Kunitz-type protease inhibitors are aprotinin, Alzheimer's amyloid precursor protein (APP), and tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI). Kunitz STI protease inhibitor, the trypsin inhibitor initially studied by Moses Kunitz, was extracted from soybeans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivacaftor</span> Pharmaceutical medication used to treat cystic fibrosis

Ivacaftor is a medication used to treat cystic fibrosis in people with certain mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene, who account for 4–5% cases of cystic fibrosis. It is also included in combination medications, lumacaftor/ivacaftor, tezacaftor/ivacaftor, and elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor which are used to treat people with cystic fibrosis.

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

Grazoprevir is a drug approved for the treatment of hepatitis C. It was developed by Merck and completed Phase III trials, used in combination with the NS5A replication complex inhibitor elbasvir under the trade name Zepatier, either with or without ribavirin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lumacaftor/ivacaftor</span> Cystic fibrosis drug

Lumacaftor/ivacaftor, sold under the brand name Orkambi among others, is a combination of lumacaftor and ivacaftor used to treat people with cystic fibrosis who have two copies of the F508del mutation. It is unclear if it is useful in cystic fibrosis due to other causes. It is taken by mouth.

<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">Narlaprevir</span>

Narlaprevir, is an inhibitor of NS3/4A serine protease, intended for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C caused by genotype 1 virus in combination with other antiviral drugs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey Leiden</span> CEO of biotechnology company

Jeffrey Leiden, M.D., Ph.D. is the executive chairman of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company based in Boston, Massachusetts. He was initially appointed to the board of directors of the company in 2009 and was CEO and president from February 2012 to March 2020.

Reshma Kewalramani, is the president and chief executive officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, as of April 1, 2020. She is the first female CEO of a large US biotech company. She was previously the chief medical officer and vice president of global medicines development and medical affairs at Vertex.

Peter Grootenhuis was a Dutch-American Medicinal Chemist. Grootenhuis was the Project Leader and Co-Inventor of Ivacaftor (VX-770), the first CFTR potentiator FDA approved drug to treat the underlying cause of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) in patients with certain mutations in the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) gene, who account for 4-5% of CF cases. Grootenhuis also led the Vertex team to subsequent discovery of Orkambi, the combination of Ivacaftor and Lumacaftor(VX-809), approved to treat CF in people with two copies of the F508del mutation. Most recently, Grootenhuis's team discovered Tezacaftor (VX-661) and Elexacaftor (VX-445), which in combination with Ivacaftor are the components of Trikafta, a drug approved by the FDA in 2019 to treat CF in more than 90% of CF patients. For Grootenhuis’ contributions to the discovery of these compounds, he was awarded the 2018 IUPAC Richter Prize, the American Chemical Society’s 2013 Heroes of Chemistry Award, and inducted into the American Chemical Society Division of Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame. Grootenhuis has contributed to the discovery of over 11 clinical candidates, co-authored more than 100 peer reviewed papers and is inventor of 65 + U.S Patents, and more than 50 EU Patents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nirmatrelvir</span> COVID-19 antiviral medication

Nirmatrelvir is an antiviral medication developed by Pfizer which acts as an orally active 3C-like protease inhibitor. It is part of a nirmatrelvir/ritonavir combination used to treat COVID-19 and sold under the brand name Paxlovid.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Barth, Sheila (December 18, 2013). "Behind the Museum of Science". Jewish Journal. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  2. ↑ "Mary Snead Boger". Charlotte Observer. May 9, 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Werth, Barry (1995). The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN   978-0671510572.
  4. 1 2 3 Valigra, Lori (June 1, 2012). "Joshua Boger: Seeking a cure for childhood blindness". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 Beals, Shawn R. (January 28, 2016). "Wesleyan Receives $20 Million Donation From Trustees Chairman". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  6. 1 2 "Success breeds success for Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science". Harvard Medical School. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  7. ↑ "Global Youth Summit on the Future of Medicine Joshua Boger, PhD, MA". Brandeis University. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  8. ↑ Williams, Michael; Malick, Jeffrey B. (1987). Drug discovery and development. Clifton, N.J.: Humana Press. ISBN   978-0-89603-108-1.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Josh Boger speaks at Innovator's Business Series on "Managing in Balance"". Bentley University. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  10. ↑ Fried, Stephen (1998). Bitter pills : inside the hazardous world of legal drugs. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN   978-0-553-10383-0 . Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  11. 1 2 Hubbard, Roderick E. (2006). Structure-based drug discovery : an overview. Cambridge: RSC. p. 17. ISBN   978-0854043514 . Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  12. ↑ "Joshua S. Boger Ph.D." Bloomberg L.P. (U.S.). Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  13. ↑ Olson, Steve; Claiborne, Anne B. (2012). Maximizing the impact of the Cures Acceleration Network : accelerating the development of new drugs and diagnostics : workshop summary. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. ISBN   9780309261166.
  14. ↑ Eban, Katherine (March 13, 2014). "What ails Big Pharma". Fortune. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  15. 1 2 3 "The Impact of Innovation Technology Pioneers 2003" (PDF). APAX Partners. World Economic Forum. p. 29. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  16. ↑ Wolff, George (2001). The biotech investor's bible. New York, NY [u.a.]: Wiley. ISBN   978-0471412793 . Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  17. ↑ "A company timeline It's been a long road from start-up to verge of FDA approval". Boston Globe. April 24, 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  18. ↑ "Vertex Pharmaceuticals Announces Submission of NDA/MAA Filings in U.S. and Europe for GW433908 (new formulation of Agenerase [amprenavir]) for Treatment of HIV Infection". December 20, 2002. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  19. ↑ Richwine, Lisa (October 20, 2003). "US clears GlaxoSmithKline, Vertex AIDS drug". Reuters. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  20. ↑ Johnson, Carolyn Y. (April 24, 2011). "On the long, hard road to a breakthrough". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  21. ↑ Kim, J.L; Morgenstern, K.A; Lin, C; Fox, T; Dwyer, M.D; Landro, J.A; Chambers, S.P; Markland, W; Lepre, C.A; O'Malley, E.T; Harbeson, S.L; Rice, C.M; Murcko, M.A; Caron, P.R; Thomson, J.A (October 1996). "Crystal Structure of the Hepatitis C Virus NS3 Protease Domain Complexed with a Synthetic NS4A Cofactor Peptide". Cell. 87 (2): 343–355. doi: 10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81351-3 . PMID   8861917. S2CID   14785240 . Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  22. ↑ McBride, Ryan (August 4, 2010). "How Eli Lilly Let a Billion-Dollar Molecule Slip Away and Make a Fortune for Vertex". EXOME. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  23. ↑ Proffitt, Allison (May 9, 2008). "Joshua Boger: Predicting Patient Response". BIO-IT World. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  24. ↑ Pollack, Andrew (May 23, 2011). "Second Drug Wins Approval For Treatment of Hepatitis C". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  25. ↑ Seiffert, Don (2016). "How a $500K contract turned Vertex into a $30 billion drugmaker". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  26. ↑ Crabtree, Penni (October 21, 2005). "Poised to be a star Cystic fibrosis project has San Diego unit of Vertex on verge of a treatment". U-T San Diego. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  27. ↑ Timmerman, Luke (February 5, 2009). "Vertex CEO Josh Boger Retiring In May; Matthew Emmens To Fill Role". EXOME. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  28. ↑ "Dr. Joshua Boger". The Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  29. ↑ Werth, Barry (December 23, 2014). The Antidote: Inside the World of New Pharma. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN   9781451655674.
  30. ↑ "Joshua Boger Joins Alkeus Pharmaceuticals" (PDF). Alkeus Pharmaceuticals. May 23, 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  31. ↑ Drake, Olivia (March 16, 2007). "New Science Center Gets Boost from Trustee, Wife". Wesleyan University. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  32. ↑ Boger, Joshua (May 7, 2007). "Building on a system of outreach, collaboration". Boston Globe. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  33. ↑ Leung, Shirley (October 16, 2013). "Emerging from the crowd". Boston Globe. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  34. ↑ Fiztgerald, Jay (April 20, 2012). "Left leaning business group adopts new name, broader mission". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  35. ↑ "Board of Directors". The Alliance for Business Leadership. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  36. 1 2 3 Kenney, Laurie (January 28, 2016). "Wesleyan Recognizes Boger Family's $20M Gift with Naming of Boger Hall". Wesleyan University.
  37. ↑ "Boards of Directors and Overseers". Celebrity Series of Boston. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  38. ↑ "Executives and Board". The Greater Boston Food Bank. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  39. ↑ Ball, Patrick (May 3, 2013). "Photo of the Day: Concord Residents Co-Chair Greater Boston Food Banquet". Concord Patch. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  40. ↑ "ACLU of Massachusetts Announces Technology for Liberty & Justice for All Initiative". ACLU. March 12, 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  41. ↑ Timmerman, Luke (January 6, 2014). "Josh Boger Finds Beauty Off the Coast of Fiji, in Life After Vertex". EXOME. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  42. ↑ Seiffert, Don (October 31, 2014). "Vertex founder displays underwater photography at MassBio". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  43. ↑ "Othmer Gold Medal". Science History Institute . Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  44. ↑ "Meet the BBJ's Innovation All-Stars of 2015". Boston Business Journal. October 29, 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  45. ↑ "Biotechnology Heritage Award". Science History Institute. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  46. ↑ "Joshua Boger Awarded 2011 Biotechnology Heritage Award". Chemical Heritage Foundation. 28 June 2011. Archived from the original on July 12, 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  47. ↑ "New Inductees to The Biotech Meeting Hall of Fame Announced". Market Wired. October 7, 2012. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
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