Professionally, I’ve worked for four companies, including two 10+ year tenures. I started at RepliGen Corp. in Cambridge MA and then moved to Seragen Inc. located in Hopkinton MA. Both companies were start-ups when I joined focusing on biologics. RepliGen still exists as its own corporate entity, but Seragen was sold off in pieces, the manufacturing facility ended up through multiple transactions to Lonza, while the drug ONTAK™ is currently owned by Eisai. About 40% of the company was laid off at the time of the split up, including me. After 10 years with Seragen, it was a good time to move on.
My job search found no leads in New England, and upon my widening the search, an excellent position came up in Los Angeles CA at Alpha Therapeutic. Alpha flew me out for an interview, offered the job to me a week later, and I started a week after that - moving out with 4 suitcases and box (containing a sleeping bag and pillow). After “test-driving” the position for 6 months, it was a good fit, and we put our house in Providence on the market and Jonathan moved out six months later.
After three and a half years at Alpha, which was one of the four major plasma fractionators, I moved back to the start-up world at AlleCure, which later merged with two other companies to create MannKind Corporation. During my 12 plus year tenure there I worked on allergy and cancer vaccines, a couple small molecule cancer therapies, and supported the inhaled insulin program on insulin manufacturing topics. After the cancer programs wound down due to financial limitations, I took my "aluminum parachute" in June 2012 and began looking for a new job.
In October 2012, I started with Biothera in Eagan MN working on Imprime PGG®, a carbohydrate (beta-glucan) based immune modulator used in cancer therapy. It's the first time I've worked on a carbohydrate, so there were a lot of new things to learn which helped make the job fun. After 6 years, the company ran out of money when a financing deal to fund us for two years fell apart at the 11th hour (and 59th minute), resulting in a layoff of 75% of the company.
My plan at Biothera was to continue working for the two years, during which the company would go public and monetize my options. I would then look into going into consulting to carry me through to retirement. Biothera's untimely contraction resulted in an acceleration of those plans. I incorporated Sand Dollar Consulting LLC in December 2018, and opened for business in 2019.
I interviewed at Rebiotix in Roseville in March of 2020, and then the Covid shutdowns started and I thought the job was history. But I started in April as the Senior Director of R&D with about 8 reports, reporting to the CSO who was and still is remote, based in Connecticut. Since then Rebiotix, which had been acquired by Ferring Pharmaceuticals in 2018, commercially launched the flagship product REBYOTA™ for the treatment of recurrent C. difficile infections. Ferring has since rebranded the Roseville site as Ferring Microbiome. My work focuses on next generation products, and has been the most fun I can recall having in a job, even after 4½ years.
For more work details, I’m on LinkedIn.