Chief Executive Officer (ad interim), Idorsia
SEF.Talks: Ehepaar Clozel
Vor mehr als 20 Jahren gründete das Ehepaar Clozel den erfolgreichen Pharmariesen Actelion. Nach dem Verkauf von Actelion wagten die beiden mit Idorsia eine Neugründung. "We never had the idea of leaving Switzerland", so Jean-Paul Clozel im Hintergrundgespräch am Swiss Economic Forum 2019.
About Jean-paul Clozel
Jean-Paul Clozel, CEO ad interim of Idorsia, has spoken extensively about the role of university-industry partnerships in drug discovery. In lectures at the Collège de France, he described the interaction between academic research and biotechnology companies as fundamental at every stage of drug development, from initial ideas to clinical testing. He stated that "without fundamental research, no discovery can be made" and that the origin of innovation "practically always comes from the university." He also cautioned that the precautionary principle used by many countries tends to favor the absence of risk, adding that "there is no medicine without risk." Clozel has discussed the creation and culture of biotechnology companies. He said that a biotech company can only be created from a scientific idea or vision, and that someone starting a company with a commercial idea or to make money has "no chance" of succeeding. He noted that most early failures in biotech are due to rivalries between people. After selling Actelion to Johnson & Johnson, Clozel co-founded Idorsia, which he described as a continuation of the same scientific projects. He stated that "previous success can be a very big handicap" and warned against overconfidence and arrogance. He advised young entrepreneurs not to underestimate the amount of work and problems they will face, adding that "if your motivation is to be rich quickly, don't do it."
Transcript (13 segments)
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Interviewer0:07
You found that more than 20 years ago Actelion, which was a huge success, and now you go again through this pain, again kind of a startup. Why did you decide to do this again?
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Jean-Paul Clozel0:23
So first, it's not pain. It's a pleasure, really, every day, because we have been able to continue the project that we started. We are scientists, we want to know if the drugs that we have discovered – that Martin really discovered – if the drugs are going to help patients. And if we would not have created Idorsia, we would maybe never know this answer, because Johnson and Johnson would have had other interests. So we had to create Idorsia, and also we had to create a place where all these collaborators would continue to work.
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Interviewer1:03
What are the biggest differences between founding Actelion and now?
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Jean-Paul Clozel1:10
The culture is the same: it is to discover new drugs, innovative drugs, and to try to fulfill medical needs in diseases where there are still medical needs. What is fantastic in the creation of Idorsia is that nobody lost – we could really avoid any layoffs, and that has been really very much appreciated by all the employees. What is different is that we are starting Idorsia with 700 people and we have 11 molecules in clinical development, so it's very different from a startup when we were four in an empty room. It's quite different.
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Interviewer1:48
And nowadays, there are a lot of biotech companies in Switzerland. I have the feeling every year the trends are really going to having more and more biotech companies. How can you explain this? Why in Switzerland so many biotech companies are created?
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Jean-Paul Clozel2:09
So it's interesting. We were basically maybe the second or third biotech when we started Actelion. They were maybe, I see like Arp was already existing or, oh, I'm not even sure. So we were basically the first large biotech in Switzerland. And at this time, I have a feeling that the big pharma – the big monsters which were Novartis, Roche – were not so keen on having small biotech. They wanted maybe to keep the best scientists. But I think that they realized very quickly they have a lot of advantages. So today, you have in Switzerland very large companies which also are a very big help for creating other biotech. So that's the first point. The second point is that universities like ETH, EPFL, and Zurich are pushing the students to be entrepreneurial, teaching them what they can do. And a lot of young people, they have one idea very early, even in their studies, is to create their company.
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Interviewer3:19
What recommendation do you have for these young students that are so motivated to create their own company? What recommendation, what is the main hint you can give them to do it?
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Jean-Paul Clozel3:32
With optimism, and to try to do it for the long term. I think in that aspect, we can perhaps serve as an example. Actelion has been really created to grow the company and to try really to achieve results, to bring new drugs on the market, and to develop our own marketing, which would then allow us to continue and grow results. So I think that we had that idea from the very beginning of Actelion, to create a full-fledged company, almost pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical company. And young people who are starting, I think it's fantastic in Switzerland that the universities are really trying to help and support. So young people want to do startups. I would add something, you know, I would tell to these young entrepreneurs: do not underestimate how much work and how many problems you are going to get. It's going to be fun and interesting, but it's not going to be easy. You are going to have a lot of problems. And if your motivation is to be reached quickly, don't do it. It will not work.
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Interviewer4:46
And you mentioned a very interesting fact that universities in Switzerland are pushing young students to really being entrepreneurs themselves. What about you? You never decided or you never had the idea to leave Switzerland behind to go to another country to set up Idorsia here, for example?
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Jean-Paul Clozel5:09
Never. Absolutely never had this idea. I think Switzerland is maybe the ideal place. I cannot imagine a better place to create Idorsia than Switzerland. And why? Because the environment is perfect. Because you have people who love work, who love precision, and who also – very different from United States – really are ready to work a long time in the same company, to be loyal to the company in order to achieve something. And in United States, because you do not have free education, good medical health, people always have to make money, so very often they change from one place to the other in order to optimize the financial return. And that's not the case in Switzerland. So we have the best people and they are ready to work for a long time.
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Interviewer6:14
Here at Swiss Economic Forum, we have over 2200 business leaders from Switzerland. What can you tell them? What is the key message that you wanted to bring to them today?
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Jean-Paul Clozel6:30
I think that maybe I don't know if I can give a message, because frankly they are fantastic entrepreneurs everywhere, you know. It's very impressive to see these people – they have fantastic companies, they are doing the best equipment, they are making the best products. I just maybe the only thing that we would like to illustrate: you can produce, or you can create a very, very big company, very large, because Actelion was basically the largest new company in Europe which has been bought. In a way, you can do that in Switzerland, it's physically possible. And they should be ambitious and not be afraid to become much larger than what they are. I think so. They can be proud of the network. It's very impressive to see here all of these companies and interactions between them, and the Swiss Economic Forum is a good example. And I have to say, I didn't know it was existing, and when you come you are very impressed. It's very impressive.
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Interviewer7:45
We are glad to hear this. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much.