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Gordon Binder Amgen, 1997-1999
When Gordon Binder joined Applied Molecular Genetics Inc. as chief financial officer in 1982, the Thousand Oaks, Calif., company was a two-year-old start-up touting the virtues of chicken growth hormone.
A year later, the company-now called Amgen-disclosed success in producing recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO), a kidney protein that stimulates red blood cell formation. The press release announcing the breakthrough hailed it as a potential treatment for anemia in kidney disease patients, a product that might be worth, say, up to $100 million annually.
By the time the FDA approved Amgen's Epogen brand EPO in 1989, Binder had succeeded industry legend George Rathmann as Amgen's second CEO. Under Binder's leadership, Epogen would become the biotech industry's blockbuster product, with sales surpassing $2 billion in 2001, while Amgen became the largest biotechnology company in the world.
For Binder, a Harvard MBA with an electrical engineering degree from Purdue, the early years at Amgen provided another round of education. "It was easier back then, because the science was embryonic," he recalled. "It would be harder today for someone knowing nothing but some math and chemistry. But it wasn't that difficult back then if you were willing to talk to the scientists. Scientists love to talk about their work, and if you're willing to spend the time to talk to scientists, they're willing to teach you what you need to know."
Binder also got an on-the-fly education in lobbying during his Amgen years, logging time on Capitol Hill to fight would-be competitors' efforts to weaken the Orphan Drug Act, which was vital to Amgen's-and many other biotech companies'-success.
"We had to learn under fire how to do this well enough to defeat the effort of foreign companies to change that law," he recalled. "We weren't experts and we weren't as well funded as our opponents, but I learned from the experience that it was far easier to defeat something in Washington than to get something passed."
'An Ideal Time'
By 1997, Binder felt "it was an ideal time" to become chairman of BIO. He is the only BIO chairman to have also served as chairman of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
Representing both organizations, he advocated and helped shape the FDA Modernization Act of 1997, which included a renewal of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, credited with cutting FDA review times in half during the 1990s.
Biotechnology's positive image was crucial to winning support on the Hill for these and other pro-biotech measures. "Congress always liked biotech, and that fact facilitated the lobbying," said Binder. "Biotech is something that just about everybody is in favor of."
Binder's tenure as chairman coincided with new ethical challenges to the industry as cloning and stem cell research came to the fore and concerns surfaced about the environmental impact and safety of genetically modified crops.
Although his own company's needs centered more on regulatory and intellectual property matters, Binder supported BIO's aggressive engagement in emerging bioethics and science issues. "Science doesn't always have a logical spokesman," he said. "If BIO didn't come out and give the biotechnology side of things, who was going to do it? We suspected that, if we stayed on the sidelines, whoever did do it would be less knowledgeable about science."
He cited the human cloning debate as an example of BIO's measured approach. "We didn't just say scientists should be able to do whatever they want to do." Instead, from the outset, BIO opposed human reproductive cloning, but supported therapeutic applications of the technology. Likewise, BIO endorsed regulatory boundaries on stem cell research that allowed the research to move forward in an ethical context.
Science on BIO's Side
On the agricultural side, Binder faced the 1999 firestorm about alleged risks to monarch butterflies from Bt corn. BIO encouraged additional studies and scientific debate, which ultimately refuted the tentative conclusions of the small study that launched the controversy.
"In a factual sense, this was never an issue," said Binder. "BIO essentially understood that science was on its side, so our strategy was to support the best science possible, being confident it would support our position, and it did every time."
His experiences at BIO and in lobbying for Amgen taught Binder that "what's important in lobbying is telling the truth … all the time. A lot of people go up to the Hill with sales pitches that are not quite accurate and accomplish very little."
He added, "Another lesson I took from the experience is the importance of getting the information-getting the science-before people start making conclusions."
Moving On
Binder left Amgen in 2000, when the company was on the cusp of several new drug approvals. He explained: "When the pipeline is set to deliver several launches, it's better to change CEOs then, rather than during the process. So I believe if I hadn't left when I did, I would have had to stay another four or five years. So as George Rathmann had left just before Amgen's preparations to launch EPO began, I left before the preparations for these new product launches got fully under way. Besides, I'd been CEO for 12 years, which is probably long enough anyway.
"But I didn't want to just sit around," he added. With two partners, Binder founded Coastview Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in biotech companies. "I wanted to do something related to biotech and do it in Los Angeles, so venture capital seemed to be the best thing. We expect to create some new BIO members while we make money for our investors."
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