Building a new base

When Michael Casey joined Matrix Pharmaceutical Inc. in September 1997, he liked the company's IntraDose technology for local delivery of cancer treatments, and he liked the fact that MATX had $70 million in cash. But he wasn't as enthusiastic about MATX's AccuSite product for genital warts, and he felt the company needed more products and better focus.

After downsizing and dropping AccuSite, the company last week announced its first major step in building on its new oncology focus, licensing FMdC, a systemic anticancer agent, from Hoechst Marion Roussel...