Thinking commercial

When Mark McDade became CEO of Protein Design Labs Inc. at the end of 2002, his charge was to turn the company from a long-term science project into a commercial operation. Back then, the antibody company posted an operating loss of $30.7 million on revenues of $46.4 million - mostly from royalties from a single product - Zenapax daclizumab for kidney transplant. This year, PDLI expects revenues of $255-$271 million, split about evenly between royalties and sales, and to be cash flow positive starting in the fourth quarter. How it got there isn't rocket science, but it is an important lesson in "thinking commercial."

PDLI, founded in 1986, had lived for years on royalties from its antibody humanization patent estate. Indeed, the company has a piece of the action on seven marketed drugs, including Zenapax; four drugs from Genentech Inc.: Avastin bevacizumab for colorectal cancer, Herceptin trastuzumab for breast cancer, Raptiva efalizumab for psoriasis and Xolair omalizumab for asthma; Synagis palivizumab for RSV from MedImmune Inc.; and Mylotarg gemtuzumab for acute myeloid leukemia from Wyeth. ...