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EXCLUSIVE LIFE SCIENCE FEATURE leaders LIFESCIENCELEADER.COM JUNE 2014 32 A POST-GENESIS STORY — GENZUM PLIES THE ART & SCIENCE OF SCALING UP By W. Koberstein Sometimes the smallest bits of evidence light up the largest theories. Like the infinitesimal traces of the Big Bang astronomers recently teased from cosmic background radiation — data showing the effects of gravitational waves in the universe at zero plus one-trillionth of a second — a single company case, stripped down to the bare essentials, can teach fundamental lessons about growth after start-up. enzum is such a case. Its sin- gular focus on developing and commercializing first- to-market topical generics requires that almost all of the informa- tion companies normally announce, from products to financials, must be kept confi- dential. What is left? A pure, undistracted view of how the company applied good business principles to a well-known busi- ness model to build a valuable product portfolio. Genzum's CEO Chris Achar conceived and led the company through a relatively swift execution of steps in its formation and scale-up. Genzum was founded four years ago upon a family heritage of busi- ness management and investment. The Achars and partner family, the Semlers, have long owned and operated a num- ber of LA-based companies across vari- ous industries. Seeking a presence in the pharmaceutical industry, the families more recently ventured into the sector by establishing a large CRO, Semler Research Center (SRC), in Bangalore, India, from where the Achar family originated. Eight years ago, when SRC started with about 10 employees, its only service offer- ing was in formulation development. Now it is a full-service CRO, with 250 employees, specializing in formulation development, BA/BE (bioavailability/bioequivalence) studies in healthy volunteers, and Phase 1 to Phase 4 clinical studies in patients. The germ for Genzum was an idea for answering a need Achar saw while work- ing with SRC in his post-graduate years. One of the CRO's clients was pursuing the development of a complex topical product, but it lacked the funds needed to proceed into the large clinical trial stages the FDA requires for such products. "On the CRO level, we saw a lot of our potential clients had great product ideas, A POST-GENESIS STORY GENZUM PLIES THE ART & SCIENCE OF SCALING UP W A Y N E K O B E R S T E I N Executive Editor 0 6 1 4 _ F e a t u r e _ G e n z u m . i n d d 1 0614_Feature_Genzum.indd 1 5 / 2 1 / 2 0 1 4 1 : 1 9 : 0 9 P M 5/21/2014 1:19:09 PM