Advinus Ex-CEO's Bitter-Sweet Journey And Lessons Learnt

Life appears to have come full circle for Advinus Therapeutics' co-founder and former CEO and managing director, Dr Rashmi Barbhaiya, who recently moved back to the US from India. And it has been a bitter-sweet journey, replete with some peaks and troughs, although the man himself would rather term any lows as "lessons learned" that come with the territory.

 

"It is with mixed feelings I have returned to US after relentless pursuit of 14 years. I do want to keep the reins of my destiny in my hand," Barbhaiya, who began his industrial pharmaceutical career in 1980 with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.in the US, told Scrip in an interview. He also lamented the limited understanding of investors in India of pharma R&D, but more on that later.

Barbhaiya, who was born in India, returned to the country from the US in 2002 to take charge as president of R&D at Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., which was then in its heyday. A Ranbaxy investor presentation from March that year, dug out by Scrip, lists a pipeline of discovery research projects underway in areas ranging from urology to asthma. Ranbaxy, which has been battling compliance issues at it manufacturing sites, was acquired by Sun Pharma in 2014.

Barbhaiya highlights "convincing" the then Ranbaxy board/management to acquire rights for the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV)/Roche anti-malarial molecule and spearheading its early development. Roche was the previous pharma partner with MMV for the project. In 2012, Ranbaxy launched Synriam (arterolane maleate 150mg and piperaquine phosphate 750mg), India's first new chemical entity for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in adults.

 

"Full credit goes to the Ranbaxy team for developing and launching Synriam - an accomplishment that has not received the credit and attention it deserves," Barbhaiya said.

His contribution, he said, entailed identifying the opportunity by leveraging his "network and credibility", convincing Ranbaxy's top brass to acquire the molecule, securing initial external funding and spearheading efforts for developing an overall strategy for the development and its execution plan and also early development of the molecule.

"The rest was done by the Ranbaxy team after I left the company," he noted, lauding MMV’s contributions at "multiple levels".

"It highlights the importance of global partnerships to address public health issues and the role a 'not-for-profit' organization such as MMV plays in discovering and developing drugs for neglected diseases. Synriam also provides an example of MMV’s success."

Turning Entrepreneur

But it was perhaps his second stint as an entrepreneur that really put the spotlight on Barbhaiya in India. In 2005, he and some former executives of Ranbaxy co-founded the pharma R&D firm, Advinus Therapeutics Pvt. Ltd., backed by India's diversified Tata group.

"The seed for Advinus was sown on my departure from Ranbaxy. Advinus was conceived on the foundation of a simple concept - leverage India’s young talent, recognize India’s limitations in the area of pharmaceutical innovation and find ways to fill the gaps with creative partnerships with institutions in countries with a history of generating cutting edge technologies."

Barbhaiya says he invested his life savings in Advinus [an acronym coined to reflect Advantage India USA] and volunteered to draw the salary that he was "making in the 90s" and "devoted" over a decade to the firm.

Along the way, Advinus went on to sew up collaborations with large pharma companies, the most notable being the one with Takeda for the discovery of drugs against both existing and novel pre-defined targets in areas including inflammation, CNS and metabolic disorders.

In 2010 Barbhaiya was among the few Indian CEOs who could meet US President Barack Obama on his visit to Mumbai. Barbhaiya is then said to have conveyed to the president the "opportunities and excitement" Advinus was experiencing as it collaborated with US companies to discover and develop better medicines for patients worldwide.

What then changed? Barbhaiya won't share specifics but underscored that "looking back is not my habit".

His parting note in May this year suggests a tinge of bitterness, at least on plain read. He mentions that he was returning to the US with the job "not quite finished".

"This was not planned but my wife and I have accepted hard realities and have decided to return to a country where I was accepted, respected and valued for who I am as well as what and how I contributed," he said in the note.

Barbhaiya emphasized that Advinus was not a job for him - it was his "dream, creation, mission and crusade to make a difference", he says rather dramatically, but admits there is "some hurt".

He also believes that he has few more years of productive life left and expects to spend these working on "some novel concepts" to make a difference (work towards unfinished business, he says) and associating himself with people that he "will enjoy working with and can trust".

A report in the local media last month quoted Advinus as saying that Barbhaiya decided not to seek reappointment as managing director after serving two terms and isn't part of the firm's board any longer. Some industry experts told Scrip that there appeared to be a significant "mismatch" between the expectations of the Tata group and Barbhaiya, which may have precipitated things, though there is no official word on this.

So where does he see Advinus five years down the line? Barbhaiya says only the current board and management can tell.

"I left Advinus on a highpoint with a track record of three years of unprecedented growth and extraordinary P&L, an alliance with Takeda and unprecedented opportunities for future revenues during my last year and the final quarter of my tenure as CEO and managing director.

He adds that like any parent, he wishes the baby will turn out to be a "successful adult".

Details on Advinus' current or past growth could not immediately be ascertained by Scrip.

Investors

Barbhaiya also suggested that getting investors to back science in India is still rather complex.

"Except one potential investor, I have not come across any investor in India who has basic understanding of pharma R&D, appetite for risk taking and long gestation periods inherent in any innovation-driven investment," he said.

He, however, added that investors in India cannot really be blamed for not warming up to innovation-driven Pharma R&D, given that there is "no track record, eco-system, environment that can nurture innovation and above all, examples of success stories".

Besides, there are plenty of opportunities to make investment with low risk and short gestation periods in areas such as – IT, infrastructure, retail and manufacturing.

And what's his take on current Indian NCE/NME research efforts? A firm believer in young Indian talent, Barbhaiya explains these young professionals come without "past legacies or bias".

The young professionals, he maintains, are India's "true assets" and require guidance and to be nurtured by the management and board of the company they work for.

"Failures will remain a norm in pharma R&D. As a result, any R&D team requires and deserves a board that has basic understanding of pharma R&D and appetite for long gestation period and high risk."

He believes advances in genomics, gene editing, gene therapies and regenerative medicines will revolutionize healthcare which will transition from treatment to cure.

"India has an opportunity to leapfrog."

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