Author: John Hawkins
Title: Conscience and Courage: How Visionary CEO Henri Termeer Built a Biotech Giant and Pioneered the Rare Disease Industry
Publication Info: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (2019) 
Summary/Review:
This is a book I read for research at work. It is a biography of the Dutch-born Henri Termeer who emigrated to the US to study at UVA’s Darden School of Business. He then entered into the emerging biotech industry the blossomed in the Boston and Cambridge area in the 1980s. Termeer joined the startup Genzyme Corporation in the early 80s and soon rose to president. (Personal note: when I first moved to Boston in the late 90s I worked as a temp at Genzyme).
Termeer focused Genzyme on orphan diseases so-called because even though they are life-threatening illnesses they affect fewer than 200,000 people and thus there is not a lot of people and resources put toward treating the diseases. Termeer’s patient-focused approach won him accolades due to the life-saving nature of Genzyme’s treatments. But the success came with the high costs of research and development, expensive ingredients, and only a small number of patients to share the costs of some of the most expensive drugs in the world.
Recommended books:
- A Life In Leadership: From D-Day to Ground Zero: An Autobiography by John Whitehead
- The ultimate entrepreneur : the story of Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation by Glenn Rifkin
Rating: ***
Panorama of the Mountains 