Lexicon Pharmaceuticals - from Discovery to Development
June 2007
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals - from Discovery to Development
Interview with Arthur Sands
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals - from Discovery to Development
In this exclusive interview, Fintan Walton talks to Arthur Sands, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, about the company's recent name change from Lexicon Genetics and how this signals a shift from drug discovery to clinical development. Dr Sands discusses Lexicon's deals with Genentech and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), and the ways in which the company captures long-term value in these partnerships. Also detailed is the science behind Lexicon's programmes and the strategy going forward as the company moves its first products into clinical development, including the goal of advancing ten drug candidates into human clinical trials by the end of 2010.
About Arthur Sands
Dr Arthur Sands co-founded Lexicon Pharmaceuticals and has been President and Chief Executive Officer and a Director since September 1995. At Lexicon, Dr Sands pioneered the development of large-scale gene knockout technology for use in drug discovery. Before founding Lexicon, Dr Sands served as an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr Sands is a member of the Board of Directors of the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine. He received his BA in economics and political science from Yale University and his MD and PhD from Baylor College of Medicine.
About Lexicon Pharmaceuticals
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of breakthrough treatments for human disease. The company uses its proprietary gene knockout technology to knock out, or disrupt, the function of genes in mice and then employ an integrated platform of advanced medical technologies to systematically discover the physiological and behavioural functions - as well as the pharmaceutical utility - of the genes knocked out, and the potential drug targets encoded by the corresponding human genes. For targets that Lexicon believes have high pharmaceutical value, the company engages in programmes for the discovery and development of potential small molecule, antibody and protein drugs.
