4 ms·

While the gist of the article is true - antibiotics development is an area where 'the market' seems to discourage innovation - I always roll my eyes when I see

While the gist of the article is true - antibiotics development is an area where 'the market' seems to discourage innovation - I always roll my eyes when I see Achaogen name dropped in articles like this. Achaogen would have had a much longer runway had the leadership not began demolishing it as soon as it was clear that the FDA might grant approval for one or more indications. They faced the usual struggles associated with bringing a new antibiotic to market, but in the final stretch before final approval began to behave like a valley startup: setting enormous piles of cash on fire to hire a massive workforce before having anything resembling stable income, and widespread frivolous expenditure on nonessential projects and perks across the company. The leadership also seemed obsessed with emulating nearby Bay Area tech companies, and it was never clear how or why this was supposed to help Achaogen succeed as a pharma enterprise. Source: was there for the explosion in growth, and the eventual implosion.

vikramkr 6y ago
Were they hiring a big sales force like a typical pharma company or were they less directly relevant jobs? That's interesting how that played out - I guess they were a bit overconfident in their market predictions
- sithadmin 6y ago
  Overconfident is an understatement :p A large sales force was hired (probably far too large of one, and definitely larger than institutional investors cared for), but there was also massive growth and spending in departments that were not strongly contributing to go-to-market activities (e.g. massive laboratory expansions oriented towards development of future products, massive growth in many back-of-house business ops teams, and some jaw-droppingly frivolous investments in facilities that I don't feel comfortable disclosing in public).
parhamn 6y ago
Wait, what happens to the formulations after the company goes out of business? Is all the effort really just lost?! Surely it’s just bought by another org?
- sithadmin 6y ago
  In Achaogen's case, Cipla purchased global rights to Zemdri (plazomycin) outside China and other IP for practically pennies on the dollar: $16M USD. Everything else went to liquidators for the most part. It remains to be seen if Cipla is actually going to do anything worthwhile with Zemdri. I personally doubt that they are capable of it.

vikramkr 6y ago

Were they hiring a big sales force like a typical pharma company or were they less directly relevant jobs? That's interesting how that played out - I guess they were a bit overconfident in their market predictions

sithadmin 6y ago
Overconfident is an understatement :p A large sales force was hired (probably far too large of one, and definitely larger than institutional investors cared for), but there was also massive growth and spending in departments that were not strongly contributing to go-to-market activities (e.g. massive laboratory expansions oriented towards development of future products, massive growth in many back-of-house business ops teams, and some jaw-droppingly frivolous investments in facilities that I don't feel comfortable disclosing in public).

parhamn 6y ago

Wait, what happens to the formulations after the company goes out of business? Is all the effort really just lost?! Surely it’s just bought by another org?

sithadmin 6y ago
In Achaogen's case, Cipla purchased global rights to Zemdri (plazomycin) outside China and other IP for practically pennies on the dollar: $16M USD. Everything else went to liquidators for the most part. It remains to be seen if Cipla is actually going to do anything worthwhile with Zemdri. I personally doubt that they are capable of it.