James L. Vincent

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Biogen, Inc.

James L. Vincent, earlier President of Allied

Health and Scientific Products and COO of Abbott

Laboratories, joined Biogen as Chairman and CEO

in 1985. At the time, the Cambridge company, foun­

ded in 1978, was floundering. Mr. Vincent engi­

neered a remarkable turnaround, and in 1989 Ied the

company to its first year of profitability. Biogen 's

products-and-relationships portfolio include hepa­

titis B antigens (Abbott Laboratories, Ortho Diag­

nostic Systems), hepatitis B vaccine (Merck), alpha

interferon (Schering-Plough), gamma interferon

(Rentschler, Shionogi). Products in research or

development include CD4 for AIDS therapy ( with

funding from New York Life Insurance Company);

thrombin inhibitors and a platelet receptor antago­

nist for the treatment of cardiovascular disease; and

vascular cell-adhesion molecule inhibitors as treat­

ment for inflammation and autoimmune diseases.

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Michael Riordan, M.D.

President and Chief

Executive Officer Gilead Sciences, Inc.

Michael Riordan brought a broad background to

the creation of Gilead Sciences. He holds an M.D.

degree from Johns Hopkins, a Harvard M.B.A., a

B.S. in chemical engineering, and a B.A. in biol­

ogy. He founded the Foster City, CA, company in

1987, while working as a venture capitalist at

Menlo Ventures. Earlier, he was an international

lending officer at the Industrial Bank of Japan in

Tokyo, a consultant with McKinsey & Co. and

Arthur D. Little, and a Luce Fellow in East Asia.

Gilead Sciences is developing a new class of phar­

maceuticals which employ antisense technology

and other methods to inhibit disease processes at

the DNA and RNA level. Its primary disease tar­

gets are severe viral infections and oncogene­

derived cancers for which no adequate therapies

exist. The company's investors include Menlo Ven­

tures; J. H. Whitney & Co.; Venrock Associates;

Merrill, Pickard, Anderson & Eyre; Concord

Partners; William Blair Venture Partners; John

Hancock Venture Capital; the Vista Group; and

Abingworth Management Limited. Two months

after this roundtable, Gilead signed $20 million

strategic alliance with Glaxo.

95