After losing his job at Pfizer in 2011, Yeadon set up a biotech company called Ziarco with three Pfizer colleagues. They wanted to continue researching promising therapies that targeted allergies and inflammatory diseases, ideas Pfizer had been developing but were at risk of being abandoned. Yeadon served as Ziarcoâs chief executive.
âI simply showed chutzpah and asked the senior-most people up the research lineâ at Pfizer to support the venture, Yeadon later recalled in an interview with Forbes. âAnd they said, âOK, assuming you raise private capital.ââ
In 2012, Ziarco announced it had initially secured funding from several investors, including Pfizerâs venture capital arm. Other investors later joined, including an Amgen Inc corporate venture capital fund. Amgen didnât respond to a request for comment.
âThe intensity of effort took me away almost completely from my family and other interests for almost five years and you get only one life,â Yeadon told Forbes.
On Twitter, Yeadon said he is married and has two adult daughters, and described a tough childhood â he said his mother committed suicide when he was 18 months old and his father, a doctor, abandoned him when he was 16. He said he was saved by a local social worker and adopted by a Jewish family whose âopen handed love turned my life around.â
While at Ziarco, Yeadon also worked as a consultant for several years at two Boston-area biotech companies, Apellis Pharmaceuticals and Pulmatrix Inc. Both firms said he no longer advises them. A spokeswoman for Apellis said, âHis views do not reflect those of Apellis.â She didnât elaborate.
After losing his job at Pfizer in 2011, Yeadon set up a biotech company called Ziarco. It was later bought by Swiss drugmaker Novartis. REUTERS/Charles Platiau
The hard work at Ziarco paid off. In January 2017, Novartis acquired the company for an upfront payment of $325 million, with the promise of $95 million more if certain milestones were met, according to Novartisâ 2017 annual report. Novartis was betting on the promise of a Ziarco drug, known as ZPL389, that had the potential to be a âfirst-in-class oral treatment for moderate-to-severe eczema,â a common and sometimes debilitating rash.
Reuters wasnât able to determine how much money Yeadon made from Novartisâ purchase of Ziarco. But in January 2020 he tweeted: âOddly enough, I made millions from founding & growing a biotech company, creating many highly paid jobs, using my PhD & persuasion around the world.â
Last July, Novartis disclosed it had discontinued the ZPL389 clinical development program and had taken a $485 million write down. A Novartis spokesman said the company decided to terminate the program after disappointing efficacy data in an early-stage clinical trial.
Taitaa olla vÀhÀn kaunoja Michael Yeadonilla. No, nyt saa sitÀ kaivattua hyvÀksyntÀÀ kaikilta rokotevastasilta ja kriittisiltÀ.
Many former colleagues say they are baffled by his transformation.
Mark Treherne, chairman of Talisman Therapeutics in Cambridge, England, said he overlapped with Yeadon at Pfizer for about two years and sometimes had coffee with him. âHe always seemed knowledgeable, intelligible, a good scientist. We were both trained as pharmacologists ⊠so we had something in common.â
âI obviously disagree with Mike and his recent views,â he said. Treherneâs company is researching brain inflammation, which he said could be triggered by coronaviruses. â
This does not sound like the guy I knew 20 years ago.â
MitÀ lie ukolle tapahtunu.
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