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Compliments of Pharmavoice ENTREPRENEURS ELIZABETH HOLMES A Woman with a Non-Negotiable Mission hat’s it like to be America’s DRIVEN. MORE DRIVEN. youngest female self-made billion- Waire with a net worth of $4.6 billion? DRIVEN TO INNOVATE BY You’d have to ask Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos chairman, CEO, and founder, but that won’t CONCERN be easy. She works from the time she gets up until she goes to sleep, every day. Ms. Holmes is singularly focused on enabling early detec- GETTING TO KNOW... tion and intervention of disease, and empow- ering individuals with information they need Elizabeth Holmes to live healthier lives. TITLE: Chairman, CEO, Founder The FDA has authorized Theranos to pro- cess complex, authoritative blood tests out- COMPANY: Theranos side of a lab, signaling a sea-change that EDUCATION: Honorary doctorate degree, could greatly diversify the company’s business Pepperdine University model. AWARDS/HONORS: Youngest person to be “People don’t even know that they have a awarded the Horatio Alger Award; TIME 100 basic human right to be able to get access to Most Influential People in the World in 2015; information about themselves and their own bodies that can change their lives,” she says. Best Health Startup, Crunchies Awards, 2015; “Every person needs to have the ability to get Top 10 Medical Innovations, ClevelandPharmaVOICE Clinic that type of test because if you understand Medical Innovation Summit, 2015; Edison early that you are at risk, you can do some- Award - Gold, Lab Diagnostics Category, 2014; thing about it.” The Bay Area’s 10 Most InDemand Startups of Elizabeth Holmes is singularly So Ms. Holmes dropped out of Stanford focused on enabling early 2014, LinkedIn, 2014.of 12 years ago as a 19-year-old sophomore to detection and intervention develop a new approach to blood testing and ASSOCIATIONS: Harvard Medical School of disease through her new start her company Theranos. This was not her Board of Fellows approach to blood testing. first entrepreneurial venture, however. She SOCIAL MEDIA: also started a business as a teenager when her family lived in China, selling C++ compilers According to a profile in The New Yorker, to Chinese universities. According to Business already being set up in major drugstores chains Holmes can quote Jane Austen by heart, but Insider, at the age of 9, Ms. Holmes wrote a such as Walgreens in California and Arizona. no longer devotes time to novels or friends, letter to her father that read: “What I really In other accomplishments, Ms. Holmes doesn’t date, doesn’t own a television, and want out of life is to discover something new, has 84 patents to her name (18 in the United hasn’t taken a vacation in 10 years. She is a something that mankind didn’t know was States and 66 non-U.S.), as of 2014. She led vegan, and several times a day she drinks a pul- possible to do.” the passing of the first law in the nation’s verized concoction of cucumber, parsley, kale, Three factors came together to make that history to give individuals the explicit right spinach, romaine lettuce, and celery. She is “something” Theranos. She was inspired by to direct access laboratory testing. The law photographed frequently wearing only black. her great great grandfather who was a surgeon; was based on a draft she wrote, enfranchising In a graduate address to Pepperdine Uni- her uncle died of cancer when she was young; 7 million Arizonans, facilitating engagement versity, this May — earning her own honorary and her own fear of needles. with and protection of physicians, and creating doctorate at the same time — Ms. Holmes Theranos is a $9 billion biotech company a model for other states across the country to told the class of 2015 that they will have to that has a new approach to blood testing. The shift toward preventive care, individual em- work smarter and harder than everyone else. organization’s breakthrough advancements powerment, and price transparency. She was “In the journey of life we are always have made it possible to quickly process the also to serve as a U.S. Presidential Ambassador tested,” she told the audience. “When it’s full range of Complimentslaboratory tests from a few drops for Global Entrepreneurship. hardest is when it matters most to stay the of blood — instead of numerous tubes — from Ms. Holmes surrounds herself with like- course. Define what is non-negotiable to you, a small prick of the finger at unprecedented minded visionary thinkers and doers, as what you are willing to fight for, die for, live low costs. her board of directors includes Dr. Henry for. Many of us know too well how helpless we The tests are directly accessible to people Kissinger, Samuel Nunn Jr., senior advisor, feel when someone we love is ill and we want and their physicians through Theranos Well- RRE Ventures, and George Shultz, Ph.D., to help them become well again. That is my (c) PharmaLinx LLC. Rights do not include promotional use. For distribution or printing rights, contact [email protected] ness Centers opening nationwide, and these are director emeritus, Gilead Sciences. non-negotiable.” 60 July/August 2015 PharmaVOICE ENTREPRENEURS PASSIONATE. DRIVEN. DR. DENA MARRINUCCI Breaking Through Barriers for Cancer ena Marrinucci was not a conventional work, her grandmother was diagnosed with Ph.D. student. She arrived at The stage 3 melanoma. Her primary tumor was DScripps Research Institute (TSRI) in removed, but about a year later she collapsed La Jolla, Calif., with no interest in pursuing from widespread metastasis and died shortly an academic career or doing basic research. thereafter. Instead, she wanted to be part of a translational “I remember thinking: why didn’t we see laboratory where she would have the opportu- this earlier,” Dr. Marrinucci says. “If we had, nity to bridge science, medicine, and business could we have prolonged her life with the to achieve breakthrough results that could right treatments? The loss of this magnificent enhance and save lives. individual, who I loved dearly, fueled my Dr. Dena Marrinucci and her team at Epic are In her first week at Scripps, she met Dr. passion for developing and commercializing a determined to change how cancer treatments are Peter Kuhn who shared his vision for build- technology that could one day help people like developed and selected. ing a translational team that would bring my grandmother.” chemists, biologists, engineers, and physicians Over the next four years, with the help of DRIVEN TO INNOVATE BY together to develop technologies that would collaborators, Dr. Marrinucci developed the improve and impact patients’ lives. foundation for a technology that could identify PATIENTS They discussed several projects, and Dr. rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) through a Kuhn had one specific initiative in mind for simple blood draw to create a non-invasive test her: build a rare cell detector for cancer. An for profiling cancer in real time. But to bring companies. hour later, she left that meeting inspired about this “liquid biopsy” technology to patients, it Since then, Epic has raised $50 million, the opportunity to lead this project. was necessary to start a business. hired more than 120 employees, and devel- “I couldn’t sleep that night thinking about She launched Epic Sciences inPharmaVOICE 2008, before oped more than 40 partnerships with the the potential of a technology where we could she turned 30, which was a virtual company world’s top pharmaceutical company, biotech- improve how cancer is treated through a sim- for about two years while the team improved nology, and cancer research centers across more ple blood test,” she says. the platform. During this time, the com- than 45 clinical trials to help develop better Shortly after she began her dissertation pany faced challenges ofin securing funding to cancer therapies using its liquid biopsy test. improve the technology, and she started to Epic also has partnerships with several leading question whether the business would make it. cancer research institutions to track CTCs and GETTING TO KNOW... As she considered different options, she therapeutic response, which will eventually Dena Marrinucci, Ph.D. recalled a comment from Epic’s CEO, who had give doctors better tools to personalize thera- told her that he had never seen a technology pies for patients. TITLE: Chief Scientific Officer with as much potential to help patients in his “Our mission at Epic is deeply personal to COMPANY: Epic Sciences Inc. more than 20 years in the San Diego biotech me,” Dr. Marrinucci says. “The opportunity EDUCATION: Ph.D., Chemical and Biological industry. to work with an exceptional team who shares “As I thought about this, I couldn’t leave the same vision is an incredibly rewarding and Sciences, The Scripps Research Institute; B.S., the business behind,” she says. “If there was humbling experience, and I am truly grateful Chemistry, University of Vermont any potential at all for helping patients who for the opportunity to do so.” FAMILY: Husband, Shane Copelin; German were battling a disease like the one that As chief scientific officer, Dr. Marrinucci Shepherd, Kili(manjaro) claimed my grandmother’s life, I knew I had leads research and development and genomics HOBBIES: International travel, hiking, great food to see it through.” initiatives. She also oversees all pharma part- Over the next few years, Dr. Marrinucci nerships, from assay development of new CTC and wine, spending time with family and friends and her colleagues reimagined the technology tests to their incorporation into clinical trials. BUCKET LIST: Travel to Egypt to see the pyramids and improved the sensitivity and specificity of On a philanthropic level, Dr.
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