He's not Frank Sinatra, but a lot more people these days are calling neuroscientist and entrepreneur Corey Goodman "chairman of the board."
Goodman (pictured), who joined Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) in 2007 to help build a network of biotech research centers and left soon after the Wyeth acquistion was announced, was last week elected chairman of the Limerick BioPharma Inc. board. The previous week, Goodman
became
chairman of startup iPierian Inc., which aims to turn the latest advance in stem-cell research into laboratory tools for drug discovery.
Two months after leaving his high-profile gig at Pfizer, Goodman is a whirlwind of activity. In addition to chairing the two startups, he's part of a
sub rosa investment and advisory firm called VenBio, and he's involved in a green-tech startup based around the
PhyloChip,
invented at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and commercialized by Bay Area biotech chipmaker Affymetrix Corp. The PhyloChip performs rapid identification of microbes in real-world environments.
Goodman's work at Pfizer helped piece acquisitions such as Rinat and
CovX together with internal scientists like the regenerative medicine
and stem-cell group. Goodman abruptly left in May, a few months after
Pfizer said it would swallow Wyeth and promoted a top Wyeth scientist
to run its biologics research.
When asked about Pfizer's
recent announcement
that it would abandon its half-built San Francisco biotech HQ, just a
short walk from Goodman's office, Goodman shook his head, began to
speak and said he'd rather not go on the record.
But in a long interview this week at his San Francisco office, he did go on the record about his departure from Pfizer, the broken model
of drug development and new financing models that need to emerge.
Stay tuned; the full interview is coming soon in The Deal magazine. -
Alex Lash
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