Patience pays off for William Canfield: Moves up through biotech industry

BYLINE: Jerry Shottenkirk

According to William Canfield, one of the most successful local scientists and entrepreneurs, the road from idea to application and business success can be fun. Fun and biotech aren't normally put in the same group by everyone, but nobody can blame Canfield if he's enjoyed his journey over the past few years. Canfield addressed an audience Tuesday at the State Science and Technology Institute Convention at Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park. Canfield in 1998 created Novazyme, a biotech company with a vision to battle Pompe disease, a rare and often fatal, inherited disease that disables the heart and muscles.

In 2002, he sold the company for $229 million to Genzyme, a top 10 pharmaceutical company. Four years later, he headed a group of local investors and bought Cytovance in what might be one of the most significant biotech investment deals in local history. After Canfield made his pitch to create Novazyme, he secured about $27 million in local pre-seed and venture capital. It came at a time when the dot-com bull market faded, and biotech companies were a fresh lure for investors. After about three years, Novazyme and Canfield had turned heads at Genzyme, which is headquartered in Boston, and in Genetech out of San Francisco. Genzyme eventually acquired Novazyme. "It was one of the largest biotech transactions in 2001," Canfield said. "It was an unusually high value for a pre-clinic company. We had been in operation for only 27 months. This wasn't typical; do not try this at home. " Novazyme became a research and development facility for Genzyme, which kept Canfield as president of Genzyme Glycobiology Research Institute. Success breeds more success in the biotech world, he said. "Successful exits encourage development of future business," Canfield said. "Rewarded investors are frequently willing to invest in new ventures. " And spinoffs create more spinoffs. Siwa Biotech, which was founded in late 2005, is about to start its local operations. Canfield is chairman of Cytovance, a biopharmaceutical company acquired earlier this year with funding from the Presbyterian Health Foundation and local investors, including Aubrey McClendon, Tom Ward, Mike McDonald and Tom Stapleton. Cytovance was part of a $16.8 million project that began in 2004, but funding to finish the project was not secured. Former Novazyme executives John Crowley and William Fallon founded Cytovance and Fallon was retained as president. A total of $9 million - $3 million from Presbyterian Health Foundation and $6 million from the investor group - was needed to complete the project. Since the late 1990s, the biotech sector here had made significant advances, he said. "The Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park was larger, the city grew more attractive and we were able to recycle employees from Novazyme to Cytovance," Canfield said. "Recruiting is easier and all but one employee lives here. And raising $6 million in Oklahoma was not possible five years ago. " Other speakers during the program included Michael Anderson, president of Presbyterian Health Foundation; Hershel Lamirand, president and chief executive officer of Oklahoma Health Foundation; Stephen Prescott, president of Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation; Michael Carolina, executive director of Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST); Greg Main, president and CEO of i2E Inc.; Mike Cawley, president and CEO of Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation; and Joseph Ferretti, senior vice president and provost of University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Prescott said Oklahoma is in the top 10 in the rate of growth in biomedicine research. "The first issue is that you have to have outstanding science, and next you have to develop infrastructure, protect intellectual property and do it well," Prescott said.