2012 Powerlist: Graeme Martin, Takeda

Graeme Martin has worked as chief executive of Japan-based  pharmaceutical company Takeda’s corporate venturing unit, which he joined when it was in development, for nearly 10 years.

Takeda Ventures has invested $50m in 18 companies, four of which have been acquired while 13 are strategically active.

Martin said: “The strategic value for Takeda is pretty significant. Although the rate of investment has been pretty pedestrian, everything is carefully selected to take minority positions enabling the building of a strategic relationship with Takeda.”

He added: “Measuring strategic value is a tough thing. Yet with the $50m we have put in, we have leveraged $900m of other money. This is pretty impressive financial leverage. It was surprising to me to analyse our annual dealflow. About 30% of it is under the radar, with no public information available. This access to information is through our venture network, so we are seeing a lot of things that, frankly, the company would not see.”

Martin came to Takeda after he found out they were setting up the venturing unit in the early part of this decade. He was a consultant, having left Switzerland-based drugs peer F Hoffmann La Roche in 2001. He was a senior research scientist at Wellcome Research Laboratories (now part of GlaxoSmithKline).

Lessons from the top: Martin said: “The real value from venturing derives from top-down management commitment and patience. We do not expect to see tangible returns from internal research within a 10-year timeframe, and research conducted externally is not going to deliver in any less of a timeframe.

“However, the blending of internal research depth with external discovery breadth is a powerful combination we believe can contribute significantly to research and development productivity. In this information-rich world, we see it as a necessary symbiosis. Some companies out there view external research more importantly than internal efforts at discovery. This is a mistake. The leverage the outside world provides is breadth rather than depth. The two activities are mutually complementary and venturing is an important tool to bring them together.”