"I was brought on to make this as significant an undertaking as it could be and that is the way it has played out."

He helped set up the joint venture three years ago.

In his present role as vice-president of corporate business development at Eli Lilly, he oversees acquisitions, private equity deals, partnering and corporate venturing.

Carlsen is on the board of PTC Therapeutics and Santaris Pharma, and was previously a board member of 7TM Pharma and Arpida.

Blausteinwas director of the University Intellectual Property Programme at DuPont from 2004 to 2008. He previously worked at DuPont in research and development portfolio management from 2000 to 2004 and as a business director for non-wovens in Europe from 1997 to 1999.