Gwen Melincoff has been senior vice-president of business development at Ireland-based drugs company Shire for more than nine years. Before this she worked at pharmaceutical companies Adolor Corporation, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Eastman Pharmaceuticals and Centocor. She studied management at Pennsylvania State University and biology at George Washington University.
Melincoff said: “First, know your syndicate members – do they really have the reserves to step up to the plate? Second, it always takes twice as long and costs three times as much or three times as long and twice as much. Third, regarding other corporates in a deal, we can all play together – two is better than one, three is a chief executive’s dream come true.”
What is the future of your sector?
Melincoff said: “Our corporate venturing continues to be strong. We continue to get a lot of high- quality proposals – no lack of creative people out there. It is still too early to judge what success looks like for the corporates that are strategic investors. We have had two companies out of 12 complete their initial public offering with a third – UltraGenyx – just filed. Not too bad.”
