Michael Kauffman
PHOTO/MATT VOLPINI
Dr. Michael Kauffman, CEO of Natick pharmaceutical startup Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc., entered the medical field because he wanted to help people. But he soon discovered that available treatments often fell short of meeting patients' needs.
“I was frankly a bit frustrated that we weren't able to make better progress in medicine,” said Kauffman, 50, a rheumatologist who practiced at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Meanwhile, Kauffman saw that scientific progress was growing by “leaps and bounds,” even though it didn't quickly translate to better medical treatments. So he traded his path in academic medicine for the pharmaceutical world.
Kauffman, a Newton resident, viewed it as an opportunity to impact many people worldwide, and he's glad he made the switch.
During the time he was completing his medical training, Kauffman said, treatments made patients very sick, and only a few got better. These days, treatments have become more effective and side effects are more treatable, Kauffman said.
“We can really start to think about people living with cancer rather than dying of cancer… and an increasing number of people are cured,” Kauffman said.
Karyopharm launched in 2009, based on the research of Kauffman's business partner, Sharon Shacham. An expert in computational drug design, Shacham designed a compound, known as KPT-330, that targets a particular protein crucial to fighting cancer, and clinical trials have shown the drug's ability to kill cancer cells in patients with hard-to-treat types of leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Meanwhile, Kauffman oversaw the successful launch of Karyopharm's initial public offering in the fall, which generated $125 million for the company, about twice what was expected. Kauffman attributed the success, in part, to receptive capital markets after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration relaxed standards for drug approvals. That, he noted, has helped make investments in biotech easier.
For his part, Kauffman just looks forward to the day KPT-330 is widely available as a commercial drug.
“We're moving along as fast as possible,” Kauffman said.
DOWNLOAD PDFs
MetroWest 10 To Watch 2014 - Michael Kauffman, Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments