Q&A With Kevin Hrusovsky Of Perkin Elmer
KEVIN HRUSOVSKY
Title: President of Life Sciences and Technology for Perkin Elmer
Hometown: Shadyside, Ohio
Residence: Hopkinton
Education: Ohio State University, M.E.; Ohio University, MBA
In early November, the $600-million acquisition of Caliper Life Sciences of Hopkinton by Waltham-based Perkin Elmer became official. Kevin Hrusovsky, the former president and CEO of Caliper, is now tasked with integrating the company he helped turn into one of the fastest-growing biotech businesses in the region into a division of the much-larger Perkin Elmer. The challenges are difficult, but Hrusovsky believes the combined forces of both companies create an opportunity to revolutionize the medical industry.
How does it feel to go from CEO of Caliper Life Sciences to the president of a division within a larger company?
There's a lot of change that goes along with this whole process. We're bringing all of the employees of Caliper - who have really done a spectacular job over the last 10 years ¬- into this much larger division. We had a very unique culture here at Caliper, one that is very energized by the proposition of curing cancer and heart disease, and we think having a larger organization will help us accelerate the achievement of our goals.
How do you make sure that the corporate culture you value at Caliper is reflected in the new division?
It starts with everyone in the division knowing that the purpose of our company is greater than any one of us. If you can do that, nobody's ego gets in the way. People have been trying for hundreds of years to cure cancer and heart disease, which are very difficult challenges. Our technologies are about how to revolutionize medicine, how to personalize it to treat people better. As long as we stay at that high level of thinking, we can do a lot of really exciting things that bring out the best in everybody.
How, specifically, will Caliper benefit from being a part of Perkin Elmer?
I see it as we're taking our show on to a much bigger stage. The resources of Perkin Elmer are much more significant compared to (those of) Caliper. We are now a part of a $500-million division, whereas Caliper was a $160-million company, so it's enabling us to really catapult these technologies to commercialization and spread them around the world. It's allowed us to expand, overnight, the reach of these technologies, plus expand our research and development investments.
What problems are Perkin Elmer and Caliper trying to solve?
It's really quite unbelievable how challenging cancer treatments are today. There are an estimated 90,000 breast cancer patients misdiagnosed annually - meaning patients are told they have cancer when they don't, or they don't know when they do. We have an estimated 20 percent false positives. Many people can be cured of cancer, but they never get the right treatment because of the inaccuracies of the testing. Our technologies cut through that, and Perkin Elmer will help us expand those capabilities.
What's the merger and acquisition market like now?
I think a lot of companies are undervalued and so many companies are not interested in selling themselves because they feel there is more value to be created. The problem is that because of the economic challenges of the past few years, companies are being forced into needing to merge, which will propel the M&A market. When companies get desperate and they need cash, M&A may not be the best for those technologies and the people in the long term.
We, fortunately, weren't in that position. Our stock price has increased 1,200 percent in the last three years; we've been cash-flow positive. That gave us opportunities to negotiate a significant premium on what we were trading at.
Still, some shareholders felt that Caliper could have been sold at a higher price. Why were you interested in selling the company now?
Primarily because we found this opportunity to truly revolutionize medicine within our reach with this combination. We think we created a valuable exit for shareholders while being able to significantly transform and improve innovative technologies. The vote by our shareholders to approve the acquisition was almost unanimous, so I think our initial assumptions were right in the end and all of our investors felt this was a great deal.
This article was edited for length and content by Brandon Butler.
WBJ Web Partners
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