The Biotech Startups Podcast 🧬 Doug Drysdale - Cybin - Part 1 | One Teacher Can Change Your Whole Perspective | The Forefront of the Human Genome Project | How Loss Taught Him Not to Take Life For Granted | Learning How to Be Personable in Sales
Aug 26, 2024
31:10
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Part 1 of 4.
Part 1 of 4.
My guest for this week’s episode is Doug Drysdale, CEO at Cybin. Cybin is a clinical-stage biopharma company on a mission to create safe and effective psychedelic-based therapeutics. Their goal is to address the large unmet need for new and innovative treatment options for people who suffer from mental health conditions. Doug is an experienced investor, Corporate Director and CEO, who has chaired the Board of a NASDAQ-listed company and, as a CEO for the past 12 years, has built and turned around 3 pharma companies. During Doug’s 30+ years of experience in the healthcare sector, he has formed cohesive management teams, recruited board members, completed 16 corporate acquisitions across three continents and has raised and invested around $4 billion of both public and private capital.
Before Cybin, Doug was Commercial Products Manager at DuPont Merck, Director of BD at Elan, VP of M&A at Actavis Group, CEO of Norwich Pharmaceuticals and Alvogen, CEO of Pernix Therapeutics, and CEO of Tedor Pharma. Doug’s extensive background as a seasoned executive, investor, and turn-around specialist gives him a wide range of experiences that founders can learn from.
Join us this week and hear about:
- Doug’s upbringing in a working-class setting
- His life-changing scholarship and his early passion for the life sciences
- Doug’s pivotal moments in the lab and his transition to sales at DuPont Merck
- His time at Elan, where he combined his scientific and commercial expertise to excel in BD
Please enjoy my conversation with Doug Drysdale.
Timestamps:
00:28 Intro
02:33 Episode starts, Doug’s early upbringing and how a teacher helped change his life and perspective at only 10 years old
06:40 Doug finding his spark for science, his gravitation toward biology, working a government job in a hospital pathology lab out of high school
11:53 Getting a degree in molecular biology and being able to work with the cutting-edge human genome project
13:13 Transitioning out of government wet lab and into full-time study at University of East Anglia
15:38 Mentors and professors who inspired Doug’s journey in STEM, a family loss swaying Doug to get out of academia and go into sales
20:36 How an opportunity at DuPont Merck came about and the joint venture experience at this startup
23:04 Memorable challenges and triumphs in pharmaceutical sales
26:44 First-time experience as a commercial marketing manager, being recruited into Elan in a marketing role
30:10 Outro
Find Our Guest, Doug Drysdale, at these links:
Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links:
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Enriched Notes:
Topics Mentioned:
Marketing & Sales Strategies for Startups https://www.excedr.com/blog/marketing-sales-strategies-for-biotechs
How to Fund an R&D Startup: First Steps a Founder Can Take https://www.excedr.com/resources/rd-startup-funding-first-steps
Biotech Partnerships: How Partnering with Big Pharma Can Support R&D https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-biotech-partnerships-support-research
Guide to Life Sciences Licensing Agreements https://www.excedr.com/blog/life-sciences-licensing-agreements-guide
The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.