The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/456562
Winter 2015 41 mistakes. It's invaluable training that you can later apply to your own start-up if you decide to go down that path. You'll still make plenty of your own mistakes, mind you, but you'll have a better sense of what to expect." Firsthand experience has shown Schwartz that this approach works. At Dana-Farber she got a handle on the bench science part of the phar- maceutical science equation, and she learned "the human part" of the drug development equation after taking a position as a clinical data manager at Parexel International. "I worked on a cardiovascular medica- tion and learned what happens during clinical development of a drug. It was a wonderful experience, but Parexel is so large and one's roles and responsibilities are so strictly defned, that I still didn't feel like I was seeing the whole picture." When she saw an opportunity to move to a position with Sepracor— at the time a developing company of approximately 90 employees— Schwartz jumped at it. "I was told I would be working in pre-clinical development and would have the chance to work on cross-functional teams, which was exactly what I was looking for. I got my hands into the development of every aspect of the products I worked on there—I even sat on teams with staff on the commercial side of the business. I really blossomed as a drug development team member at Sepracor— I didn't have to 'throw anything over the wall' to the team responsible for the next phase of a drug's development and lose sight of it. I could see a drug through the entire process of creation—it was a phenomenal experience and I will always be grateful for it." Over time, however, Sepracor continued to grow, the work silos com- mon to big pharma began to form, and Schwartz's ability to work on cross-functional teams creating a new drug and bringing it to market began to diminish. It was time, she decided, to take another risk. "I was looking around and watching other people start companies and I thought, 'Why can't I? I'm not afraid of challenges and I'm not afraid of failure, so why not?'" In late 1997 Schwartz took the plunge and founded Hygeia Therapeu- tics, a company focused on women's health and dermatology—products for postmenopausal genitourinary problems and disorders of androgen excess, i.e., acne, hirsutism, and androgenic alopecia. She launched the company with a strong team, including four colleagues who followed her from Sepracor, but was subsequently stymied by the stock market crash of 2008. Available venture capital dried up and many potential backers disappeared. But Schwartz was not deterred. "Since defeat has never been an op- tion for me, I hit the pavement and raised a considerable amount of money from private investors and convertible notes," she says. A short time later, she saw an opportunity to siphon off some of Hygeia's assets to form Canterbury Labs, a subsidiary company that would focus on cosmeceutical products for aging skin. Hygeia and Canterbury products soon caught the attention of two prominent veterans of the pharmaceu- tical industry, Sol Barer and Isaac Blech, who acquired the company and formed the new public entity RestorGenex. " I was looking around and watching other people start companies and I thought, 'Why can't I? I'm not afraid of challenges and I'm not afraid of failure, so why not?' "