Ted Love’s ascension within the biotechnology world could hardly have begun more improbably.
Growing up African-American in a tiny Alabama farmhouse, he shared a bedroom with four of his seven siblings and rose at daybreak to care for the animals and do other chores before rushing to school.
No one in his family had gone to college. His mother only made it through sixth grade. His father got as far as fourth.
But Love displayed a skill for science. And his visits with his family physician left him so intrigued with medicine that by the time he was 10 he had resolved to become a doctor, too.
With college financial aid, he earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology at Haverford College near Philadelphia and a medical degree from Yale, before joining the faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital’s cardiology department.
Love later joined Genentech, eventually overseeing product development at the South San Francisco company. After six years there, he put in a stint at Theravance of South San Francisco. Then, in 2001, he was named chief executive of Nuvelo, based in San Carlos.
His company is developing a blood-clot dissolver, alfimeprase, to treat stroke patients and to keep medicines flowing from intravenous catheters. Among other drugs Nuvelo is working on is a treatment to help repair tissue damaged by chemotherapy and radiation in cancer patients.
Love also is a board member of the California Institute for Regenerative medicine, created to spend $3 billion for stem-cell research by proposition 71 in November 2004.
Here are edited excerpts from a recent interview with the Mercury News:
Q How does your upbringing affect how you do your job today?
A A lot of how I work and operate was shaped by my childhood, just in terms of integrity, hard work, fairness, being straightforward. Those values were very important to me. They’ve been very useful as I’ve gone about in life to remain someone who’s grounded and someone who is trusted and generally respected for how I operate with people.
Q Nuvelo had a hard year in 2007. Bayer HealthCare ended its agreement with you to help develop alfimeprase after the drug failed to do as well in a study as you had hoped. Although you believe the drug ultimately will prove successful, you also trimmed your workforce, which at about 75 people now is half what it used to be. How disappointing was that for you?
A It’s very painful to be in the position where you don’t have jobs for all of your employees going forward. Fortunately, we were able to do the appropriate kinds of things around severance and support for people getting jobs. In fact, most people landed new jobs very quickly. We had very good people.
Q How do you feel about Nuvelo’s prospects?
A I’m very optimistic. Optimism is an incredibly important ingredient in our business because the reality is, the odds are against any one drug and the odds are against any one company. It’s the nature of biotech. Success is all about hanging in there when it’s tough, because there will be good days. And I think the other side of it is, when there are good days, don’t get too cocky.
Q You mentioned that N. Anthony Coles, chief executive of NPS Pharmaceuticals in New Jersey, is the only other African-American you know who is currently a CEO of a biomedical company. What needs to be done to get more members of minority groups involved in the biomedical field?
A Efforts are being pursued by a number of companies and by the industry in general. But the things that we’re doing don’t represent, if you will, an overnight fix. The things that we’re doing are really focused on trying to begin a relationship with people of color with the hope and the desire that they’ll see this as a career path that is available to them and interesting to them. I think those efforts over time will have an impact.
Q You said you hadn’t sought your appointment to the stem-cell institute by former state controller Steve Westly. Why did you take the job?
A I’m a huge believer that this technology one day will be transformational for diseases where we’re really not making a dent right now. So he didn’t have to do a lot to sell me on it. The biggest issue for me really was time commitment, because I’m doing so many things.
Q While you believe the stem-cell institute has made major achievements so far, you said you’re troubled that it often has to defend itself in public. What do you mean?
A Let’s be very candid about it. The pro-life kind of element has viewed what we are doing as unethical. I don’t think there’s any debate about the ethics of what we’re doing. But we’ve had groups like that particularly which have really thrown many obstacles in our way.
Q What do you hope to accomplish with the institute?
A Had Nuvelo been focused on stem-cell research, I probably would have avoided it as potentially self-serving. My interest in doing it was purely that I could potentially help get this (stem-cell work) done for the benefit of the citizens of California and, quite frankly, the citizens of the world. I think the therapy ultimately will change outcomes for patients with Parkinson’s and a range of other diseases.
