A Behind-The-Scenes Look Into My Interview With CEO Of Jazz Pharmaceuticals

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

From The June 2015 Issue
Read the full magazine article: From Foundation, To Darkest Days, To Finest Hour — The Jazz Pharmaceuticals Success Story

The unfortunate reality of conducting interviews with biopharmaceutical executives is that not all of the interesting insights gained make it into the final published article. This is certainly true of the in-person interview I conducted with the cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Bruce Cozadd. However, just because the information ended up on the editorial “cutting room floor” doesn’t make it any less interesting.

For example, when I met with Cozadd in Philadelphia, PA, he had his son Will with him. A sophomore in high school, Will was on spring break and taking the opportunity to spend time with Dad while also touring a few area colleges. In a first for me, and as it turns out, for Will as well, I invited him to sit in on the interview. Toward the end, I asked Will what it is like growing up the son of a pharma CEO. “It wasn’t much fun when he was the CEO and not a dad for that 2008-2009 period he was just talking about,” Will said. “We would go on a family vacation, and his idea of vacationing was to get on the plane with us, enter the hotel room, and then the next time we would see him was when we got back on the plane.” However, now that Jazz Pharmaceuticals is doing better, Will admitted it’s been a lot more fun and interesting. When Will was about 10 years old, his father recalled driving him back and forth to karate lessons. During these car rides, Will became interested in talking with his father about business. “He often told me about all the problems he was facing,” Will recalled. Bruce remembered his son asking questions like, “Why can’t you just give the debtholders shares in the company, or can’t you just issue more shares?” “He was literally trying to solve the capital structure problem as an 11 year old,” Bruce said.

While Bruce isn’t ready to say his son unlocked the secret for how Jazz survived the company’s near default, he says there was tremendous value to these conversations. “Backing up and asking yourself basic questions about business and finance is often very helpful for management,” Bruce stated. “I like to ask basic questions, like, ‘Is this a better product than the other products? How do I know this helps patients more than other products? If you were a patient, is this the product you would want?’” He said it is those basic questions that are hard to answer that are really important. As we concluded the interview, Will reminded his father, “For me, those ‘basic’ questions were pretty advanced. I was thinking at the highest level I could.”  

Addressing M&A Rumors

Another interesting conversation Cozadd and I had occurred by coincidence. On the day I interviewed him (Tuesday April 7, 2015), an article was published suggesting one of the biggest potential M&A deals for 2015 could be the acquisition of Jazz Pharmaceuticals by Merck. Having founded the company with a focus on creating a strong organizational culture first, I asked him how you can prevent these types of rumors from undermining that which you have worked so hard to create. “I’m not sure you can ever completely protect employees from the impact of those kinds of news stories,” he said.

For obvious reasons, Cozadd can’t comment, even to his own employees, on the veracity of any individual rumor. “They’ve heard enough of them over the years to know they can’t all be true, so I remind them of that. I also say, ‘Why wouldn’t you want to be listed as a top organization large companies would like to own?’” He said this because he remembers well the days when Jazz was trading for less than a dollar per share — and there were no prospective M&As on the horizon. 

Was Jazz Pharmaceuticals Founded By A Bunch Of Musicians?

Although Cozadd had explained the genesis of the company name earlier in our interview, I couldn’t help but wonder if — with a company name like that — the founders themselves were musicians or at least jazz aficionados.

The short answer was “no.”

However, he did tell me how cofounder Sam Saks, who is “decidedly not musical” retired as Jazz CEO in 2009 because his wife’s music career was starting to take off, and Saks didn’t think he could be a successful father, husband, and CEO all at the same time. “He’s a very good roadie,” Cozadd joked.  

As for Cozadd, he’s an accomplished pianist. In fact, earlier this year he played piano at a memorial service for Alejandro Zaffaroni, considered by many to be a legendary biotechnology entrepreneur and industry pioneer. Dr. Zaffaroni passed away in March 2014. Cozadd credits the late founder of ALZA Corp. with not only giving him his first break by hiring him at ALZA in 1991, but also for being an inspirational mentor on what it takes to become a maestro of creating a company culture that can persist through turmoil and transition.

To find out more about what makes Jazz’s culture so unique and how Cozadd and his team created and maintain that culture, read “From Foundation, To Darkest Days, To Finest Hour — The Jazz Pharmaceuticals Success Story” in the June 2015 issue of Life Science Leader.