Biopharma Pioneer Returns To Small Company Roots

By Camille Mojica Rey, Contributing Writer
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When he arrived in New Jersey in 1980 to work for plastics giant Celanese, David Stirling, Ph.D., planned to stay for only one year. Stirling was not excited about working for such a large company, but the U.S. adventure was too enticing for the native of Scotland to pass up. So, Stirling joined a group of about seven biologists working at a central research facility with a large number of engineers and chemists. It was more fun than he expected, and he decided to stay. “We were kind of like a stand-alone lab,” Stirling recalls. In 1985, the group — then consisting of 20 biologists — was spun off as a company called Celgene.