From Bike Mechanic To Surgeon To CEO
By Niels Riedemann, M.D.
It’s not as much of a stretch as you might think.
I’ve always loved bikes. In my early 20s, I was a competitive athlete in triathlons, which only amplified my interest. As fate would have it, when being a student, the bottom bracket of my street bike broke one day, and the local bike shop told me it was unfixable but that if I could find a way to repair it that same day, they would hire me. Challenge accepted! As a young student in med school, I needed the job.
I sought the help of a nearby welder, and with some fancy tinkering and disassembling, we figured out a way to put the bike back together. I got the job! But more importantly, I realized I was good with my hands and using tools. Soon enough, I became an even better bike salesman because I understood the mechanics and what I was selling.
I was selling bikes in the late 1990s, while I was in school. I was a med student in Germany and intern in California and later a researcher in Michigan studying immunology and inflammation; I never considered becoming a drug developer or CEO, much less taking a company public on Nasdaq. However, when my now business partner, Dr. Renfeng Guo, and I realized the potential implications of our discoveries in the Michigan lab, we were convinced they could one day impact patients' lives. So, that’s exactly where my journey has taken me.
The company I cofounded in 2007 with Dr. Renfeng focuses on the discovery of inhibitors of the human complement factor C5a, a powerful inflammatory mediator involved in the progression of various autoimmune and other inflammatory diseases. Fast-forward 17 years, and I am even more encouraged and hopeful as our teams based in Germany and the U.S. collaborate to benefit patients.
During a recent interview, I was asked to reflect on my many years of experience in the biotech industry and drug development and over 20 years of experience in complement immunology research to find lessons that can be applied to running a public company. The business side of drug development was a transition in which I had no formal training. I realize now that my passion for helping people with scientific discoveries, curiosity, and persistence are three pillars that have shaped my career. These innate human traits and a few lessons learned along the way have kept me in the game.
Understanding A Patient’s Needs
As a treating physician and surgeon, active listening is vital. Asking the patient what matters to them opens up the discussion about what is critical to the patient, and it allows you to meet them where they’re at and incorporate what matters to them into their bespoke care plan. Establishing open dialogue to discuss symptoms, concerns, and treatment options immediately sets the tone for mutual respect and a good bedside manner. I’ve learned that you have to meet the patient where they’re at and recognize that their goal may not be solely related to their medical condition. You have to plan your actions accordingly.
As a certified intensivist, I learned what it means when your patient cannot be his advocate anymore. When you cannot ask your patient which treatment he would prefer. Instead, you have to act on his behalf, in his best interest, in many situations. Of course, sometimes relatives or friends can be authorized to speak on the patient´s behalf. But first, this takes time, and second, it will never be the same as talking to your patient directly.
Interestingly, we all never imagine in our daily lives that it may only take some misfortune, like an accident or a severe infection, for us to end up as that patient who cannot be his own advocate.
The Importance Of Teams
Teamwork: You have to be in it for the right reasons. Building the right team can take years. But it can be magic when you one day realize that you truly have a well-functioning team. Team members cannot be afraid to make mistakes, and they must be open to learning from them and to sharing their learnings with their team. I also learned that a positive company culture is something that takes time to develop and that the leadership team has a decisive role in it: as leaders we become the role model for what we want our company culture to be with our passion, our work ethic, our respect, and especially the way we interact with each other in front of our team.
Understanding this impact and adopting a collaborative mindset leads to greater respect for our teammates and collaborators and their unique contributions to patient care. A friend of mine who happens to be our CFO, Tom Taapken, always says that biotech means working as a team and that includes everyone and every function in your company. I could not agree more with him.
Applying Your Skills
We all have a life story, but we may not all be aware how this story shaped us to be the person we are today. My background as a researcher helps me understand complex biology. My experiences as a surgeon and intensivist helps me understand patient needs and how relatives may think and react in critical situations. As an investigator, I enrolled patients in clinical trials and understood the mechanics, background, and training required for conducting this clinical research.
However, I also learned that drug development is much more facetted and requires a multi-dimensional view and many additional aspects aside from conducting a clinical trial. I believe physicians who have not been on the side of a drug developer frequently underestimate this complexity and the contingencies related to resources, the market environment, etc. If anything, being on the side of developing drugs inside a company made me a much more humble person and made me realize that things rarely are as easy as they may seem from the outside.
It Takes A Village
I cannot overstate the importance of personal relationships. I certainly don’t have all the answers, so I surround myself with knowledgeable, dedicated people who offer a specific skillset and experiences I may not have. As a responsible ICU physician, you have to make decisions on the spot, often times decisions which can mean life or death. As CEO, I have learned how important it is to listen to a wide range of educated opinions before making a critical decision. And finally, we all know we would not be in business without our financial backers, who keep the lights on and allow us to develop solutions for patients. When the company was in its very early days, we had more private investors, but now as a public company, most of them are institutional investors in the healthcare sector. Deploying the large amount of capital needed to develop drugs and understanding how often drug development fails, requires both trust and respect for one another.
As for my days in the bike shop, I learned an important lesson I often draw on to this day. If you understand the parts of a bike and how they interact to make a good bike, that makes a whole lot of difference when you are selling one, because you know what you are talking about.
As for my biotech CEO days, I learned that your team is everything. It carries you through good and bad times and it is your team which develops solutions for patients. You just have the privilege to lead it, that’s all.
About The Author:
Prof. Niels C. Riedemann, Prof. Dr. Med. has over 15 years of experience in the biotech industry and drug development and over 20 years of experience in complement immunology research. He founded InflaRx in 2007 and has served as CEO since its inception.