Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 187 - Leonard Mazur - CEO Citius Pharma

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Episode 187 - Leonard Mazur - CEO Citius Pharma · The BioHub - by Avetix

• 0:06
  Welcome back to another episode of the Biohub and Avetics
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  podcast. Today, I'm joined by Leonard
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  Mazer, CEO of Citius Pharmaceuticals.
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  Leonard has spent decades building companies across the
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  pharma industry, founding, scaling, and successfully
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  exiting multiple ventures along the way.
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  Today, he leads Citius, a late stage by a biopharmaceutical
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  company focused on developing and commercializing critical
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  care and oncology therapies. In this conversation, we talk
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  about Leonard's journey through the industry, what it takes to
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  build companies from scratch, the strategy behind Citius, and
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  the lessons he's learned along the way.
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  It's a pleasure to have you. How are you, Leonard?
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  Great, great to great to be honest with you.
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  Thank you for for the time. It's amazing to have you.
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  So thank you for coming on and I really wanted to just start off
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  at the start of your journey. So you you spent decades
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  building companies across the pharma industry.
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  What? What originally drew you into
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  the space? That's a great question.
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  I wish I could tell you that I was sitting there and at the
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  university saying to myself, I want to be in this industry.
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  That did not happen that way. So, but it's what I always, I
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  refer to it, you know, when you're a you graduate, I
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  graduated as a liberal arts graduate, you know, majoring in
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  psychology. I had really had no interest in
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  going into that into that arena. So it was, I call it the random
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  walk that occurs after you graduate.
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  So and what it's kind of interesting, what I used to do
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  is in those days, the the newspapers ran big on Sundays.
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  One ads for job postings. And so at one point, my eye was
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  drawn to pharmaceutical sales. OK.
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  You know, company car expense account.
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  And I thought to myself, you know, that sounds kind of
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  interesting, OK. And that, that's how it got
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  started. So, you know, I basically
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  interviewed with, with a bunch of companies and I, you know, I
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  was, I was so fortunate that the, the company I picked was
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  the right company for me at that time.
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  All right, It was one of the best things that I ever did was,
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  was start there. So you know that company, if you
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  want, I can get into it a little bit.
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  Yeah, for sure. For sure it was.
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  It was called Cooper Laboratories or Cooper Labs as
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  we used to call it. It was an entrepreneurial
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  company founded by an entrepreneur by the name of
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  Parker G Montgomery, and he was a probably the best deal maker
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  I, I, I've met in my lifetime and he, he, the company made 150
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  acquisitions. All right, most people don't
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  know this, but so, and because of that, that explosive growth,
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  it gave me an opportunity to, if for, to, you know, move up in
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  the, in the ranks as the, as the company grew.
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  So I was, I was really, really fortunate in that ultimately
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  after a limited amount of time, probably a little bit less than
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  two years, I was promoted into marketing as a marketing
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  research analyst and that then allowed me to really progress
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  within the company because. Then get you an upgrade on on
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  your company car as well. Living around, I had to give the
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  company car back. So that was very unfortunate.
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  So, but nevertheless, I also at the same time then I finished
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  up, I was doing my my MBA in the evenings.
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  So you know, and I started out that way with as a, as a sales
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  Rep. So I get promoted.
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  I was kind of halfway through. I had to basically spend a fair
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  amount of time driving back and forth.
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  I was in a car in my life at that time, but I got through it
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  so. Yeah, I love that.
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  And then if you go on further into your career, what, what
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  were some of the other experiences or, or challenges
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  that shaped you as a leader today?
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  Well, today, it's today it's, you know, a lot different than
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  what it was back when I was starting out, obviously.
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  So I wasn't really in a, in a leadership role as much as I was
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  in staff roles for a fair amount of time.
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  But again, the company did give me opportunities to, to have
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  people start reporting to me and so forth.
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  So, and I think that the, the, the bigger challenges today in
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  this in this industry are of course getting, getting your
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  drug approved through the FDA that's always been there.
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  So that, that challenge, but I, I can't comment whether or not
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  today is easier than it was years ago.
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  I think Padufa fees changed a lot because it put the FDA on
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  footing where you know, they're for a fee, they would commit to
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  a A1 year review or an expedited situations a, a six month
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  review. So I think that part of it is a
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  is a big plus compared to the way it was.
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  Because what I recall back in the old days is the FDA would
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  wait till the end of the year and all of a sudden here comes
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  this flurry of approvals. And if you were there sitting
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  there waiting and all of a sudden you didn't get approved,
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  nothing happened and you don't know why.
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  All right, waiting. So that that was like a serious
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  problem because, you know, planning for launching and
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  getting people on board and so forth, all that would depend
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  upon that. So that that was that was that
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  was much different. Because now today you can plan
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  for your more or less with some a good degree of certainty.
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  You can plan for your launch and you can plan for what what it is
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  that you need to deploy. So I think that that's that's
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  changed. I think a lot of this depends
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  upon where you are, whether you're with a large established
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  company, which we're not. And I think if you're a smaller
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  company, small, you know, startup or otherwise, I mean in
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  a smaller company category, your challenges are significant.
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  You know, the, it's, it's all about the capital, number one,
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  it's about building a team of people that can execute.
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  That's really, really critical in terms of your people are your
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  biggest asset. Now, a lot of I think they're
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  pharmaceutical companies that would say no, you know, it's,
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  it's the drug. Yeah, that's true.
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  But I'm convinced you could have a a bad drug with great and I
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  won't say bad drug, but but let's say an average drug with
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  with a phenomenal team and that'll do really well.
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  Or it could be a so, so team and it's not going to do well.
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  So again, it's the people factor.
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  I think it is really, really critical once you get out into
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  the marketplace and watch. And I think that's that's the
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  biggest challenge is, is putting together a, a, a team of
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  committed professionals that can deliver that.
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  That is, I find that is probably one of one of the most important
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  factors in terms of building a company. 100% I, I, I mean,
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  you've built multiple companies from from scratch, right?
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  Obviously the team you just spoke about that, but like what?
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  What really does it take to be to build a successful company
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  from scratch? From scratch, I've done it from
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  scratch. I've done it from a zero start.
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  I didn't have any capital backing.
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  I had none of it. And.
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  I can tell you those days, those days were so challenging, but
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  along the way you'd kind of develop certain credos as to how
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  you operate and what's important to you.
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  So number one was failure is not an option.
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  That was critical. That was so I no matter what,
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  this, I was not going to fail. This enterprise was not going to
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  fail. I was going to make sure I was
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  going to do everything possible to make sure it succeeded.
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  And I think that I think that is what gets you through it more
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  than anything else. Because in the very beginning
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  when you're at zero, you are, you are at zero.
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  I remember I used to come home and tell my wife, you know,
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  sometimes I feel like I'm pushing a peanut up the side of
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  a mountain with my nose. All right, So it was it, It
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  could be that grinding. All right.
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  So it takes a lot of commitment to be to be an entrepreneur and
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  especially an entrepreneur starting from zero.
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  Yeah, yeah. And there's that resilient side
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  of it as well, right? Like if you're making any kind
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  of progress, that's good progress.
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  But like you talk about the grind like it's not for the
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  faint heart. Far, far, far from it.
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  Far from it. Because you know.
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  You know what it is. Every day you wake up and you
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  realize the only one who cares about your business is you and
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  no one else. No one.
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  You are the you are the one that has to bring it across the
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  finish line. That is so critical.
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  So that was that was the other other part of it because the
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  rest of the world doesn't care. So you have to, you got to
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  realize that also. So there's a, there's a lot to
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  it there. You got to bring a lot of lot, a
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  lot of it a lot of yourself, but also marshalling resources,
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  marshalling relationships. A lot of those things become
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  really, really important in the very beginning.
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  I would say it was the relationship side of it that
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  really got me going. It was my relationships that I
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  had with people to business. I mean, you know, when I went on
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  my own, I did it at the age of 50, which is again, I've said
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  this before, the worst possible age to go on your own because
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  you have everything to lose everything.
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  So and you got to be prepared for that.
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  So that that becomes critical. What originally made you made
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  that decision to go on your own? Well, you know what it is.
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  So I worked for several entrepreneurial companies.
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  You know, Cooper Labs was one. I was also at ICN
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  Pharmaceuticals, which was definitely an entrepreneurial
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  company. And then I ultimately went to to
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  Medicus Pharmaceuticals, another entrepreneurial company.
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  And it was my experiences at those entrepreneurial companies
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  that that led me to thinking, you know, if they can do it, I
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  can do it. That's about the only way I
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  could think about it, even though, I mean, all the
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  individuals were, they were very different.
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  They had different styles, different ways of approaching
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  it. And it also, I always used to
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  say, when you have that entrepreneurial itch inside of
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  you, you got to scratch it. So and.
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  And that's what I did. Yeah, no regrets, right?
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  I had, I had, I had to do that. It was important.
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  It was, it was really critical. So, but I because I said, if I
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  don't do this, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my
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  life. And that's something you don't
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  want to do. I had a great career, I had
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  everything going. But I've decided that's it.
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  I'm doing it. Yeah, I love that.
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  And let's let's talk about the most recent venture, which is
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  you know where you are now Citius for for those who don't
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  know the company who, who are you guys and what, what are you
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  building? So we actually have two
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  companies. OK.
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  So the parent company, Citius Pharmaceuticals, that's the
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  company that I'm a Co founder with, with Myron Halubiak, who
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  used to be the the president of Roche Labs US.
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  I've known Martin for a long, long time.
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  We always spoke about getting together.
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  So we finally got to that point in our lives where we could do
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  it. So and we formed a company
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  primarily to see if we could develop drugs that address an
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  unmet medical need. And the very first drug that we
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  engaged with was a drug that we licensed from from MD Anderson
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  and Houston, probably 1 of the world's top cancer institutions.
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  And the chief of infectious disease doctor Eason Rad had
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  invented a solution that would sterilize infected Cath infected
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  central venous catheters. So what it is the large numbers
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  of cancer patients, a lot, a lot of these are cancer patients
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  have these long term catheters, they're surgically implanted and
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  if they get infected today the standard of care is to remove
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  and replace the Cath. That is a very painful
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  procedure, not like by patients by patients or anybody.
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  And so Doctor Rad invented a solution that gets injected into
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  the catheter and align. It does not go into man if the
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  line gets locked. And this solution the nurse can
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  administer it stays for resides for about two hours within the
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  within that catheter line. At the end of two hours, the the
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  solution is aspirated out by the nurse and then the patient then
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  has 22 hours of uninterrupted IV flow.
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  That's really, really critical. And then do that same procedure
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  five to seven days in a row and that catheter and that line are
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  completely sterilized, including any, any biofilm which is
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  bacterial slime that forms on the inner walls of the catheter.
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  So it's a remarkable solution. It's one-of-a-kind.
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  We think the market for this is fairly large, probably somewhere
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  around 400 to 500,000 episodes of that in the US on an annual
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  basis. So we, we licensed that drug in
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  and I should add that both myself and Myron, we, we put our
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  own money into the company and a significant sum of money
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  directly. So in the millions.
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  So, and, and that was just part of, it's the way I always like
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  doing, doing everything is that if you're asking investors to
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  put money in, you should be prepared to put money in too.
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  So basically we weren't doing it for stock options.
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  So, so as a result that we kicked off a clinical trial 2-3
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  years later after getting everything going.
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  It took a while to get that program in place because of the
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  fact that no one had any real, there's no reference points of
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  terms of antibiotic lock solutions being used in this,
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  with this kind of use. So we're really pioneering
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  something here that was brand new with the FDA and with us.
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  So it took a while to work out protocols and things of that
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  nature, but so we're well and away with that.
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  That's already we've got we're in discussions now with FDA with
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  the latest round of clinical data and we'll see where we are
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  after we conclude all those discussions.
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  So we also, what happened here is we started out as a private
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  company and then in 2016, seventeen, in that time frame we
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  merged in with the with Sidious, which was public because we
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  recognized that we had to have access to the public markets in
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  order to fund the research, that this was going to be an
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  expensive proposition. We realized that and so we
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  merged in with Sidious, which was public.
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  Sidious also had, it's kind of interesting, they had a drug in
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  there. It was a portfolio that we
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  decided to keep. At first we weren't sure and it
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  was a hemorrhoid drug. It's kind of a field from what
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  we're doing, but we thought we could, there was something that
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  we could monetize ultimately for the shareholders in that in the
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  21st century there isn't a single FDA approved prescription
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  drug for the treatment of hemorrhoid.
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  You have, you have the over the counter market, which has
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  Preparation H and those kinds of products, but they're only good
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  for, for Grade 1 hemorrhoids, not 2-3 and four.
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  So and there's a, there are many patient visits to to the
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  physician's office and there really isn't anything
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  specifically designed for hemorrhoids.
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  So we thought our goal there is not to market that, it's just to
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  take it through, show that it has efficacy and then out
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  license it or sell it off and monetize it that way.
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  So those are that kind of comprises what cities
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  pharmaceuticals about. And what happened here is that
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  and in 2021 we had an opportunity to acquire a license
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  for a for a rare cancer drug. What happened was Doctor Reddy's
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  of of India, which is a generic company primarily had been on an
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  expansion program at one point and acquired a bunch of branded
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  assets in order to build a branded business in the US.
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  Then they decided not to to go with forward with that and they
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  decided to divest those those assets.
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  One of them was this a cancer drug that was under development
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  with the yeah, Eastside Pharmaceuticals.
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  That, that was the, the group that basically out licensed the
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  drug to readies. So, so in December of or
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  September of 21, we we acquired that we put the drug into a
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  subsidiary company and that subsidiary company we call it
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  Sidious Oncology. It was ultimately acquired by a
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  SPAC specified purpose acquisition corporation in order
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  to take that public immediately and be NASDAQ listed so that we
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  could raise funds for that also which is what we did.
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  So as a result, we have a, we have two separate public
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  companies for a small company. It's, it's interesting.
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  So the way we manage that is the same people that are managing
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  Citius Pharmaceuticals are also managing Citius Oncology in a
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  shared management services agreement between two companies.
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  So we're we're, we're that's working out well for us right
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  now. So the ultimately.
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  The the cancer drug did get approved in in August of of of
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  24 and we basically have been prepping now for the launch of
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  that. We launched the drug at the at
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  the end of the year in August, but at the end of this year of
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  of of 25 in December, we launched it without a sales
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  force in place. So that sales force is being put
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  in place now as we speak. The first representatives have
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  just come on board. So we have, it's an exciting
• 20:49
  moment for us because finally we're going, we're moving from
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  what I generously always call pre revenue to revenue, which is
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  great, which is a great, it's a great feeling to do that.
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  And we're, we're, we're working with extensively with Eversana
• 21:08
  that's providing us with, with, with good support in terms of
• 21:13
  all the back office shipping, billing, invoicing and so forth.
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  We have all that in place and we, we work with them in terms
• 21:20
  of building out the sales force also.
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  So we just started the sale. The first sales people actually
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  came on board this week. So yesterday it was yesterday
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  was a great day because I had a chance to go online.
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  We're doing it in tranches, so we're only going to have 25
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  people or 26 people out there. So we're doing it in tranches
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  1/3 roughly at a time or a fourth at a time, depending.
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  So basically it was great to get on a call and meet everybody.
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  It was just, it was just a great moment for us.
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  I can't, I can't tell you how, how, how I felt and how
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  everybody felt. So, you know, it's a, it's,
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  we're a new company. We're in cancer, which is which
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  it's a great field to be in because you're really helping
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  people and that's really important also.
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  So we're, we're doing really, really we're, we're excited
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  about this, this it's going to be a great opportunity for us.
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  Oh, you should be. That's so exciting.
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  I mean, that's, that's a moment that a lot of people can go
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  their whole career without even ever seeing that moment, you
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  know, going commercial. Correct.
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  You're right, you're right. You, you can go through your
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  entire career and not have moments like this.
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  And this is, this is a, it's a great moment for for us.
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  So we're we're thrilled by it. Yeah, yeah, Love that.
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  And you know, when you're, you're sort of identifying these
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  assets or at least therapeutic areas to go after, like what,
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  how do you go about that? Like, what do you think about
• 22:53
  when you're identifying them? So you know what, what you got
• 22:56
  to think about strategically is what is it you want to beat when
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  you grow up kind of thing, you know so, but so, so the one
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  thing we did know is this, we weren't going to build a primary
• 23:07
  care company at all. We had no interest in that.
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  We preferred small specialty niches if at all possible so
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  that we would not require a gigantic Salesforce.
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  We could operate well in a niche, get to be known.
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  It's it was, it was, it's the best way to go.
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  It's been my experience, you know, dating back to the Cooper
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  days actually, that specialties is the way to go.
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  And if you can do that and identify the specialty, get
• 23:42
  comfortable with it. And what, what makes it really
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  great is this, you can rapidly build relationships with the,
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  with that, with those specialties.
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  They get to know you, they get to know the, the company.
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  It's a, it's a, it's a lot easier to, to penetrate into a
• 23:59
  market segment and it's, it's very rewarding and, and, and in
• 24:03
  a, in a lot of ways. And I think oncology is one of
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  those that's just a great, great field to be identified with and
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  to be in. Yeah, love that.
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  And if you were going to give advice to the younger generation
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  trying to join Farmer today, like what?
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  What advice would you give them? So, so it's like this.
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  What I, what I would advise is be prepared to start at the
• 24:32
  bottom and you can't start at the top.
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  You can't even start midway. You got to start at the bottom,
• 24:40
  dig in, learn the business from the bottom up as much as
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  possible. And you know, what I found is
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  when I got into this way back, what I, what I really developed
• 24:50
  was a real passion for the business.
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  I really liked the pharmaceutical business.
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  I liked what it was all about. I studied everything about it.
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  So that's my, that would be my advice to, to, to young people
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  coming in, come in with some passion and also get to really
• 25:09
  know what that industry or what you're all about and what this
• 25:12
  industry's all about and all the, all the good things that
• 25:16
  you can accomplish within it. And, and identify the areas that
• 25:20
  you think you'd like to be in because it's there's loads of
• 25:23
  opportunities throughout the industry.
• 25:26
  Yeah, that's a great bit of advice.
• 25:28
  I think too many try and jump the gun right, like, you know,
• 25:33
  get to a place where they they, they don't need to be, learn the
• 25:36
  ropes and then then get to that. Correct, correct.
• 25:39
  So that that's really critical, really critical.
• 25:42
  Well, it's been great having you on, Leonard.
• 25:45
  And it's this brings us to the final question now, which the
• 25:48
  question I ask everyone, if you could have dinner with any
• 25:52
  scientist or innovator, past or present, who would it be and
• 25:55
  why? So I have two actually.
• 25:58
  All right, if you don't mind, I'll let that.
• 26:00
  Slide, yeah. Pharmaceutical side and and and
• 26:06
  that is his name is it's actually Sir James Black.
• 26:09
  He's he passed away a number of years ago, but he invented the
• 26:16
  very first beta blocker in Doral into the marketplace.
• 26:20
  And then he came along and also invented a breakthrough in ulcer
• 26:25
  treatments, which was Tagamet. And for anybody to have
• 26:30
  accomplished that just, I mean, it's, it's Major League.
• 26:36
  It's Major League. And I, I really would like to
• 26:37
  have like a dinner with somebody like that and really probe them
• 26:41
  as to the thinking, the create, create a lot of creativity
• 26:45
  involved in that. All right, So that's 1/2 the
• 26:51
  best, the greatest inventor of all times, Thomas Alva Edison.
• 26:55
  He changed the world, changed the world completely.
• 27:00
  All right, So his breakthroughs are just unbelievable.
• 27:04
  I'd love to get together with, I would love to get together with
• 27:07
  somebody like that. So hopefully that answers the
• 27:10
  question for you. All right.
• 27:12
  Great answers, really good answers.
• 27:14
  Thank you so much for coming on, Leonard.
• 27:15
  It's been an absolute pleasure. Same here.
• 27:19
  And everyone please like and subscribe to the Bio Hub and and
• 27:22
  thank you so much again. All right.
• 27:24
  Thank you again.