Tailored Medicine: Q&A With Geert Cauwenbergh, RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp. President And CEO

Geert Cauwenbergh President and CEO, RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp., Westborough

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By Rick Saia

Nearly a year ago, RXi Pharmaceuticals, then based in Worcester, announced it would split into two companies and focus on developing RNAi-based therapeutics, which help moderate gene activity. Earlier this year, RXi — of which Nobel Laureate Craig Mello is a founder — hired industry executive Geert Cauwenbergh, a developer of dermatological drugs, as its president and CEO. Soon after, RXi announced that it successfully initiated its first clinical study with an RNAi compound, RXI-109, which is aimed at reducing skin scarring by reducing connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) after surgery. RXi moved its executive offices to Westborough in July.

Has there ever been a more exciting time to be in the pharmaceuticals field?

Not only will it be possible now to get much better diagnostics for the individual, those diagnostics will be linked to the right drug for the individual, and approvals will often mean — and you see that already in some of the approvals — (a drug for which) the patient has been shown to have (a) specific genetic defect or that specific protein deficiency, meaning that the diagnostic (work) has to go together with the treatment.

So you can have much more targeted treatment.

And percent-wise, better results.

You seem to have the right background to lead RXi at this time, given your tenure at Johnson & Johnson. Why did this company appeal to you?

It was in a space I actually know relatively little about: oligonucleotides. Yes, I've been on the boards of a few biological companies, so I know my way around a little bit. But the time had come for RXi to move away from (the) variety of things (in which it had been involved, and) to take some of our assets that are far enough advanced where we say, “We feel really good about what we've seen (in trials) and we should push this to the clinic. … Then of course, you say, “Which is the one that has the most interesting market opportunity while not being a real pain to develop?”

What one or two things do the biotech and pharmaceutical industries need in order to grow and thrive?

As little government interference as possible, common sense and with common sense I mean — it's almost a political statement but it's not meant to be a political statement — tort reform. I think if law firms would not be able to charge based on winning or losing … that would dramatically reduce the cost of doing medicine for physicians. And that would dramatically reduce the cost of medications.

(Also) extend patent life. If you do that so that you allow companies to recoup their investment with a profit — because that's what capitalism is all about — that will lower prices as well.

The sciences will help drive some — if not most — economic growth into the future. In your view, does the U.S. education system need to do more to help develop the next generation of scientists and help propel that growth?

Oh, yes! I came to this country in 1994. My kids went to high school when we arrived here. But when the first year was over, my son said: “Dad, this is not like school in Europe; this is summer camp.” And then I started looking into it. In kindergarten, the kids here are ahead of the Europeans … (but) it goes absolutely wrong in high school. And that is why a bachelor's degree in the U.S. takes four years; and in the rest of the world it takes three years. It's because parents expect everything from the school. When you're a teenager … you're going through a lot of change and you're going to make a lot of choices that ideally should be guided. I think that if parents would accept better discipline in high school, and the kids would automatically have to accept it, (then) things would be a lot better.

Here, the parents are always right and the kid is always right; the school is wrong. There needs to be more balance.

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