Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> February 24, 1999
NICHOLAS LANDEKIC is President, Director, co-Founder and Chief Executive
Officer of PolyMedix, Inc. He has been in the pharmaceutical and
biotechnology industry for over 20 years, and has done some of the
largest and most important financing and corporate licensing deals in
the healthcare industry. From 2000 to 2002, he was President and Chief
Executive Officer and the first employee of Locus Discovery, where in
two years he raised $83 million in two record-breaking venture
financings, hired over 50 employees, started 12 drug discovery programs,
built one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, and earned
for the company the accolade 'One of the 10 hottest biotech startups'
from Drug Discovery Today magazine. Prior to Locus, from 1995 to 2000 he
was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations
at Guilford Pharmaceuticals, where he concluded a $465 million deal with
Amgen and a $100 million deal with Rhone-Poulenc Rorer. His deals have
twice been nominated for 'Allicense Deal of the Year.' Prior to
Guilford, from 1991 to 1995, he was Senior. Director, Business
Development at Cephalon; from 1988-1991 Senior Manager, Strategic
Marketing at Bristol-Myers Squibb; from 1985 to 1988, he held positions
in Finance and Business Development at Johnson & Johnson Corporation
(McNeil Pharmaceutical); and he also worked in the research laboratories
at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center from 1982 to 1983. He holds an MBA from
the State University of New York at Albany, an MS in Biology from
Indiana University and a BS in Biology from Marist College. Profile
Mr. Landekic: Guilford is actually a relatively young development stage
biopharmaceutical company. We're just five years old,
