Wikipedia

William Rastetter

William H. (aka Bill) Rastetter (born 1948), a scientist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, is the chair of Neurocrine Biosciences, of Fate Therapeutics,[4] and of Daré Bioscience, Inc.[5] in San Diego, California. He was a founding board member and investor in GRAIL, Inc. in Menlo Park, California, and served for a period as the company's interim CEO (2017) and chair (2017-2018).[6][7][8] Rastetter is also a director of Regulus Therapeutics[9] and Iambic Therapeutics. He was a partner in the venture firm Venrock (2006-2013),[4] and a trustee at Caltech (2015-2018).[10][11] He has served as a director (1998-2016) and as chair of Illumina (2005-2016).[4] He advised SVB Leerink[12] (2014-2019) and currently advises Illumina Ventures (since 2016).[13][4]

William Rastetter
Rastetter in 2018
Born
William Harry Rastetter[2]

1948
Panama[3]
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMIT, Harvard
AwardsBiotechnology Heritage Award[1]
Scientific career
FieldsBiotechnology, Venture capitalism
Doctoral advisorRobert Burns Woodward

Between 1986 and 2003, Rastetter held positions as President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and director at IDEC Pharmaceuticals.[4] At IDEC, Rastetter was a co-inventor of and developed Rituxan, the first monoclonal antibody (MAB) to be approved by the U.S. FDA for cancer therapy.[14][15] In 2003, Idec merged with Biogen to form the third largest biotech firm in the United States. Rastetter was Executive Chair of the new company, Biogen IDEC, from 2003 to 2005.[4][16]

Rastetter was also a co-founder, interim CEO and chairman of Receptos, Inc. a biopharmaceutical company which was bought by Celgene Corporation in 2015.[4][17][18]

Rastetter has been described as an "omnipotent biotech force"[13] by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals CEO John Maraganore and as an "industry legend" who has deep biotechnology expertise.[9]

Education

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William Harry Rastetter[2] was born in 1948 in Panama[19] to Richard William Rastetter and Margaret Van Oot Rastetter of Williamsburg, Va. Richard William Rastetter was a commander in the United States Navy and later worked for the State Department. As a result, the family lived in several countries,[20] including Panama, Brazil, and Costa Rica. Rastetter is bilingual in English and Spanish.[21] Rastetter's mother, Margaret Van Oot Rastetter, was an oil painter.[3] She encouraged his interest in the sciences.[21]

Rastetter graduated from high school in Bethesda, Maryland.[3] He went to MIT for his undergraduate work, receiving a bachelor of science (SB) in chemistry in 1971. He earned a master's (MA) in 1972 and a doctoral degree (PhD) in organic chemistry in 1975 from Harvard University.[10] His advisor at Harvard was Nobel Prize winner Robert Burns Woodward.[22] While at Harvard, Rastetter taught undergraduate classes.[21]

Personal life

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William Rastetter was married to illustrator Lucy Sands Dillon on August 21, 1982.[2][23] He moved to Rancho Santa Fe in 1987.[3]

William Rastetter later married Marisa Gard, an attorney and triathlete[24] who has been featured on the cover of USA Triathlon Life. Marisa Gard Rastetter is an attorney at the nonprofit San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program, and runs legal clinics for low-income people, dealing with legal matters as diverse as domestic violence, guardianship, and issues relating to HIV and AIDS.[25][26]

Career

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MIT

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Rastetter was an associate professor of chemistry at MIT. He held the Firmenich Endowed Chair (1979–1981) and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1980–1982).[2]

Genentech Inc.

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Rastetter joined Genentech Inc. in 1982 as a scientist, and directed its Biocatalysts and Chemical Sciences Groups from 1982 to 1984.[27] From 1984 to 1986, he served as Director of Corporate Ventures at Genentech.[4]

IDEC Pharmaceuticals / Biogen Idec

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Rastetter joined IDEC Pharmaceuticals, which was founded in 1985,[28] as of December 1986, shortly after funding of the Series A venture round.[21] In addition to being a director (1986-2003) and chair (1996-2003), he served as chief financial officer (1988–1993), and president and chief executive officer from 1986 to 2003.[4]

While at IDEC, Rastetter was a co-inventor of Rituxan,[14][15] which it co-marketed with Genentech. Rituxan was the first monoclonal antibody (MAB) to be approved by the FDA (1997) for the treatment of cancer.[10][29][30][31]

A small company strategy is very often driven by becoming the best in the world at doing something that the establishment distrusts, dislikes or does not understand. This was certainly the case at Idec Pharmaceuticals. – Rastetter, 2006[32]

In 2003, Idec Pharmaceuticals merged with Biogen to form the third largest biotech firm in the United States.[16] Following the merger, Rastetter became the executive chair of the new company, Biogen IDEC (2003–2005).[33][30]

LEERINK Partners

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Rastetter served (2014-2019) as a Member of the Advisory Council for Leerink Partners LLC (now SVB Leerink[34]), an investment bank focusing on healthcare. Other members included David Evans Shaw, James R. Tobin, David E.I. Pyott and Francois Nader.[12]

Illumina Ventures

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Rastetter serves as an adviser to Illumina Ventures, which focuses its investments in start-up companies driven by genomics and next generation sequencing technologies.[35][36] Rastetter served on the board of directors of Illumina, Inc. from 1998 to 2016, and as the non-executive chair of the Board of Directors of Illumina, Inc. from 2005 to 2016.[37][4]

Venrock

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Rastetter was a partner at the venture capital firm Venrock from 2006 until February 2013.[4][38]

Receptos, Inc.

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In 2007, Rastetter cofounded Receptos, Inc.,[4] a biopharmaceutical company. Rastetter served as interim CEO of Receptos from May 2009 to December 2, 2010;[17] and as a director and chair of the board from May 2009 to August 27, 2015. Receptos was acquired by Celgene Corporation in 2015.[18]

Fate Therapeutics

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Rastetter joined Fate Therapeutics, Inc. on December 14, 2011 as a director and as chair of the board.[39] Rastetter served as the Interim CEO at Fate Therapeutics from February 2012 to October 15, 2012, when Christian Weyer became president and CEO; Scott Wolchko is Fate's current president and CEO. Rastetter has continued as chair of the board of directors.[4][40]

Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.

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Rastetter has been a Director at Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. since February 8, 2010,[41] and the chair of the board of Neurocrine since May 25, 2011.[4]

Cerulean Pharma Inc. / Daré Bioscience

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Rastetter was involved in the funding of Cerulean Pharma, Inc. as early as 2009.[42] He became a Director of Cerulean Pharma in January 2014. He served as its Lead Independent Director from April 2014 to June 2016, and as chair of the board at Cerulean Pharma Inc. from June 2016 to July 2017.[4]

Effective as of July 20, 2017, Daré Bioscience Operations, Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Cerulean Pharma Inc., and Cerulean changed its name to Daré Bioscience, Inc.[43] Rastetter now serves on the board of directors and as chair of the board of Daré Bioscience.[5]

Regulus Therapeutics, Inc.

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Rastetter was appointed to the board of directors at Regulus Therapeutics Inc. as of April 1, 2013.[4][9]

Caltech

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Rastetter served on the board of trustees of Caltech from October 28, 2015 to 2018.[10][11]

GRAIL, Inc.

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Rastetter served on the board (2016-2020) of GRAIL, Inc., a life sciences company in Menlo Park, California that focuses on early cancer detection using deep genome sequencing; the company was a spinoff of Illumina and Google.[44][45][46] Rastetter served as chair (2017-2018) and as interim CEO (2017) during a leadership transition at the company which resulted in the hiring of Jennifer Cook.[7][4][6][13][8] GRAIL's CEO was Hans Bishop at the time of its acquisition by Illumina in 2020 which was disputed by the FTC and European authorities. Illumina divested Grail (GRAL, NASDAQ) under regulatory pressure in June 2024.

Photography

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Rastetter has a lifelong interest in photography, which began at age 11, when his mother gave him a Kodak box camera.[3] He experiments with techniques to overlay images[19] and to take extremely long exposures of up to 12 minutes using medium and large format cameras such as the Hasselblad H6D-100c.[3] He has exhibited at the Joseph Bellows Gallery, the Madison Gallery, and L&G Projects in La Jolla, California; and at the Oceanside Museum of Art in Oceanside, California;[19] and at The Ida and Cecil Green Faculty Club at the University of California, San Diego.[3][47]

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Biotechnology Heritage Award". Science History Institute. 2016-05-31. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d "Lucy Dillon to Be the Bride of Chemist". The New York Times. March 7, 1982. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Phillips, Stacey (April 5, 2017). "Rancho Santa Fe photographer creates illusion of painting in new photography exhibit". Rancho Santa Fe Review. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "William H. Rastetter". Bloomberg. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Dare Bioscience Inc. DARE (U.S.: Nasdaq)". Wall Street Journal. November 29, 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  6. ^ a b "GRAIL Appoints Chairman Bill Rastetter to Chief Executive Officer". GlobalNewsWire. August 2, 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  7. ^ a b Meiling, Brittany (August 3, 2017). "Biotech Veteran Bill Rastetter Named CEO at Grail". Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  8. ^ a b Keown, Alex (December 14, 2017). "GRAIL Poaches New CEO From Roche, Genentech". BioSpace. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  9. ^ a b c "Regulus Appoints William H. Rastetter, Ph.D. to its Board of Directors Industry Legend Brings Deep Biotechnology Expertise". Regulus. April 1, 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  10. ^ a b c d Fesenmaier, Kimm (October 28, 2015). "Caltech Elects Two New Members to the Board of Trustees". Caltech News. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  11. ^ a b "Trustee List". Caltech. 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  12. ^ a b "Founder of Ikaria and IDEXX Joins LEERINK Advisory Council". Business Wire. January 25, 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  13. ^ a b c Preston, Juliet (August 2, 2017). "Grail's high profile CEO steps down after 18-month tenure". MedCity News. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  14. ^ a b Shindell, Matthew (June 27, 2008). "William RastetterInterviewconducted by Matthew Shindell, Historian, UCSD June 27, 2008" (PDF). San Diego Technology Archive. UCSD San Diego. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  15. ^ a b California Life Sciences Association (CLSA) (November 9, 2015). "Distinguished Life Sciences Leaders to be Honored at CLSA's 2015 Pantheon DiNA Awards Ceremony". Globe Newswire. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  16. ^ a b Thayer, Ann (June 30, 2003). "BIOPHARMACEUTICALS BIOTECH MERGER Biogen and Idec Pharmaceuticals form third largest U.S. biotech firm". CENEAR. 81 (26): 8. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  17. ^ a b Timmerman, Luke (December 2, 2010). "Receptos Hires New CEO, Former Facet Leader, as Rastetter Moves Upstairs". exome. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  18. ^ a b Berkrot, Bill (July 14, 2015). "Celgene to buy Receptos for $7.2 billion; gains promising drug". Reuters. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  19. ^ a b c "Bill Rastetter". Madison Gallery. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  20. ^ Reynolds, Rick (May 4, 2000). "RICHARD W. RASTETTER". Daily Press. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  21. ^ a b c d Jones, Mark (2011). "William H. Rastetter, Interviews conducted by Mark Jones, Ph . D . San Francisco, California 9 March , 2011 and 10 June , 2011" (PDF). The Life Sciences Foundation Oral History Program. Life Sciences Foundation. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  22. ^ "Robert B. Woodward". Chemistry Tree. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  23. ^ "Lucy Dillon and William Rastetter". The New York Times. August 22, 1982. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  24. ^ Tash, Joe (March 4, 2015). "Rancho Santa Fe couple co-chairing Planned Parenthood anniversary dinner". Rancho Santa Fe Review. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  25. ^ Mayne, Aleta. "Alumni Spotlights: Q & A with Marisa Gard Rastetter '96, triathlete and attorney". Colgate Community. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  26. ^ Warren, Teresa (October 2, 2012). "JUSTICE FOR ALL: Not Just a Concept, a Celebration!". Orange County Attorney Journal. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  27. ^ Cunningham, Randall (May 21, 2004). "Honoring Ginger L. Graham and Dr. William H. Rastetter". HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Washington, DC. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  28. ^ "Exhibit 99.1 Biogen and IDEC Pharmaceuticals Announce Merger To Create a New Biotechnology Industry Leader". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 1 December 2018. IDEC — Founded in 1985 to develop monoclonal antibodies. Founders include Ivor Royston, Howard Birndorf, Richard Miller and Brook Byers
  29. ^ "First New Drug for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in Decade Receives FDA Clearance for Marketing". Genentech. Nov 26, 1997. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  30. ^ a b Covell, Jeffrey L. (2006). "Biogen Idec Inc". International Directory of Company Histories. Thomson Gale. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  31. ^ Marks, Lara V. (June 30, 2015). The Lock and Key of Medicine : Monoclonal Antibodies and the Transformation of Healthcare. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300167733. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  32. ^ Fikes, Bradley J. (November 16, 2006). "Idec's story one of inspiration: Company's co-founder gives advice to small companies trying to succeed". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  33. ^ Pollack, Andrew (June 24, 2003). "Idec to Merge With Biogen in $6.8 Billion Deal". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  34. ^ Group, SVB Financial. "SVB Financial Group Completes Acquisition of Healthcare Investment Bank Leerink Partners". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2019-01-31. {{cite press release}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  35. ^ LeMieux, Julianna (January 11, 2019). "All Aboard the Genome Express Is a new generation of DNA sequencing technology about to hit the fast track?". Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  36. ^ Buhr, Sarah (2016). "Illumina wants to sequence your whole genome for $100". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  37. ^ "Illumina Names William Rastetter Chairman of Board and Appoints John Stuelpnagel Chief Operating Officer". Business Wire. January 27, 2005. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  38. ^ "Venrock Associates Hires Two Venture Partners and Promotes Roberts and Ascher; Venture Firm Expands Resources in Biotech and Healthcare". Business Wire. September 14, 2006. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  39. ^ "Fate Therapeutics Announces the Appointment of William H. Rastetter as Chairman and Interim CEO". Fate Therapeutics. December 14, 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  40. ^ "Fate Therapeutics Names Christian Weyer New CEO". Fierce Biotech. October 15, 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  41. ^ "Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. Announces the Appointment of William H. Rastetter to Its Board of Directors". Biospace. February 8, 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  42. ^ "Cerulean Pharma Inc. Closes $10 Million Series B-1 Financing". Biospace. July 28, 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  43. ^ Johnson, Sabrina Martucci (July 19, 2017). "Cerulean Pharma and Daré Bioscience Announce Closing and New Stock Symbol, "DARE"". Business Wire. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  44. ^ Battelle, John (June 1, 2016). "Chasing The Grail: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Illumina, and Google Ventures Are Betting This Company Will Find A Cure For Cancer". NewCoShift. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  45. ^ Preston, Juliet (March 8, 2017). "Behind Grail, Illumina's billion-dollar diagnostics startup". MedCity News. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  46. ^ Farr, Christina (September 19, 2016). "Illumina, Secret Giant Of DNA Sequencing, Is Bringing Its Tech To The Masses". Fast Company. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  47. ^ Frabl, Linda. "Bill Rastetter Interprets Scenery in a Creative Fashion". 92067. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  48. ^ Macone-Greene, Christina (July 30, 2015). "Rastetter receives Lifetime Achievement award". The Coast News Group. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  49. ^ Zasadny, Will (November 9, 2015). "Distinguished Life Sciences Leaders To Be Honored At California Life Sciences Association's 2015 Pantheon Dina Awards Ceremony". BioSpace. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  50. ^ "CONNECT Entrepreneur Hall of Fame". CONNECT. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  51. ^ "PREVIOUS WINNERS OF THE JACOB HESKEL GABBAY AWARD IN BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE" (PDF). Brandeis University. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  52. ^ "CONGRATULATIONS-FINALISTS FOR SAN DIEGO'S ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARDS" (PDF). UCSD CONNECT. May 12, 1998. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  53. ^ "Visit the Hall of Fame". Ernst & Young Global Limited. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
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