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BIOPHARMACEUTICAL
Hervé Hoppenot
Incyte
Taking the helm of Incyte in 2014
after a career at pharmaceutical giant Novartis, Hervé Hoppenot has led the Wilmington-based drug development company to new heights. Building upon Incyte’s billion-dollar drug
Jakafi, Hoppenot has overseen Incyte’s move into the dermatological sector, developing Opzelura, the first drug approved to treat vitiligo. With that success, Incyte is investing heavily
to grow its product development
in dermatology and autoimmunity, with plans to address other more
rare disorders. The company’s annual revenue has grown nearly 600% since Hoppenot took over, and it has invested heavily in its Delaware headquarters, adding staff and facilities, with plans to further grow in the near future with a major expansion project at the former Friends School campus.
ALMA MATER:
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Q&A:
Vance Kershner
LabWare
A former DuPont scientist, Vance Kershner left to found LabWare in 1987, developing a software to better streamline workflow and track lab processes. Today, it is claimed that
a product that has been affected by LabWare is always within 6 feet of
us – ranging from medicines to foods, gas to chemicals. More than 1 billion samples go through LabWare software each year from 2,500 customers in
125 countries. With the success of LabWare, Kershner has become increasingly involved in a variety of other pursuits, including co-founding the venture capital firm Leading Edge Ventures, operating Wilmington- area restaurants Buckley’s Tavern and Goober’s Diner, and developing overseas resorts in the British Virgin Islands and South Africa.
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Q&A:
Eric Kmiec
ChristianaCare Gene Editing Institute & CorriXR Therapeutics
As one of the nation’s foremost researchers on the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR for the last three decades, Eric Kmiec has brought attention to Delaware from the wider biopharmaceutical industry. The former University of Delaware professor partnered in 2015 with the state’s largest health care system, ChristianaCare, to launch the Gene Editing Institute to further research into the potential to overcome drug resistance in solid tumors. Its programs for treating cancers of the lung, head and neck, and esophageal cancer are now advancing through the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval process toward the clinic. In 2022, he spun out some of the institute’s most promising work in a new startup, CorriXR Therapeutics, that could be a major job creator of the future.
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Kelvin Lee
NIIMBL & University of Delaware
When the University of Delaware looked to host the creation of the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL), a federally designated accelerator for work in biopharmaceutical manufacturing,
it turned to former Delaware Biotechnology Institute Director Kelvin Lee. Since taking the helm of NIIMBL in 2017, Lee has led the private-public organization to new heights, raising hundreds of millions in funding to advance projects that build upon lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. The presence of NIIMBL
has raised the profile of Delaware and UD in the biopharmaceutical industry, helping to attract new economic development. It is preparing to break ground on its latest expansion, the SABRE Center, that will work as a manufacturing plant test bed.
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24 DELAWARE 222 | DelawareBusinessTimes.com
