Leedman sets sights on eye drug approval

WINNING a WA Business News 40under40 Award in 2004 while working as the head of marketing at Ernst & Young in Perth was a game changer for Brian Leedman.

Today, Mr Leedman is the vice-president of Perth-founded pSivida Corp, a provider of sustained-release drug delivery products based in Massachusetts.

He told WA Business News he is eagerly anticipating the US Food and Drug Administration’s decision on whether to approve the company’s leading development product, Iluvien, a ‘one-of-a-kind’ treatment for a diabetic eye disease.

It may seem unusual to jump from a career in marketing to one managing investor relations at a biotechnology company, but Mr Leedman said the two fields were remarkably similar.

“I didn’t know anything about investor relations, but I knew a bit about marketing and I felt there wasn’t a big difference between the two because they are both about building relationships with stakeholders,” Mr Leedman said.

In 2005, Mr Leedman was asked by [then] pSivida CEO Gavin Rezos to join the company as the head of investor relations.

As the company had significant debts at the time, Mr Leedman set about promoting the company to investors in Australia and overseas.

“The company had a $25 million convertible note that had gone toxic, so I set about travelling around the world for the next three years doing roadshows ... and we raised about $45 million,” Mr Leedman said.

While east coast Australian players were eager to invest in pSivida, Mr Leedman said there was little interest in the company from Perth. 

“The Perth audience isn’t very partial to investing in biotech; there is just no interest because of the mining boom and there had also been a couple of spectacular failures in the biotech space in Perth,” he said. 

Significant investment from the US, in particular, meant pSivida became a US majority-owned company and its headquarters was subsequently transferred to Boston.

“The company had to change direction to look at later-stage drug delivery systems,” Mr Leedman said.

“So we bought this other technology, an ophthalmic drug delivery system called Iluvien, which was acquired at the beginning of a phase three clinical trial.”

After investing millions of dollars in clinical trials of Iluvien, the company submitted an application for its FDA approval in June, and is expecting a response next month. 

Mr Leedman said if Iluvien were approved, pSivida would receive a $25 million milestone payment from its licensing partner Alimera Sciences, and 20 per cent of the global profits.

“What people don’t appreciate is that the timespan from putting a stake in the ground for a tenement and getting a JORC-compliant resource is about the same timeframe as starting a clinical trial and submitting your results to the FDA,” he said.

“And the thing is, the rewards in biotech can be much higher.”

To continue to grow the profile of biotechnology companies in Perth, Mr Leedman joined the board of AusBiotech in WA. 

Through this organisation, he came up with the concept of holding a number of ‘brokers’ lunches’, which would connect biotechnology companies with the Perth business community.

“If the business community is paying attention then you will see more of a write up on biotech companies, you will see more retail interest, and finally you will see more government interest,” Mr Leedman said.

To nominate for the 2012 awards, go to www.40under40.com.au.