Research Interview with Garren Bohlin
- 2012-Sep-25
Research Interview with Garren Bohlin
- 2012-Sep-25
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Garren Bohlin was a partner at Arthur Anderson LLP in 1980, where he did general business consulting. He was contacted by Mirza Mehdi of the Genetics Institute, who worked with Gabriel Schmergel. Mehdi asked Bohlin if he would be his replacement as vice president at Genetics Institute. Wanting to leave public accounting for industry, Bohlin joined Genetics Institute in December of 1983. When Bohlin came to the company, there was no clear business plan and Genetics Institute was working and developing products in many different areas. Genetics Institute went public in 1986 with a valuation of seventy-five million. While vice president, Bohlin oversaw the deal with American Home Products as well as Burroughs Wellcome Fund. The latter deal produced WellGen Inc, a commercial scale biologics manufacturing facility in Providence, Rhode Island. Bohlin also oversaw Genetics Institute’s partnerships with Chugai Pharmaceutical Company Ltd and Boehringer Mannheim. In 1996, American Home Products purchased Genetics Institute, a deal that Bohlin supported, though he was uncertain about his future at the company. He remained at Genetics Institute for one more year, before he left to become a founding member and CEO of the pharmaceutical company Syntonix.
This interview was conducted via telephone.
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| Rights | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License |
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About the Interviewer
Mark Jones holds a PhD in history, philosophy, and social studies of science from the University of California, San Diego. He is the former director of research at the Life Sciences Foundation and executive editor of LSF Magazine. He has served in numerous academic posts, and is completing the definitive account of the origins of the biotechnology industry, entitled Translating Life, for Harvard University Press.
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| Oral history number | 0019 |
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Complete transcript of interview
The published version of the transcript may diverge from the interview audio due to edits to the transcript made by staff of the Center for Oral History, often at the request of the interviewee, during the transcript review process.