For biology major Alex Eaton ’17 of Lake Oswego, Ore., working with 乐播传媒 Emergency Medical Services gives him the opportunity to further his knowledge of medicine and learn the ins and outs of emergency medicine.

As a teaching assistant for an EMS Short Term course that trains 乐播传媒 students to become certified EMTs, he is able to share what he’s learned.

Thomas Goetz, author of “The Remedy.” (Christopher Michel)

Thomas Goetz, author of a new history that traces the intersecting careers of Arthur Conan Doyle and the scientist who showed the world that germs cause disease, offers a lecture at 乐播传媒 at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 28, at the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Sponsored by the Purposeful Work Initiative at 乐播传媒, the event is open to the public at no cost. A booksigning follows the talk. For more information, please contact 207-786-6128 or mcowan@bates.edu.

The next evening, April 29, Goetz will appear with 乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer at a college event in Chicago, where the pair will discuss technology-driven innovations in higher education.

The 乐播传媒 talk by Goetz, a member of the college’s class of 1990, is titled From Science to Society: How the Germ Theory Helped Create Sherlock Holmes. He’ll discuss The Remedy, newly released by Gotham Books, which traces both how Dr. Robert Koch discovered the connection between microbes and disease — particularly tuberculosis — and Koch’s influence on a provincial English doctor, Conan Doyle.

From his office in southern England, Conan Doyle admired the work of microbiologist Koch in Berlin, eventually adapting his scientific methods into his stories — most prominently, a new detective story featuring a character named Sherlock Holmes.

The Remedy, wrote Kirkus Reviews, is “a beguiling real-life medical detective story.” The Washington Independent Review of Books called it “a must-read for fans of medical history.” The Remedy was chosen as a Best Book of the Month by iTunes and Amazon.

Goetz is also the author of The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine (Rodale Books), selected as Best Health Book of 2010 by the Wall Street Journal.

The former executive editor at WIRED Magazine, Goetz is an entrepreneur and healthcare innovator as well as a writer. Co-founder of Iodine, a technology company researching ways to help consumers make better health decisions, Goetz also is entrepreneur-in-residence at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropy devoted singularly to the public’s health.

Goetz was the executive producer for the award-winning Discovery Channel documentary Earth 2050: The Future of Energy.

Goetz holds two master’s degrees, one in public health from the University of California, Berkeley, and one in American literature from the University of Virginia.

鈥淐hange is upon us,鈥� Winfield Brown 鈥�89 told an audience of students, faculty and community members in Pettengill Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 12.

Winfield Brown ’89, the College Key’s Distinguished Alumnus in Residence, meets with students to discuss careers in healthcare during a campus visit on Nov. 12. (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

Brown, CEO and president of Heywood and Athol hospitals in north central Massachusetts, made his declaration during a talk on current trends in healthcare and patient services, part of his two-day campus visit as the College Key鈥檚 Distinguished Alumnus in Residence.

Well-timed against the failed launch of the Affordable Care Act鈥檚 insurance exchange website, Brown鈥檚 talk put a fine point on the economic forces influencing hospitals, physicians and even students graduating from 乐播传媒.

Incentivizing the 鈥渨rong behavior.鈥�

The U.S. model of healthcare incentivizes the 鈥渨rong behavior鈥� on the part of healthcare providers, Brown argued.

The model tends to encourage providers to schedule additional, costly and often unnecessary visits and procedures. Instead, Brown believes insurance companies should create monetary incentives for prevention and other cost-saving initiatives.

鈥淲e need to keep people healthier,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd to do that, we have to reward physicians and hospitals for performance.鈥�

The reason healthcare is at a tipping point is because patients are 鈥減aying too much for what we get.鈥�

The 鈥渃hanging culture of care.鈥�

Brown noted that more and more 乐播传媒 students are considering careers as nurse practitioners and physician assistants instead of medical school.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 something you would not have seen 10 years ago,鈥� he said, and it鈥檚 all part of what he calls the 鈥渃hanging culture of care.鈥�

Much of the phenomenon is simple economics. In today鈥檚 healthcare systems, nurse practitioners and physician assistants draw higher salaries than in years past, workmore manageable hours and incur less student debt than physicians.

It is an attractive option for students who want a work-life balance, he said.

Brown, who took time during his residency to meet with students who are interested in medical-related careers, got his own start in the field in 1996 with a nudge from the late Dean of the College James Carignan 鈥�61.

A long-time family friend and mentor, Carignan was on the board of directors at St. Mary鈥檚 Health System in Lewiston when he wrote Brown, who was establishing a career in nonprofit fundraising, a note that read, 鈥淪t. Mary鈥檚 needs you.鈥�

Brown went on to accept a position as executive director and vice president of the St. Mary鈥檚 Foundation. He still has Carignan鈥檚 note.

Brown held leadership positions at Lowell General Hospital and Northern Berkshire Healthcare in Massachusetts before taking the helm at Heywood in 2011. He graduated from 乐播传媒 with a degree in economics and obtained master鈥檚 degrees in business and healthcare administration from Husson University and the University of Minnesota, respectively.

The Distinguished Alumni in Residence program was established in 2003 by the College Key, a 乐播传媒 organization that promotes extraordinary achievement among current and past 乐播传媒 students.

In his day job, Mike Bonney 鈥� a 1980 乐播传媒 graduate who chairs the college鈥檚 Board of Trustees 鈥� is chief executive officer of Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., one of the leading companies in its field.

He鈥檚 also one of the six best corporate leaders in the country, in the view of MarketWatch, a leading financial news source published by Dow Jones & Co., which also publishes The Wall Street Journal.

Michael Bonney ’80, chair of the college’s Board of Trustees, was recently named a top U.S. CEO by MarketWatch.

On Jan. 17, MarketWatch announced the results of its profiling not only winner Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, but also the other five finalists: Bonney; Dell Inc. CEO Michael Dell; Whole Foods Market鈥檚 co-CEOs John Mackey and Walter Robb; and Electronic Arts鈥� CEO John Riccitiello.

In its MarketWatch writes that since joining Cubist in 2002, 鈥淏onney has ended up having a tremendous impact on the Lexington, Mass.鈥揵ased firm, which specializes in antibiotics for so-called superbugs, bacterial strains that have grown resistant to traditional antibiotics and have emerged as a significant threat to public health in recent years.鈥�

The online publication lauds Bonney for 鈥渉is leadership in safeguarding Cubist鈥檚 primary money maker, for moves that bolstered the company鈥檚 product pipeline, and for his open and encouraging management style.鈥�

鈥淐ubist executives say much of Bonney鈥檚 success can be credited to his low-key demeanor and informal management style,鈥� MarketWatch adds. 鈥淏onney, they say, frowns on game playing and encourages employees to voice their opinions.鈥�

The MarketWatch articles do not delve into the undergraduate educations of the executives profiled, but Bonney is happy to say how his 乐播传媒 education helped develop his talents and contributed to his success.

鈥淢y experiences as a student at 乐播传媒 really established my interest in learning as well as provided me the opportunity to expand my horizons beyond Maine,鈥� Bonney says.

Mike Bonney ’80 presents a symbolic key to Roger Williams Hall to Spanish professor Claudia Aburto Guzm谩n during dedication festivities for Roger Williams and Hedge halls. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

In a November 2011 interview with New England Cable News, Bonney explained how that interest in learning has influenced in his business career.

鈥淓arly in my career I was offered what would have been considered to be nontraditional opportunities,鈥� he said. 鈥淢any of my peers would have said, 鈥業 don鈥檛 want to do that,鈥� because those jobs took you out of the silo of a traditional path. I said, 鈥楾his is an opportunity to learn something new, to have a new perspective on the business.鈥� That has allowed me to develop a greater breadth of understanding of how our business works, how we interact with regulators and with physicians and patients, which ultimately has been very helpful.

鈥淚 ask a lot of questions. I am a lifelong learner鈥�. I will dive into any subject matter even though I have no reason to expect that I can learn it. And I try to figure out what it all means. Depth of experience is important. But for my money, having a broad perspective on the world is more important.鈥�

Bonney has been a member of the 乐播传媒 board since 2002 and was elected to chair the board in 2010.

He and his family have many strong connections to 乐播传媒. His grandfather attended 乐播传媒 and his father, sister, wife and oldest daughter are all 乐播传媒 graduates. Another daughter is a member of the Class of 2012 and his son is a member of the Class of 2015. Both Bonney and his wife, Alison Grott Bonney 鈥�80, have been very active in service to 乐播传媒.

After graduating from 乐播传媒 with a degree in economics, Bonney began his career with Maine-based Hannaford Brothers, working in the supermarket chain鈥檚 pharmacy operation. He later joined Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, holding positions of increasing responsibility in sales, marketing and strategic planning over the course of 11 years.

In 1995 he joined Biogen Inc., ultimately serving as vice president for sales and marketing. He joined Cubist as president and chief operating officer, and has been president, chief executive officer and a member of the Board of Directors since 2003.

In 2010, the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council recognized Bonney鈥檚 accomplishments in his professional field by presenting him its second annual Innovative Leadership Award, which honors an industry executive who represents a company with a strong presence in and commitment to growing in Massachusetts.

Bonney聽is a director of the biopharmaceutical company NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc. and聽a member of the board of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.聽He is a former board member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Win Brown ’89 is the new president and CEO of Heywood Hospital in Gardner, Mass., and was recently interviewed by the Telegram & Gazette.

Win Brown '89

Brown says the Gardner community is deeply committed to their hospital, “from the mayor to the people who work here to the people on the street. They want this hospital to be successful.”

He sees himself as “one of the stewards of this tremendous community resource. That drives us to success. Also, this medical staff has a collegiality about it and rapport that has disappeared in a lot of places. They support one another and push one another. So I’m a steward of that too.”

Steven Kates ’83, vice president of research and development for the Massachusetts pharmaceuticals company Ischemix, visits 乐播传媒 to offer the presentation Ischemix: Discovery and Development at 4:15 p.m. Monday, Nov. 8, in Room 204 of Carnegie Science Hall, 44 Campus Ave.

Open to the public at no cost, the presentation is sponsored by the chemistry department. For more information, please call 207-786-6294.

Kates is leading Ischemix’s development of CMX-2043, a drug now in the final stages of testing that is designed to reduce damage to heart tissue that can occur when normal blood flow is restored after a blockage.

“People don’t realize how many failures there are in this process, and the costs involved in bringing a drug to market,” Kates says. Developing a new drug takes enormous amounts of money and time — it can take 10 years to bring a single drug to market, and estimates of cost range from 100 million to a billion dollars.

Kates likens the process of developing a therapeutic drug to building a house. “So many disciplines are involved. You need guys who pour the foundation, plumbers, painters, carpenters.

“Bringing a drug to the field initially requires hard-core chemists and biologists. Then there is work in toxicology and in regulatory issues. Then you start dealing with the physicians and biostatisticians. It’s a plethora of highly skilled people.”

But outcomes in the are much less certain than in construction. There is no guarantee that a drug candidate will win Food and Drug Administration approval. In 2004, just 8 percent of compounds entering clinical trials were ultimately deemed safe and useful enough by the FDA to be approved for sale.

Kates has been working on CMX-2043 for six years. A leading chemist and industry expert in peptide design and manufacture, Kates joined Maynard-based Ischemix in October 2003, bringing more than 15 years’ experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

He previously served as senior scientist at Surface Logix Inc., a drug development company specializing in the chemical improvement of already-approved drugs and late-stage compounds.

Kates majored in chemistry at 乐播传媒 and earned a doctorate in synthetic organic chemistry from Brandeis University. He has written or co-authored more than 100 articles, reviews and patents, and is a visiting professor of chemistry at Brandeis.

By this fall, Steven Kates 鈥�83 will be reaping the rewards of an important breakthrough on a medical mystery. Or he might be looking for a new job.

That鈥檚 when Kates expects to see the results of a human clinical study of a new drug he has been working on relentlessly for six years. The drug, CMX-2043, is designed to reduce the damage to heart tissue that can occur when normal blood flow is restored after a blockage.

And if the data on some 120 patients show promise, Kates and his company, Massachusetts-based, will likely find themselves courted by venture capitalists and big pharmaceutical companies anxious to turn CMX-2043 into a gold mine.

On the other hand, if the drug fails to deliver (or worse, causes harm) Ischemix鈥檚 investors will be out millions of dollars and the biotech company, with no other drugs in development, will face at best 鈥渁n uncertain future,鈥� says Kates, Ischemix鈥檚 vice president of research and development. A veteran chemist in the biotech industry, Kates majored in chemistry at 乐播传媒 and earned a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Brandeis.

鈥淧eople don鈥檛 realize how many failures there are in this process and the costs involved in bringing a drug to market,鈥� he says.

To be sure, consumers are less focused on the drug-discovery process than on the result 鈥� a pill they can pop every morning to keep allergies in check or control a chronic illness that a generation ago could have meant lifelong debilitation.

That contrast in perceptions has created a fundamental disconnect. While Kates and his industry colleagues focus on the life-enhancing work they do 鈥� drug discoveries have saved countless lives and immeasurably improved the way people live 鈥� Americans nevertheless trust pharmaceutical companies even less than they do Congress.

It鈥檚 understandable. Drugs are a potent pocketbook issue for the public, and an unrelenting wave of high-profile media stories tell about drug-test coverups and misleading marketing by pharmaceutical companies.

So is the U.S. drug industry an engine of medical innovation responsible for improving the quality of peoples鈥� lives? Or is it a damn-the-consumer enterprise subservient to its stockholders?

Actually, it鈥檚 a hybrid 鈥� the rare industry that stirs skepticism even as it saves lives.

Take our country鈥檚 senior citizens. This group has probably benefited the most from pharmaceutical breakthroughs, yet the seniors鈥� advocacy organization AARP has often criticized the drug industry for the high and rapidly rising prices of brand-name medications that hit uninsured patients and fixed-income seniors the hardest. (In the interest of full disclosure, besides writing an occasional freelance story for 乐播传媒 Magazine, I have a professional awareness of these issues in my work as a strategic adviser for AARP.)

Kates compares creating a drug to building a house. 鈥淪o many disciplines are involved,鈥� he says.

Big Pharma justfies its prices by citing the risks and costs associated with bringing a drug to market. Oft-cited studies and experts say it costs about a billion dollars and 10 years to bring a single drug candidate from lab to pharmacy. Industry critics say the figure is inflated and place the cost of developing a new drug 鈥� as opposed to reformulating an existing one 鈥� at between $100 million and $300 million.

Still, that鈥檚 a lot of zeroes, especially when there is no guarantee that the initial drug candidate will ever win Food and Drug Administration approval. In 2004, for example, just 8 percent of compounds entering clinical trials were ultimately deemed safe and useful enough by the FDA to be approved for sale. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office said that from a drug鈥檚 initial discovery to market averages about 12 years.

Kates compares creating a drug to building a house. 鈥淪o many disciplines are involved,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou need guys who pour the foundation, plumbers, painters, carpenters. Bringing a drug to the field initially requires hard-core chemists and biologists. Then there is work in toxicology and regulatory. Then you start dealing with the M.D.s and biostatisticians. It鈥檚 a plethora of highly skilled people.鈥�

But the homebuilding metaphor breaks down when you consider that most houses eventually get built. It is the rare drug compound that gets approved.

At Ischemix, investors have waited years and wagered millions of dollars that CMX-2043 will work as intended. In 2007, the drug entered Phase 1 of clinical FDA trials, to assess basic safety. In April, a Phase 2a trial started to measure the drug鈥檚 effectiveness.

Phase 3 will be the big hurdle, when the drug has to prove its effectiveness in a broad population.

In the end, it may not prove effective, and Phase 3 has been a 鈥渞eal graveyard鈥� for drug candidates like CMX-2043, Kates says. While testing a new cancer-fighting drug is straightforward 鈥� because success is measured in lives saved 鈥� Kates鈥� drug seeks a goal that鈥檚 less bold and harder to measure: minimizing post-blockage heart damage that鈥檚 not necessarily life-threatening. 鈥淒rug success has been very challenging for these indications,鈥� he says.

The lynchpin of the drug discovery process is the patent system. In the U.S., drug compounds have 20 years of patent exclusivity before low-cost generics can enter the market and sap a brand-name drug鈥檚 profit potential. However, this two-decade clock begins ticking not when the drug is approved by the FDA but when the drug is patented. So a company has a limited window to earn back its investment.

Not surprisingly, the industry often criticizes the FDA for taking too long to vet drug candidates for sale. In recent years, the agency has in fact dramatically cut its average approval time to a little over a year while vowing not to sacrifice safety in the name of speed.

鈥淭he FDA gets criticized for being too fast and too slow at the same time,鈥� says Anne Ruggles Pariser 鈥�83, recently appointed acting associate director of rare diseases at the FDA鈥檚 Office of New Drugs at the Center For Drug Evaluation and Research. A chemistry major at 乐播传媒, she earned a medical degree at Georgetown. 鈥淭hat is probably the biggest challenge, figuring out the balance.鈥�

Mike Bonney 鈥�80 knows well the roller-coaster ride that is drug discovery. Bonney is president and CEO of , based in Lexington, Mass. He is credited with shepherding to market the drug, a highly successful intravenous drug in the fight against certain antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Last year, Cubist was ranked No. 1 among the by The Boston Globe. And in April, Mike Bonney was honored by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council for his success in making Cubist a model biotech company.

Recently, however, Cubist had a setback of its own. The company had hoped that a drug in its pipeline called Ecallantide would stop blood loss in patients during heart bypass surgery. But clinical human trials showed that it did not, and on March 31 Cubist announced it had

Losing a promising drug hurts, Bonney says, and he鈥檚 not just talking about the bottom line.

鈥淚f you are a business person, the pharmaceutical or biotech industry is a complete anathema.”

鈥淭he vast majority of people at Cubist are doing this work because they think they have the opportunity to make a difference in millions of peoples鈥� lives,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen it goes down, particularly in a case like this where we had early data suggesting it would work, it鈥檚 disappointing.鈥�

An economics major at 乐播传媒, Bonney also knows that the business model of the drug industry doesn鈥檛 always add up in the public鈥檚 mind. Or, for that matter, to investors.

鈥淚f you are a business person, the pharmaceutical or biotech industry is a complete anathema 鈥� unless you grew up in it,鈥� Bonney says. He sums up the typical reaction from an investor unfamiliar with the industry: 鈥溾�榊ou commit hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a product that might not be a product for 10 to 12 years and there鈥檚 no revenue? How does that 飞辞谤办?鈥欌赌�

Of course, when the risks pay off, they can pay off big, and sometimes drug companies just get lucky.

Scientists at a Pfizer facility in England were experimenting in the mid-1990s with a compound called UK-92,480 designed to treat angina. The drug didn鈥檛 work so well on angina but was remarkably successful stimulating blood flow in another part of the body. That鈥檚 how Viagra became a $1 billion-a-year franchise.

For the biggest companies, revenues grew a robust 8.6 percent a year between 2001 and 2008. Lipitor, the world鈥檚 best-selling drug, generates $12.8 billion a year in sales for Pfizer; last year, the company鈥檚 CEO earned $13.7 million.

But the era of blockbuster drugs like Lipitor, Prilosec, and Plavix is coming to an end. Eighteen of the world鈥檚 20 biggest drugs will end their patent-protected lives in the next five years. And while the anticipated rise in generic competition is good for consumers, it sends fear into the hearts of pharmaceutical executives, who worry about eroding profits.

One response to this so-called patent cliff has been for Big Pharma to make deals with generic rivals that effectively delay the entry of a low-cost generic to the market. Companies say that these payments, generally millions of dollars, stave off potential patent litigation, but critics say these 鈥減ay to delay鈥� deals merely milk a few more months of profit out of a name-brand drug.

To a consumer who might view pharmaceuticals as a public good 鈥� along the lines of, say, fire protection or law enforcement 鈥� the level of profit-seeking can seem out of place, yet profits are what drive the drug-development process. 鈥淲ithout profit you wouldn鈥檛 have the incentives or resources to innovate,鈥� says Victoria Wicks 鈥�74, vice president of external affairs for sanofi-aventis U.S.

Some drug companies, including sanofi-aventis, have taken steps on their own to operate more transparently and to disclose their payments to physicians who prescribe their drugs. And the industry trade group has adopted voluntary guidelines limiting physicians鈥� gifts and entertainment.

Operating more transparently is simply good business, Wicks says. 鈥淚t improves partnerships with researchers, boosts the confidence of healthcare practitioners, and may help us regain the image as a contributor to developing solutions that bring significant value to patients.鈥�

Efforts around transparency and disclosure should get a boost from the new federal healthcare legislation, which requires drugmakers to report their financial ties to doctors. Another federal action, this one to rein in misleading drug company marketing, came in May with the debut of the which encourages healthcare providers to report misleading drug advertisements to the agency.

From the drug industry鈥檚 perspective, the problem isn鈥檛 regulation itself but the complexity of the regulatory environment, says Wicks, whose comments for this story are her own, not her company鈥檚. 鈥淥ne set of national standards on transparency would reduce the need to build complex compliance systems based on different legal requirements across multiple states,鈥� she says.

Next year, the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (the law that covers market exclusivity for brand-name drugs) comes up for reauthorization, and drug industry leaders are already focusing on whether lawmakers will try to reduce the length of market exclusivity.

Drug companies must 鈥渓et key audiences know where we鈥檙e headed and why,鈥� Bonney says.

Bonney alluded to this issue in in April. 鈥淚nvestors whose bets historically have fueled innovation are pulling back or becoming more cautious,鈥� he said, partly because 鈥渞easonable periods鈥� of patent exclusivity could be challenged by Congress.

But the onus to improve the pharmaceutical scene is not just on regulators, Bonney says. Drug companies hoping to excel at creating drugs to treat ever-more challenging diseases must 鈥渓et key audiences know where we鈥檙e headed and why,鈥� he said in his remarks.

It鈥檚 a point Bonney also made in his conversation with me. Between consumer groups that highlight industry profits and ethical lapses, and drug companies鈥� constant warnings about threats to innovation, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we鈥檝e done a good job explaining our challenges,鈥� he said. 鈥淟ife sciences work is a very inefficient process. We clearly have a lot more failures than successes and our successes are burdened with paying for our failures. It鈥檚 not an easy or intuitive story to tell.鈥�

More than anything, Bonney says, an improved spirit of cooperation is needed between the industry and regulators.

At the award luncheon, Bonney told how Cubist set out to test Cubicin to treat deadly, antibiotic-resistant infections more than a decade ago. For such a drug, 鈥渢here were no trial protocols, no precedent, no regulatory path, no guidelines,鈥� Bonney recalls. So Cubist formed ad-hoc alliances with academics and regulators to study the drug鈥檚 potential. 鈥淲e sat down and developed a protocol that was challenging but doable. Ultimately, we were able to make a difference in the lives of patients.

鈥淚 wonder if such collaboration would be possible in today鈥檚 environment.鈥�

Bill Walsh 鈥�86, a former newspaper reporter and now a strategic adviser for AARP, wrote about young alumni working in post-Katrina New Orleans for the Fall 2009 issue of 乐播传媒 Magazine.