Q. What's the latest on your company's research into a West Nile virus vaccine?

A. We have several programs in the vaccine area. The one that's most developed is the West Nile virus vaccine program. We have just started our clinical trial, the Phase 1 safety trial for that vaccine. The trial is being done here in Honolulu and will be followed up by additional trials before we can go to the Food and Drug Administration and ask for approval to sell.

Q. It's a long process anytime medical research is involved. How do you measure progress or success?

A. The first trial primarily tests to see that this vaccine is safe to administer to subjects, and the additional trials down the road will measure and assess just how effective this vaccine is. We will, however, get some of those data out of this first trial, but the first trial is always a safety trial designed to make sure it's safe to put into individuals. We think our vaccine is very safe, but of course, you can't make that assumption. You have to demonstrate that to the FDA. We would anticipate our next trial could start as early as next year and would be a larger trial with more subjects.

Q. What is the state's position when it comes to biotechnology?

A. Hawai'i has a strong record and expertise in tropical and subtropical medicine, and we have leveraged that expertise, both from a technical standpoint and the personnel that work here at Hawaii Biotech, to develop outstanding vaccines for tropical and subtropical infections.

Q. What do your accomplishments mean for the state?

A. It demonstrates that Hawai'i can develop and support biotech companies that can move into the clinical trials. Certainly the only real measure for success is getting your product on the market, and that must be done through clinical trials and administered by the FDA. I think this is a great step, not just for Hawaii Biotech, but in developing expertise that can be used by ourselves and by other biotech companies in the Hawai'i biotech sector.

Q. Is your background in biotechnology?

A. I have a Ph.D. in cellular molecular biology. I was an academic researcher at the Scripps Research Institute for a dozen years. I then was director of the Johnson & Johnson Biotechnology Center, where I acquired a great deal of knowledge in this area, and have since then been a biotech CEO and a biotech venture-capital investor.

Q. How did you wind up in Hawai'i?

A. I have been working in Hawai'i for quite some time on the investment side, and I have known Hawai'i Biotech and have been interested in the company for six or seven years. So when the opportunity came to take an operational role in the company late last year, and given the fact that the company was poised to do what we've just done, which is getting the clinical West Nile vaccine and potentially being in the clinic in the very near future with another second vaccine candidate, I was excited to jump at that opportunity.

Q. What kind of growth has the company seen since you've taken over?

A. We're in an evolutionary process right now. The company is evolving from a research-and-development-based organization to a clinical-trials-based organization. It's less an expansion, it's more of a genesis, a maturation. I've been involved in clinical stage companies for 15 years and very much enjoy being part of that process of moving great technology into the clinic, and being able to see if we can develop those products and bring them into patients — in this case, into protecting individuals from getting a disease.

Q. Do you still get involved in the research?

A. I'm sure my lab staff runs the other direction when I come in with a white lab coat. But, no, we have project teams for each of the different projects and I sit in on each of those team meetings and enjoy getting up to speed on what's happening, and from time to time if I can contribute, I'm certainly willing to do that. But we have great scientific leadership and R&D staff, and my job is to support them.

Q. You sit on boards of other technology companies?

A. I'm on the board of HiBEAM (Hawaii Business and Entrepreneur Acceleration Mentors) and I'm on the board of the Hawaii Science Technology Council, and have been on the boards of other nonprofit organizations that support the industry. Also, I'm on the board of some other biotech companies, so that cross-fertilization is very helpful. It's very important for people in industry to be involved in their industry's organizations, and also to the extent that most of us in the biomedical community tend to contribute some of our time to the patient advocacy groups in those diseases where we try to have an impact, because it's very important to remember that the reason we're doing this is to either prevent or treat disease. We need to be part of the whole process.

Q. Have you set any benchmarks for yourself and the company?

A. My first benchmark was to see if we could get in the clinic in the first 100 days. Day 100 was the day before Memorial Day, so we dosed our first patient the day after Memorial Day and I was quite proud for the company to be able to move at that speed. My goals are the company's goals and another milestone is to have a second product in the clinic, and I believe that product will be a vaccine candidate for dengue fever.

Q. What's the timetable for that?

A. Certainly within the year, and possibly within this year.

Q. Is biotechnology a competitive industry?

A. This is a very competitive field, and we compete with our potential partners. As a small biotech company, we compete with the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, and if we're successful, we may well become partners to some of those giants. But this has become an international business, and we compete with folks on the Mainland, we compete with folks in Europe, we compete with organizations and companies in Asia. It's a process of building trust to know who the competitors are, and to watch the competitors that are successful and the ones that fall by the wayside. It's a natural process in all business, and having relationships with the competitors tend to bring on partnerships down the road.

Q. Where do you see the company and yourself five, 10 years from now?

A. That's a wonderful question, and it speaks to where Hawaii Biotech might be down the road five or 10 years. Hawaii Biotech could either be a viable, freestanding company or it could be a Hawai'i division of a large pharmaceutical company. I don't know which of those two roads will be the successful road, but both of those would be important successes for the company and for the employees, and I also think for Hawai'i's biotech community. Either of those outcomes would be important outcomes. I'm happy to be a part of this company as long as the employees and the stockholders and the board would like me to. On the other hand, it's important, as companies grow, to bring in the right management at the right time. If at some point the company needs other leadership, that will happen. But I'm very happy here. This is a great company, and we have great employees, and it's a great community that's supportive.