To engage in a biotech business is not an easy undertaking. One should have a thorough understanding of the biotechnology being developed. That is why most biotechnology firms are founded by scientists and people with PhD degrees.
Randal Kirk does not fit the typical profile of a biotech entrepreneur. For one thing neither his undergraduate degree, post-graduate degree or even first career has anything to do with biotechnology. He earned a B.A. in Economics from Radford University and a Doctor of Jurisprudence at the University of Virginia.
Kirk was the son of a drill sergeant and moved around the country following wherever his father was stationed. After passing the bar in 1980 he practiced law in Bland County,Virginia where he was the only lawyer. Aside from law practice he also became an entrepreneur. In 1984 he founded General Injectables & Vaccines with a local pharmacist. It supplied vaccine and medical devices. For over a decade they built the company.
After 11 years of law practice Kirk stopped practicing and focused full time on the company. General Injectables spun off King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in the mid-1990s. The spun off company would focus on acquiring pharmaceutical brands.
Kirk sold his shares in King when it went public in 1988 and earned him $56 million. He also sold General Injectables. He founded New River Pharmaceutical, Inc. to make small-molecule therapeutics. Kirk then founded Third Security his investment firm. He also made investments in a number of biotech firms including Scios, Inc. a California based company which was sold for $2.69 billion in 2003. He sold New River Pharmaceutical in 2007 for $2.6 billion and earned half of the sales price. Another company he invested in Clinical Data was recently sold for $1.2 billion.
Kirk remains an oddity in the biotech world. No background training in the field, he has no institutional backers in his investment company, and he does not locate his own firms near universities or known biotech locations. He prefers to locate the companies in his chosen home town of Radford, Virginia. Whatever the facts one thing is clear so far he has been successful at what he’s doing.
Business Executives 
Posted on May 29, 2012
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