Howard Civian Birndorf (born February 21, 1950) is a

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...

entrepreneur and one of the founders of the biotech industry in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

Early life

Birndorf was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

in 1950. Birndorf received his B.A. in

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

from Oakland University, an M.S. in

Biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

from

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

, and has received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Oakland University and Wayne State University.

Career

Along with former

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

professor and current venture capitalist

Ivor Royston Ivor Royston, M.D., is an oncologist, researcher, scientist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, recognized for his efforts to develop treatments for multiple disease targets and to fund biotechnology companies with promising science, technolog ...

, Birndorf founded San Diego's first biotech in 1978, the

monoclonal antibody A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a cell Lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Monoclonal antibodies ...

company Hybritech. The company was subsequently bought by Eli Lilly and Company in 1986, and Birndorf went on to found a number of other successful companies including

Gen-Probe Gen-Probe was a company based in San Diego, in California, specializing in clinical diagnostics, blood screening, transplantation products and research products. The company's molecular diagnostics products were used for diagnosis of infectious ...

, IDEC Pharmaceuticals (which merged with

Biogen Biogen Inc. is an American multinational biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, specializing in the discovery, development, and delivery of therapies for the treatment of neurological diseases to patients worldwide. History ...

to form Biogen-Idec), and

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Ligand Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company located in San Diego, California. Founded in 1987 as Progenix Inc., the company went public in 1992. Initially focused on developing its own drugs, a period of turbulence in the early 2000s cul ...

. Birndorf was also involved in the formation of Gensia (Sicor), and was a founding Director of

Neurocrine Biosciences Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. is an American biopharmaceutical company founded in 1992. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California, and led by CEO Kevin Gorman. Neurocrine develops treatments for neurological and endocrine-related diseas ...

. He was the founder and co-chair of the Coalition for 21st Century Medicine and was founder, Chairman and CEO of Nanogen, Inc.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Birndorf, Howard Living people Businesspeople from California Oakland University alumni Wayne State University alumni 1950 births