Esperion’s story starts with Roger Newton.
The Ann Arbor scientist is considered the father of Lipitor, the world’s best-selling drug, which for years generated annual sales in excess of $10 billion before plummeting once its patent protection ended in 2011.
Newton, who declined an interview request, citing his retirement last year from the company, co-founded the original Esperion Therapeutics in July 1998 with three colleagues from Warner-Lambert/Parke Davis. That company went on to be acquired by pharma giant Pfizer in 2000.
The pharmaceutical company eventually shuttered Esperion when it closed all of Pfizer’s research and development operations in Ann Arbor and in Kalamazoo in 2007 and 2008. Shortly after he exited, Newton began negotiating with Pfizer to secure former Esperion intellectual property, which served as the foundation to finance and launch “Esperion Two” in May 2008.
“I am very proud of (Mayleben) and the Esperion Team for their commitment and persistence,” Newton wrote in an email to Crain’s. “I am also thrilled by the upcoming launch of our drugs in patients who cannot safely reach their LDL-Cholesterol goals with current treatments, and as a result, need these new medicines to further reduce their residual risk of (cardiovascular disease).”
Given the challenges associated with getting a drug approved, Mayleben and other industry stakeholders note the significance of Newton’s involvement in both the development of Lipitor — called the “most successful drug in the history of the pharmaceutical industry” by Mayleben — as well as Nexletol and Nexlizet.
“So now for a second drug (to come out of Ann Arbor companies), that’s a legacy that not many other areas can brag about,” said Mayleben. “And of course, I think that bodes well for the future as well, in Ann Arbor and more broadly, Michigan. I think it’s going to do nothing but bolster the reputation of Ann Arbor and the broader Michigan area.”
Tim Peterson, founder and managing partner at Ann Arbor-based health care venture capital fund Arboretum Ventures, shared a similar sentiment, calling the approval “another feather in our cap” for the Ann Arbor community.
Arboretum was an early investor in Esperion’s second iteration back in 2008, investing $2 million into the company and getting a seven-times return upon exit when the company went public in 2013, according to Peterson.
“It was a very good investment for us,” Peterson told Crain’s, adding that Esperion is one of only two biotech companies the fund has invested in and calling Newton “a first-ballot hall of famer” when it comes to pharmaceutical executives and scientists.
