As the recipient of the 2023 John D. Baxter Prize for Entrepreneurship, R. Scott Struthers, PhD, talks to Endocrine News about his life’s work seeking therapies to cure endocrine diseases, the progress of some of the current treatments in development, and how industry is strikingly similar to academia.
Sometimes life comes in full circles. It was the early 90s when R. Scott Struthers, PhD, first met John D. Baxter, MD, and offered help in bringing a business idea to fruition. Fast forward almost 30 years later, and Struthers has been honored with the Endocrine Society’s 2023 John D. Baxter Prize for Entrepreneurship.
Struthers is a founder and CEO of San Diego-based Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and is recognized for his incredible impact on the health of patients living with endocrine disorders. Crinetics has developed crucial therapies for patients, such as medicines to treat endometriosis, uterine fibroids, acromegaly, carcinoid syndrome, Cushing’s disease, and congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Struthers has personally founded multiple companies as well as groups whose mission is to help more endocrine scientist-entrepreneurs like himself.
The award was named after Baxter, a past-president of the Endocrine Society, who was known for cloning the first human growth hormone gene. Baxter’s entrepreneurial endeavors offered him a key status in advancing the field of endocrinology.
Struthers spoke to Endocrine News about how his life’s work has really been centered on solving very similar scientific questions, and how he is driven to give a hand up to entrepreneurs with other promising ideas.
First, congratulations on your award. What does this recognition mean for the specialty and what significance might it have on entrepreneurs like yourself?
It’s a couple of things. On a very personal level, I helped John [Baxter] start a company back in the early ‘90s. He was an amazing mentor and friend, and sorely missed. People know him for cloning growth hormone, of course, but he also was one of the pioneers of understanding thyroid hormone receptors and had a very distinguished academic career. He also started many different companies.
“I’ve had advice from various Nobel Laureates, from billionaires, from people who started multiple companies, all of whom have taken time out of their day to give me advice, for no real benefit to them at all. And I try and pass that down and I try to encourage everybody I work with to do the same thing.”
R. Scott Struthers, PhD, CEO, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc., San Diego, Calif.
I think it’s fabulous that his family decided to honor entrepreneurship in endocrinology with this award to help recognize the role that it plays in both advancing the field and bringing the advancements in the field to patients directly. I think it’s key that things like this are recognized. All of us in the life sciences spend our career trying to understand biology or how chemistry impacts biology with the notion that this will help treat patients or help advance the standard of care for patients. But in many cases, it’s that entrepreneurship that actually translates that science into real medicines that people can take and hopefully feel better taking.
You’ve founded or co-founded several different companies. Is there a common mission or thread that weaves through how you seek to meet a need and then find a solution?
Well, it sounds like a lot of different things but, really, I’ve just been following one or two core scientific questions since I was an 18-year-old freshman undergraduate. I got very lucky and got a job in a chemistry lab making synthetic analogs of peptide hormones to try and understand how the chemistry translated into effects on their biology, and I’ve been doing that my whole career now. It just manifests itself in different ways.
When I was at a prior company called Neurocrine Biosciences, we discovered a small molecule oral agent that could act as a peptide hormone receptor, and that became a drug (elagolix) that could be used for women with endometriosis or fibroids. That drug was approved back in 2018.
There are more than 130 peptide hormone receptors that modulate almost all aspects of human physiology. At Crinetics, we are working on small molecule oral drugs for a bunch of these hormone receptors to treat various endocrine diseases, either basically having too much or too little of other hormones.
These same peptide receptors are also over-expressed in various cancers, and we realized we could use our basic technology of making small molecules that bind these receptors to carry radioisotopes to the cancer cells to either image them with PET scans or treat them with therapeutic radioisotopes. That question led to the creation of Radionetics Oncology. It’s all the same little vein of science; it just has lots of different implications for human health.
The Crinetics pipeline has multiple therapies in Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials, most specifically for the treatment of acromegaly and carcinoid syndrome. Can you share how these therapies are progressing through your pipeline and what it means for people who have those conditions?
Somatostatin is a peptide hormone that controls a variety of things in the body, including inhibiting the release of growth hormone. Acromegaly is a disease of too much growth hormone, and it causes a variety of problems in patients. There is a decades-old treatment that works reasonably well, but it’s an intramuscular injection that you must take every month and it tends to wear off towards the end of the month. It generally creates a significant burden of care for patients.
So, we’ve made a once-a-day pill, paltusotine, that we think may provide an attractive alternative for people living with acromegaly. They will no longer need to get these painful injections or having to visit their doctor or healthcare provider every month to get them. The other group of patients we hope will benefit from paltusotine are those with neuroendocrine tumors suffering from carcinoid syndrome. Neuroendocrine tumors are less well known than many of the other cancers, but it’s the type of tumor that killed Steve Jobs, and more recently, Aretha Franklin.
Let’s switch to your entrepreneurship. You started the San Diego Entrepreneur Exchange in 2009 and served on the Endocrine Society’s Entrepreneur Special Interest Group. How do these groups work to help the next generation of researchers?
Well, as scientists we’re taught how to ask good questions and the aspects of the underlying science as well as we know it. But nobody really teaches you how to start a company, run a company, or find money. So, the San Diego Entrepreneurs Exchange was founded by a group of us, all of whom were bootstrapping companies back during the great recession.
“As an entrepreneur starting a new company, you’ve got to set up your payroll, get your insurance, find space, and hire people. Everything is on you, and there’s a lot of simple operational help that you can get by talking to people.”
R. Scott Struthers, PhD, CEO, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc., San Diego, Calif.
And you’ve got to remember that this was a time when many scientists were out of work, and no one was financing new companies. It was actually a great time to start Crinetics because all our other friends were shutting down companies and they’d give us their leftover lab supplies and equipment. Together with other companies in the San Diego Entrepreneurs Exchange, we filled our garages with free equipment and supplies while we’re waiting to open our lab.
So, that organization came together as a group started by 6 to 10 of us just trying to survive. But it’s continued through the years and now that many of the companies who were part of the founding cohort have been successful, we’re trying to give a hand up to that next group of entrepreneurs who have some ideas. Times are better, there’s a little more money out there, but it’s still hard to figure out how to take your idea and start a crazy new company. Do you quit your job and give up a steady income?
You said things have gotten better for the funding being available, but what remains a big challenge for a young entrepreneur studying up to start a company, and how do you advise young entrepreneurs to navigate these challenges?
I guess it’s actually not that different for entrepreneurs in the industry setting and entrepreneurs who are new professors at universities. Both groups are concerned about setting up their labs, finding money, finding people to help them, but at least on the academic side there’s an institution there that will take care of your payroll, your health benefits, and give you a lab.
As an entrepreneur starting a new company, you’ve got to set up your payroll, get your insurance, find space, and hire people. Everything is on you, and there’s a lot of simple operational help that you can get by talking to people. I’ve benefited tremendously over the years from more experienced entrepreneurs providing me advice, and I still call out to people today who are more advanced in their careers and ask them for help.
“As scientists we’re taught how to ask good questions and the aspects of the underlying science as well as we know it. But nobody really teaches you how to start a company, run a company, or find money.”
R. Scott Struthers, PhD, CEO, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc., San Diego, Calif.
I think the biggest thing that most entrepreneurs face is just getting the information they need and then getting the money they need. Money remains a common thread of all science. Whether it’s in a start-up setting or an academic setting, funding your ideas is one of the biggest challenges we all face.
What you mentioned about having someone more experienced pass along the wisdom. This is the big plus of the Society’s ENDO Conference. You’ll be there in Chicago accepting your award, and it’s a great place for young scientists to find those kinds of mentor relationships.
It’s a wonderful meeting. I’ve been going since the mid-1980s. Young scientists shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions. Most people, especially in endocrinology, are a very friendly bunch. You’ll get people answering you who you think would never call you back. I mean, I’ve had advice from various Nobel Laureates, from billionaires, from people who started multiple companies, all of whom have taken time out of their day to give me advice, for no real benefit to them at all. And I try and pass that down and I try to encourage everybody I work with to do the same thing.
Struthers will receive the Baxter Prize at ENDO 2023 in Chicago, Ill. The $50,000 prize is awarded biennially to recognize scientists or healthcare practitioners who have demonstrated entrepreneurship by leveraging endocrine research to improve patient care.
—Fauntleroy-Shaw is a freelance writer based in Carmel, Ind. She’s a regular contributor to Endocrine News.
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