Billionaire on a bike
How the coronavirus helped a Harvard Professor Turn $5 million into $870 million
Giacomo Tonini, Forbes, 05/17/2020
A Harvard professor who calls himself a scientist to the core has become a billionaire thanks to the fact that ten years ago he believed in a young biotech company and invested $5 million in it. During the pandemic, this company was the first to test a vaccine against COVID-19 in humans, and its share is now estimated at $870 million.
Ten years ago, Harvard University biology professor and serial entrepreneur Timothy Springer saw potential in a young company from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Massachusetts, and became one of its first investors. First of all, thanks to this deal, this professor has now become a billionaire.
This week, the shares of Moderna, contrary to the general trend of the market to decline, rose by 12%. This made Springer a billionaire: according to Forbes, his fortune reached $1 billion. Springer owns 3.5% in Moderna and shares in three other smaller biotech startups.
"My philosophy is to invest in what you understand. And I'm a scientist to the core and I like to discover new things," says 72-year-old Springer. ― Many scientists create startups, but only a few achieve success. I am an active investor and an extremely strict scientist. Therefore, my average level of hitting the target is very high."
On Tuesday, Moderna announced that the US FDA regulator has accelerated the review of its COVID-19 vaccine sample. Moderna was the first company to start testing its vaccine on humans – they started on March 16 in Seattle. Since the World Health Organization declared a pandemic two months ago, the company's shares have tripled. As a result of this dizzying rally, another billionaire appeared in Moderna – CEO Stefan Bansel, whose fortune is estimated at $ 2.1 billion.
In addition to investing in biotechnology, Springer teaches biochemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and advises postdoctoral students in his own laboratory. Springer has been working at Harvard since 1977. During his research on the immune system at the University, Springer studied cell adhesion molecules, and his discoveries led to the development of several antibody-based drugs approved by the FDA. The first entrepreneurial experience of the scientist was the creation of the biotech company LeukoSite in 1993. Five years later, it entered the stock market, and a year later it was bought by Millennium Pharmaceuticals. The transaction amount was $ 635 million, of which $ 100 million Springer received in the form of shares of the buyer.
In 2010, the scientist became one of the founders of Moderna, having invested about $ 5 million in the company. Ten years later, his stake is worth approximately $870 million. Long before the advent of COVID-19, Springer began to think about how the company's revolutionary technology based on the use of matrix RNA could be useful in the development of new vaccines.
"We realized very quickly that the technology could be useful for preparing for future pandemics," explains the researcher. ― That is why we have invested in human trials with different types of influenza – with its varieties that are not typical for epidemics, but with which a full-scale pandemic can begin. All this time we have taken into account the probability of such a scenario."
Moderna is the most famous company in Springer's portfolio. But he is also a leading investor in three smaller public biotech startups: Selecta Biosciences, Scholar Rock and Morphic Therapeutic. For Scholar Rock and Morphic Therapeutic, the researcher also became one of the founders and contributed to their development through his research activities at Harvard.
Springer's newfound wealth has not affected him in any way ― he still rides a bicycle to work every day and personally conducts research in his laboratory. According to the investor, the only luxury for him is his own house: "I love gardening and collecting stones. I don't need money, because I live by science."
In addition, he spends the earned funds for the benefit of the scientific community. In 2017, Springer donated $10 million to create the Institute for Protein Innovation, a non–profit organization dedicated to research in the field of protein compounds and helping entrepreneurs implement business ideas in the field of biotechnology.
"I like to invest actively, but I also really like to actively engage in charity," says Springer. ― At the foundation of this organization I not only wanted to help create reliable antibodies that scientists from all over the world could use in their biological research, but also wanted to give them a new technology that would make discoveries much more. It is extremely difficult to engage in such areas of science in educational institutions."
The Harvard professor is not the only member of the billionaires' club whose fortune has grown amid the fight against COVID-19. Since March 11, when the WHO declared a pandemic, some other medical businessmen have become richer by billions of dollars. Most likely, while the public is frozen in anticipation of new successes in the fight against the virus, the market for biotechnological developments will only grow.
For his part, Springer is optimistic that the industry will develop rapidly even after the end of the pandemic. "Everyone used to think we were villains who wanted too much for medicines," he says. – But now it has become clear to everyone that biotechnologies will always come to the rescue. Our field gives the world a lot of new drugs, and the belief in what we are doing is fully justified."
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