Daniel Green (born
January 24,
1962 in
Cape Town,
South Africa) is a healthcare entrepreneur and executive in the biopharmaceutical industry with over 20 years of commercial and line management experience in major pharmaceutical companies and subsequently with early-stage
biotechnology companies.
Daniel has led or participated in the raising of venture capital in excess of $60 million.
He is the son of the late
Jungian psychoanalyst Esther Lowenstein (
1939-
2001) and Ivor Green (1933-), former CEO of
ABC Shoe Corporation.
His older sister Sharla Kibel is a MFCC for Santa Clara county, and his younger brother Joshua Green, is a venture capitalist with Arts Alliance in the United Kingdom.
Together with Professor Robert (Bob) R.
Henry (UCSD and VA San Diego, ADA Board), he invented and developed the concept of preventing
hypoglycemia in
Type 1 diabetes using very low doses of
glucagon, which led to the founding and financing of DiObex Inc., where he was the founding CEO and President.
DiObex is focused on developing pharmaceuticals for treating metabolic diseases such as diabetes, diabetic complications, obesity as well as chronic renal disease closely associated with diabetes.
The company's initial focus was the development of a very low dose, long acting glucagon formulation (DIO-901), to reduce the nocturnal
hypoglycemia associated with
insulin-intensification in patients with Type 1 diabetes.
A U.S. patent (US 7,314,859) covering this invention issued on January 1, 2008 with Daniel and Bob Henry as inventors.
In April 2005, DiObex entered into an exclusive worldwide license to the intellectual property of Cortendo Invest AB of Gothenburg, Sweden (terms undisclosed).
The company is now recruiting patients with
Type 2 diabetes into two phase 2 studies studying the effects of the resulting molecule, DIO-902.
The endpoints being evaluated in these studis include glycemic control (
HbA1c),
cholesterol reduction and
blood pressure.
The company is also evaluating the use of DIO-902 for the treatment of
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).
After completing a B.Sc (Hons) at the
University of Cape Town, he left Cape Town for New Orleans, where he completed his MBA at
Tulane University in 1986.
He married Emily Sirefman and began working for
Roche Laboratories in New Jersey (1987).
Shortly thereafter was transferred to Roche HQ in Basel, Switzerland (1989) where he was responsible for the global marketing of the world's best selling injectable antibiotic,
Rocephin®.
His son, Samuel William Green was born on October 15, 1992 in Basel.
Six months later, Daniel was promoted to run the company's pharmaceutical operations in the Netherlands, and lived in Amsterdam for 3 years.
Following a stint at
Harvard Business School (PMD70) in the fall of 1995, he returned to the US as the Vice President of the Western operations of
Parke-Davis, the prescription pharmaceutical arm of
Warner-Lambert.
There he led the rapid expansion of the Western organization to effectively launch drugs such as the worlds best-selling drug
Lipitor® (with Pfizer),
Rezulin® (with Sankyo) and
Celexa® (with Forest Laboratories).
The Western Customer Business Unit led the division in sales growth for three consecutive years under his leadership.
The runaway success of Lipitor® ultimately led to the acquisition of the company by Pfizer.
Daniel began consulting to smaller biotech companies in Strategic and Business Development roles.
He worked initially with Robert Swanson (Genentech founder) in the startup phase of a company focused on Neurology Research, where he led initial business development and partnering efforts.
Another early client was Pain Therapeutics, Inc.(NASDAQ:PTIE)where he performed commercial assessments for the company's initial three programs in support of fundraising efforts.
A key client was ARYx Therapeutics Inc.
(NASDAQ: ARYX), where he was Vice President of Business Development and Commercialization.
He led the company's partnering efforts with big Pharma and subsequent to the company's initial venture financing, guided the process of priotizing candidates for clinical development in multiple therapeutic areas.
In January 2003, he joined with Bob Henry to found DiObex, raising $33 million in two rounds of venture capital and recruiting a world class team.
The team includes renowned scientist, Dr. Timothy Stewart, PhD (Coinventor of the patented Oncomouse at Harvard, Staff Scientist at
Genentech, and leader of their Endocrine research efforts, as well as Dr. Bernice Welles, MD, MBA, an endocrinologist who was Vice President of Development at Genentech, leading the development of many of the company's key products.
After closing the Series B financing and the recruiting and integration of new CEO, David Cory, he resigned from DiObex at the end of 2007 in order to found new biopharmaceutical companies.
References