SUMM14 Jan 2019 18:48
Let’s hope for a repeat
In September 2008, Duggan was appointed CEO of Pharmacyclics, a California-based biopharmaceutical company that was founded in 1991. At the time, Pharmacyclics had a market capitalization of $15 million and was on the brink of collapse. Duggan, who was the company’s largest shareholder with 24.1% of the outstanding stock, took on the challenge of turning around the failing firm which he once described in retrospect as a "collision course to disaster." He began accumulating shares in the company in 2004 when the stock traded around $10. From then to mid-2007, the stock fell to as low as $3 per share due to a number of internal issues. Instead of cutting his losses by selling what little value the stock had left, Duggan stuck it through and continued purchasing more shares.
During his tenure from 2008-2015, Duggan saved Pharmacyclics and turned it into a billion-dollar company with more than 500 employees. The turn of events was mainly influenced by a successful drug the company developed called Imbruvica. It was a treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. As a result, Pharmacyclics’ stock price dramatically increased, making Duggan a billionaire by 2014. In 2015, AbbVie announced it would be acquiring Pharmacyclics for $21 billion. Duggan grossed $3.4 billion from the sale.