Green Kills (5 page)

Boston, October
16, 2013, 10:00 AM

How long has he been standing there?
Ronnie wondered when
he found Lumner standing next to the office door, waiting for him. He hurried
to get inside and shook Christian’s hand with both of his, noticing the CEO’s
barely concealed repulsion to the friendly gesture.

“Thanks for waiting, there really
wasn’t
any need to do that.”

“I just happened to pass by and saw you coming. Follow me,
please. The conference room is available for our exclusive use for the entire day.”
Ronnie sensed impatience underlying Christian’s words. He followed him into the
large conference room and sat at the center of the table. Christian continued
to the front of the room without saying a word and connected his laptop to the
projector. He appeared to Ronnie the perfect image of a successful Fortune 500
CEO sent by central casting. His erect, muscular body was at least six feet
tall, he was wearing gray tailored pants with fine beige stripes and a white
starched shirt whose closed collar was decorated with the company tie. His
tanned face was framed by a perfectly manicured hairstyle, made more
distinguished by swirls of early gray.

“I prefer to conduct an open conversation at this stage,” said
Ronnie. He moved closer to Christian, who recoiled a bit before regaining his
composure.

Christian closed the laptop and said, “You’re the boss.
Whatever you want.
What would you like to hear?”

“Look, I’ve spent far more years as CEO of a company similar to
the one you’re running than as a venture capitalist.” Ronnie smiled, trying to
break the ice. “I admire CEOs and understand firsthand the complexities you
deal with on a daily basis. That’s why I have no intention of establishing an
adversarial relationship. I’m here to help, and I’d be delighted to establish a
relationship based on mutual trust. OK?”

Lumner nodded, but his body language continued to indicate
distress. Even though he didn’t really need more caffeine, Ronnie poured
himself another cup of coffee. Christian sealed up in his disturbing silence
and waited. Ronnie leaned back, clasped his hands behind his neck and asked,
“What’s bothering you, Christian? If it’s that Henry had to leave the TDO
board, I can assure you I’ll do the best I can to step into his large shoes. As
disappointing as it may be, I can’t be Henry, I can only be myself. I can only
hope it’ll be good enough for you.”

A bitter smile surfaced on Lumner’s face, “That’s hardly the
reason for the stressful situation I’m in. I apologize if I gave you the
impression I’m displeased by your emergence in the company. I’m all for
building mutual trust. Unfortunately, I’ve been burned by trusting people in
the past. All I ask is that you give me some time to place my confidence in
you. Ask whatever you’d like, and I promise to answer in detail and with
complete transparency.”

“OK. Why don’t you start with the status of the fund-raising?”
opened Ronnie.

“I hope it goes well. As I mentioned, I’m flying to the West
Coast this evening to conduct meetings with two funds that received all the
company’s business and legal documents two months ago. If there’s enough time,
I’ll also visit the offices of a Canadian fund in Palo Alto that’s trying to
jump on the bandwagon at the last minute. I know from our clients that at least
one fund, Accord Ventures Partners, is advancing with their due diligence.
They’ve already conducted intensive calls asking detailed questions about our
product. According to the leading partner at Accord, there are several open
questions remaining that they would like to discuss with me face-to-face,
before they decide if and how much they would like to invest in the company.”

“Do you have any guesses as to what those questions might be?”
Ronnie felt the conversation was finally getting on the right track.

“I asked, but they refused to say. I assume they want to
understand what risks the development process holds and how much trust I have
in the product.”

“I don’t get it” — Ronnie raised an eyebrow — “we’re already in
clinical trials. I assumed the development risks were behind us and unless, God
forbid, any unexpected surprises pop up, we have a complete product in our
hands.”

Christian rolled his pen between his fingers, magician-like. He
performed this little trick several times, and just as Ronnie was about to repeat
his question, Lumner woke up and said, “A few problems emerged during the
development process about a year ago. In two separate cases, an entire
production lot proved to be defective, and we couldn’t determine why. At the
moment, we are unable to guarantee that mass production of each manufacturing
batch will yield the exact same results, which is naturally a fact that
disturbs potential investors.”

Ronnie felt the blood draining from his face. He had never heard
about the incident. Not during the
fund’s
staff
meetings, nor from Henry’s mouth. There were no records of it in any of the
files Henry had given him. “This is the first I’m hearing of this. I’d
appreciate it if you’d update me with all the details. Now that I’m on the
board of directors, I’m legally responsible for any complications that might
arise as a result of defective medicine erroneously finding its way to the
market.”

While speaking, Ronnie began to realize the severity of the
situation he’d found himself in. Until now, he could have claimed he was
unaware that some of the medicine produced was defective; from this moment on,
he could not ignore the malfunction that had occurred and its possible
implications. The sincerity he had encouraged Lumner to demonstrate had sucked
him all at once into a legal complication that could end badly unless managed
correctly.

“I assume you’d like to hear everything you can about the
product,” Christian opened and when Ronnie nodded his agreement, he continued.
“The blood-brain barrier, or BBB, is a permeability barrier that separates the
circulating blood from the brain extracellular fluid. The purpose of the
blood-brain barrier is to protect the brain tissue from infection or antibodies
and to maintain the composition of the liquid that contains the neurons, in
order to protect neurotransmitter activity in the body. Today, all research in
the industry is concentrated on trying to find ways to ‘cheat’ the BBB system
so it will allow medicine to access the brain, especially in cases of brain
tumors or severe inflammation. We approached the problem from a different
angle. Painkillers and anesthetics aren’t blocked by the BBB system —
therefore, each anesthetic shot directly influences the brain and the
functioning of the patient. At TDO, we’ve developed anesthetics and painkillers
with certain ingredients that the BBB system would normally block. The medicine
may have infinite uses and a vast business potential. From painkillers that
will not dull the mental clarity of the user, to the ability to conduct operations
during which the body will be anesthetized, but the patient will remain fully
awake and able to cooperate with the surgeons. The potential annual market size
is estimated in the trillions of dollars.”

Christian paused for a moment, and when he saw Ronnie nodding in
understanding, continued, “During the development stage, we produced six
batches of the medication. Unfortunately, the results were not identical in
each round. Fortunately, we have an excellent quality control system and
discovered the problem very quickly. Once we investigated the reasons, the
damaged series were destroyed in their entirety.”

“Reasons?
What do you mean?”

“Out of six manufacturing rounds, four were perfect, in one the
medicine wasn’t effective enough, and the last one showed signs of toxicity.”

“Toxicity?”

“There was a production malfunction, or more precisely, a human
error. We’ve improved the procedures, and the deviation has not occurred
since.”

“How come there’s no mention of it in your summaries for the
board of directors?” Ronnie snapped.

“Henry insisted that any mention of the problem be removed from
the summaries,” Christian answered without hesitation.

“So how come the new investors know about it?” Ronnie wondered,
a concerned look in his eyes.

“
I
told them about it,” Christian answered. He had the
appearance of a condemned man awaiting the guillotine’s blade to end his
suffering.

“
You
?”

“I wasn’t willing to go on record and lie in the documents I
sent to the various funds. I was unable to continue with Henry’s plan. You can
fire me now, if you’d like.” There was a tone of defiance in his voice.

Indeed, I stepped on a hornet’s nest when I spoke with Henry
,
Ronnie thought. “We need to trust each other. We’re allowed to disagree, but I
need to know from now on you won’t do anything behind my back, and mutual
decisions will be executed exactly as agreed upon. Can you promise me that?”

“Yes,” Christian answered feebly.

“A smart investor on my board of directors when I was CEO once
told me that he can’t stand the feeling he constantly needs an ear-eye doctor.”

Lumner gave Ronnie a questioning look.

“A doctor that’ll cure the frustrating feeling
that what you hear is not exactly what you see.”

A smile settled on Christian’s face and he said, “A wise man indeed.”

“OK, let’s move on, then. I’ll need to update Henry about our
conversation.”

“You do what you think is right, but if I were you, I wouldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Well…” Christian squirmed, “Now we’re running the company, not
Henri. It doesn't sound to me as good practice to involve him in every single
thing.”

Ronnie decided to ignore the unconvincing answer. “OK, but
answer me one more question. If it were up to you, would you continue to
conduct additional tests, or do you think there is a risk toxic medication
might find its way into the trials?”

“That’s a theoretical question. It’s not up to me. I presented
my recommendations to the board, and the decision that was eventually reached
was to carry on. Based on all the analysis conducted so far, it was also the
right decision, whether I supported it or not. Besides, if we stop the
experiment now, you know we won’t be able to raise money and the company will
close its doors. I’ll have wasted seven years of my life, and you’ll lose
twenty-five million dollars of your capital. In a perfect world, we might have
reached a different decision. In the real world however, we were forced to be
pragmatic.”

“You haven’t answered my question, Christian.”

“Yes, I have. You may choose to ignore the answer, but I gave
you my reply.”

“If your son or daughter needed an operation tomorrow, would you
approve their participation in the trials?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t sound too convinced.”

“The answer is yes, but if you need more information, I suggest
you speak with an advisor we employ. He’s a well-known authority in the
industry. His name is Dr. Jörgen Zimmerhof and his offices are in New
Jersey. I’ll send him an email right now, asking him to meet you as early as
tomorrow. He also thinks continuing the
experiments
with the medication that has already been manufactured and checked many times
is completely safe.”

Utter silence now lay in the room.

“All right.
I’d love to get all
paperwork involving the case.” Ronnie regained his composure.

“I’ll see that you get everything, even though we have no
official summaries,” answered Christian. When he saw the confusion on Ronnie’s
face he added, “As I mentioned, that was the instruction we received from your
predecessor.”

“And Henry didn’t give you an explanation for it?”

“You must know a different Henry than the one I’m familiar
with,” said Lumner bitterly. “Henry doesn’t think any of his instructions
should be explained. He expects them to be carried out in full or else…”

“Or else what?”

“Will there be anything else?”
         

“Or else what, Christian?”

“You seem like a decent guy, it would be a shame for you to get
into trouble after only three days in your new job and lose it. Let’s drop the
subject.”

A knock on the door made them both jump. A short man whose belly
protruded through a missing button on his shirt came inside and turned to
Christian, “I’m sorry for the interruption, but can I have a moment of your
time?” Lumner apologized to Ronnie and exited the room.

Ronnie remained by himself, his mind a tumble of insane
thoughts.
Could I have been so wrong in my understanding of the situation?
Could I have been assigned to this job to serve as a scapegoat if and when the
need arises?
 

A short time later, the CEO returned to the room accompanied by
the chubby man. Christian’s mood seemed much improved. “Meet Jim Belafonte, the
company’s chief technology officer,” he announced. “He’s the man who helps me
hang on to my sanity under all this pressure. Jim is the company’s most
important asset. Currently, he’s taking care of the next stage of the trials:
surgeries which will be conducted independently by doctors, without the
participation of company personnel. According to FDA regulations, you and I
need to approve the continuation of the experiment. I’ve already signed the
paperwork,
I’d like you to sign it as well.” He presented
the documents to Ronnie, who looked at them as if they were drenched with
poison.

Ronnie was silent, allowing Jim to understand he should leave
the room.

The door closed, but Christian remained standing.

“Sit down, please,” said Ronnie.

Lumner sat unwillingly, and without being asked, said, “I
understand your concern, but I don’t think there’s any danger here. The
medicine vials that will be used in the surgeries are the last two taken from a
lot already vetted in the last six rounds. The damaged batches were destroyed,
and we haven’t produced a new batch. Furthermore, all the bottles have been
carefully examined. Jim and I personally approved each bottle and signed its
label. The only difference between the current clinical trials and the previous
successful ones is that a company representative will not be present in the
operating room. Anyhow, in our previous trials the doctors didn’t really need
our help.”