The 100 Fastest: Partnerships Help Propel Ambit to the Top-Tier Bio Track

Scott Salka didn't get into biotechnology thinking he would stay there.

With no science degree and considering the risky nature of the industry, the chief executive officer of San Diegobased Ambit Biosciences said he sometimes wondered why he didn't head for a safer entrepreneurial environment

But Salka has no regrets.

Thanks to partnerships with some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, the 74employee drug development firm saw revenue grow 817 percent since 2003 - good for No. 3 on the San Diego Business Journal's List of Fastest-Growing Private Companies.

Ambit focuses on developing cancer drugs, and also services large pharma firms by screening their compounds to see how they interact with certain proteins.

There was a time - 2004 - when Salka and his then-30 employees were at such a loss for funding that they were evicted from their laboratories and couldn't make payroll.

"We had experiments going on and owed data to pharma partners," he said. "I came to work on a Thursday and my receptionist gave me a notice that said the police were going to be there if we didn't vacate the building."

Rescued On A Handshake

But the roller coaster of biotech inevitably took a sharp turn: A real estate investor named Lee Chestnut, who Salka calls "Ambit's angel," offered lab space on a handshake, and the firm was able to turn temporary deals with GlaxoSmithKline Inc., Merck & Co. Inc., and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. into multiyear, multimilliondollar deals. Two are worth $5 million each, plus ongoing payment for Ambit's services, but Salka declined to disclose more specific financial details.

Today, Ambit is largely funded by big pharma and local venture capital firm Forward Ventures. But Ambit says it has enough cash to last at least into 2008.

Ambit's drug candidates include two cancer drugs. One of them will begin phase I human clinical trials before the end of the year and could treat acute myeloid leukemia as well as gastrointestinal stromol tumors. The second, which could begin phase I in late 2007, will be tested for its ability to treat solid tumors.

Approximately 13,000 new cases of AML are diagnosed annually in the United States, Salka said. Estimates vary for GIST, but one Swedish study estimates that 129 people in every 1 million have the intestinal tumors. Salka calls both markets "poorly served" and "patients are treated with a handful of standard, old-line chemotherapeutic agents."

Savvy About Startups

Ambit is the fourth startup for Salka. He was CEO of 454 Corp., a DNA-sequencing company now based in Connecticut, and Arcaris, a Salt Lake City-based firm that focuses on proteomics and identifying novel drug targets.

Salka was sucked into biotech by way of recruitment from his job at manufacturing firm BFGoodrich Corp., where he was a senior financial analyst. He was recruited to San Diego's Avalon Ventures by a managing partner there, Kevin Kinsella.

Salka then helped start the former Sequana Therapeutics Inc., one of the first commercial genomics companies, which focused on commercializing the Human Genome Project. Salka began by focusing on business development and operations, and eventually became the chief financial officer of the firm, which had grown to more than 200 employees by 1997.

"You know, at the end of the day, one of the great things in the life sciences sector is that it's filled with very bright, very passionate, very committed people," Salka said. "They are working very hard to bring new drugs to the market."

Sequana eventually merged with other firms that were later acquired by what is today Alameda-based Celera Genomics.

Stan Fleming, co-founder and managing member of San Diego's Forward Ventures, said the venture capital firm first invested in Ambit in 2001. Kinsella sparked Fleming's interest in Ambit and its managers, including Salka.

"Other companies can do other, similar things, but nobody can do this on the scale or with the level of efficiency that Ambit does," Fleming said. "It's not the product, it's the management team that makes you money. A 'B' product and an 'A' management team is much better than an 'A' product and a 'B' management team."

Salka believes biotechnology draws in idealists, of whom he considers himself one.

"I could have been helping create the next-generation cell phone or computer," he said. "But then are you really able to go home and say, 'I am going to deeply affect the lives of the next generation?' "

3. Ambit Biosciences

CEO: Scott Salka

Location: 4215 Sorrento Valley Blvd., San Diego 92121

2005 revenues: $4.7 million

2003-2005 growth: 817 percent

No. of local full-time employees: 74

Web site: www.ambitbio.com

CEO's secret to success: "Lots of hard work and the fortune to be surrounded by great people. No CEO can do it alone. At the end of the day, you are the orchestra leader, at best."