Jeff Mazzeo

Jeff Mazzeo trained at the Barnett Institute, earning his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1992, and is currently Director of Biopharmaceutical Business at Waters Corp. His job (like the Institute) is to look at where the field is going and provide the tools it will need when it gets there. On a recent visit we asked him for his reflections and advice for entering students. They would be wise to listen — he was on the team that conceived and developed the first UPLC, and is today poised to surf an even bigger one.

The Rising Tide of Biopharmaceuticals
"Today only 1 of the top 5 drugs is a biopharmaceutical, and 28% of the top 100. In 5 years, all 5 of the top 5 drugs will be biologics, and 50% of top 100. This will have a huge impact in all corners of the pharmaceutical industry: generics companies will be marketing biologics; contract research organizations will have to manufacture and analyze them. And this presents a changing product focus for Waters, all the way down the company: even the sales teams will have to become fluent in the language of proteins and antibodies – light and heavy chains, post-translational modifications, glycosylation and cell culture. "

Two other things that made an impression were the diversity of the graduate and postdoctoral students – from all over Europe as well as China. Also "the opportunity to see and meet all of the leading professors in the field, who would come to NU and give talks: Zare, Regnier, Cooks, Hancock -- over the four years I was here I think I met everyone whose work I was following”.

Career Moves
Jeff first joined Waters directly from his Ph.D., for 3 years. "I went from doing CE for Ira in support of industrial collaborators, to doing CE for Waters in support of industrial customers. There was a lot applications development – chiral separations, ion analysis – and also new product development as we acquired new lines. I really liked Waters, because the work was not just science, but also the ‘people’ side of the business. However, after a couple of years I saw the need to combine my technical skills with the culture and goals of a pharmaceutical company” and joined an early stage pharmaceutical company, Gel-Tex.

“Gel-Tex had a really interesting technology – 'drugs' that were basically ion exchange resins. They bind things in the gut and get excreted, never entering the body. The first product is now a billion-dollar molecule (www.renagel.com). It mops up phosphate; people with renal issues have problems clearing phosphate, they used to have to take calcium after meals to precipitate calcium phosphate, which can cause other problems. But the chelator goes through like fiber."

Jeff ranks being on the CMC (“chemistry, manufacturing and control”) of the NDA as one of his proudest accomplishments. “I also worked on a bile acid adsorbent, which would lower cholesterol. It worked, and got approved, but is only a minor player today because the statins are so good. “

Mass Spectrometry in a CRO
"Although I really wanted to go back to Waters, it was also clear to me that the future would revolve around mass spec”. So Jeff spent an additional year at the contract research lab Primedica (later Charles River labs) doing bioanalytical method development using LC/MS/MS. "Life in a CRO is pretty hectic, there are always samples to be run. It wasn’t 24/7, but there were a lot of 16-hour days and I was in there at least to tend things seven days a week." But always interacting with and bouncing ideas off of his old contacts at Waters, he rejoined as Manager of their Applied Technology group in 2000, becoming Director of Applied Technology after four years.

Back at Waters Jeff is happy, because he is fascinated by the business side of science. “I like interacting with people, the human psychology in the sales process – What does the customer need to hear to go with us instead of the competition. Because the competition is making good instruments too.” Waters uses a ‘diagnostic approach’ to sales. “You ask a lot of questions like Columbo the detective, try to understand what the customer wants. It creates trust when they see you really want to understand; having a Ph.D. gives credibility. And understanding what is driving the market is always good for business.”

Jeff’s proudest moment looking back on his career so far would be being on the team that designed the Acquity UPLC. “The team formed in 2001. We brought together perspectives from Research, Instrumentation Engineering, Business, and Marketing. We brainstormed on what should be in the next generation HPLC: what was possible, what would address needs. Prototypes moved quickly; and we launched a product in 2004.”

Jeff still has a lab, directs a group. “We publish a few papers a year – more when the UPLC first came out” (Jeff was the lead author on the pioneering UPLC paper in Analytical Chemistry). “But we’re judged by management on how we grow the business.”

“One thing I have especially enjoyed about this job is the excitement of the entrepreneurial component. Going in front of the executive team and telling them ‘This is a product I need to make in order to grow our sector; these are the field resources we will need to support it. If you give it to me, then this is what I can deliver to you’ “.

Advice to Students
In closing, asked to reflect on what he would tell entering or prospective graduate students, “I realized that when I was applying to graduate school I never really looked beyond doing labwork. Although you should focus on it now, just be aware that you won’t be doing laboratory bench work for the rest of your life. Many other aspects of the work are or will become interesting. Scientists are intelligent people and have a lot to contribute to business decisions, many of which you may see otherwise made for a pet peeve, project, or prayer. Although in a good company they have hired good people, and all of the ideas are good. The executives may want to fund them all, but money has to be metered out. That’s where politics comes in.”

(Roger Kautz, Aug 2009)

(incidental art from waters.com)

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