Blog

Bill Meury got the call early last year after the last company he ran got sold for $3 billion. Billionaire biotech investor Julian C. Baker asked Meury: Would you be interested in running Incyte, a 2,800-person, publicly traded drug developer in Wilmington with $5 billion in yearly sales?

Under its previous CEO, Hervé Hoppenot, Incyte had multiplied sales of its breakout drug Jakafi (“JACK-ah-fye”), which treats blood cancers and transplant conditions. The company plowed revenues into hiring scientists, building labs, buying smaller businesses, and testing new products against the day Jakafi’s key patent runs out in 2028.

But new Incyte products were coming to market slowly. Shares peaked at over $130 in 2017, then fell into the $50s by early 2025, when Meury took over that June.

Meury’s signing-year compensation at Incyte was valued at over $30 million, mostly in stock grants and in options vesting over six years. (Hoppenot was given $17 million for his retirement year.)

With Meury as CEO — and Baker, whose firm is its largest investor, succeeding Hoppenot as board chair — Incyte shares have again topped $100 a share. Investors are hoping that Incyte delivers the drugs it has been readying for market — or that the company gets sold at a premium price like Meury’s previous employers Anthos, Karuna, Allergan, and Forest Labs.

Baker is also a director and investor in Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, a $1 billion (yearly sales), $12 billion (stock value) company based in Conshohocken, best known for Rezdiffra, which treats liver disease.

Meury, who has been building a top management team with new chief financial, human-resources, and strategy officers, took questions from The Inquirer in his office atop Incyte’s glass-fronted hillside headquarters near U.S. Route 202.

The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Why did you take this job?

I did a great deal of diligence. I found their pipeline [of new therapies] was fundamentally under-appreciated. The company has excellent R&D and commercial capabilities. It has excellent potential products in three of the strongest areas of biotech — oncology, hematology, immunology — really good areas for long-term growth.

That’s ultimately what companies solve for. When you have products, you win.

Don’t all big pharma companies have that?

Incyte has top-10 pharma scientists without the bureaucracy. Our researchers punch above our weight. Incyte is not a diversified giant, but it’s not a small start-up either. We avoid the downsides of both.

Just for one example, Patrick Mayes, our chief scientific officer, is out of the University of Pennsylvania. We have a very capable group of scientists — biologists, chemists, translational researchers, drug developers. We are able to colocate here in Wilmington, which results in faster iteration.

We have a lot to prove over the next couple of years. If we can advance half our assets through Phase 3 [clinical trial] to FDA approval of some scientifically and medically important products, Incyte will be much larger.

I believe we have the potential to double or triple [sales] in five to seven years.

For example?

We are developing the first oral-targeted treatment for pancreatic cancer, which has been considered an undruggable target for decades.

This is the Everest of oncology. Our scientists designed a small molecule to target KRAS G12D, a protein that causes [cancerous] cells [to reproduce uncontrollably]. We are in a race to be No. 1 with an approved treatment.

And we have therapies for a group of blood cancers and for colorectal cancer. These are first-in-class molecules that can make a pronounced difference for those cancers.

How can anyone avoid the ‘bureaucracy’ you say slows successful organizations?

You can’t solve bureaucracy through structure and process. You have to solve through the attitudes of exceptional leaders. Hervé built a great culture on good hiring decisions. You have a bunch of people that trust each other.

Failure is always right around the corner. Management has to be self-aware, to know the strengths and weaknesses of the employees. We are not running the company from 30,000 feet.

Do you expect your board and major shareholders will want you to sell Incyte, like your previous companies?

In general, companies can have two value-creation paths: There’s the independent path, and then there’s merger and acquisition.

The only path that a management team controls is the independent path. We are focused on running the company, building a great business for the employees, customers, physicians, and patients — and for the shareholders.

It hurts companies when there is a merger and acquisition theme all around them. If [buyers with offers] approach us, we have to listen. But we are building this company for the next decade. Most people want to work with a company that wants to be around in 10 years.

You’re not antimerger. On June 16, you agreed to buy Vega Therapeutics for up to $2 billion.

Vega has a novel compound [a treatment for an inherited blood disease] that we believe has potential sales of over $1 billion. If we can do several deals like this that fit one of our categories, in this case hematology, we will do them. These will never be more important than internal R&D, but each can be a multiplier for our business, with the right risk-and-reward profile.

By the time Jakafi loses exclusivity in December 2028 — and it may go beyond that — we will have $3 billion to $4 billion in non-Jakafi revenues.

Americans aren’t happy with the cost and availability of medical care, including drugs. Do you see any hopeful signs?

Three things have to be in place for biopharma to thrive: First, patent and trademark laws have to be predictable. Second, pricing policy has to be balanced. Third, FDA has to run effectively. There have been headwinds, but I think those pillars will be in place as disruption settles.

Are U.S. consumers and employers subsidizing world drug development with our high prices?

It’s true there’s an imbalance. But Americans have access to the best medical care in the world, such as novel cancer treatments.

But we have to get a better framework for global pricing. You’d like to see prices outside the U.S. come up, if they are going to moderate inside the U.S.

Can the U.S. compete with China?

China will be a source of innovation and competition. We have four or five major biotech centers in the U.S. They have 15. China is here to stay. For the U.S. to remain the leader, we have to create an environment where biotech can continue to thrive.

Incyte was founded in 2002 by scientists from Wilmington-based DuPont, but recent plans to grow your space stalled. Will Incyte keep growing here?

In the last two years we have added more than 150 [in Delaware] and anticipate adding another 250 [by 2031]. We will be here for as long as I’m here. The biotech labor market is not as strong as Boston, but it is strong here, with Thomas Jefferson and Penn in Philadelphia, and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

We’ll grow somewhere else if we have to. I’m not religious about it. But the base of this company is here in Wilmington.