Peter Chambré – Micro CV
Peter joined 3i as an Industrialist in Residence in September 2007.
Between 2002 and 2006, Peter was CEO of Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc (CAT).  CAT is a world leader in the discovery and development of human antibody therapeutics.  Under Peter’s leadership, the listed company successfully transitioned into a profitable product development company.  CAT was acquired by AstraZeneca for £702m in 2006.
From 2000 to 2001, Peter was Chief Operating Officer at Celera Genomics Group, the $1bn company which completed the sequencing of the human genome.  Peter led a redefinition of Celera’s strategy, helping it evolve into a drug discovery and molecular diagnostics business. From 1994 to 2000, Peter was CEO at Bespak plc.  Under his leadership, the company was transformed from a loss-making, multiple-sector manufacturing company into a highly-profitable group focused on drug delivery.

What distinguishes the life sciences industry from other sectors?
Peter: Supply will never match the demand for improvements in human health.  That gives the industry a huge engine for growth.  At the same time, there are also major risks, because of the frequency of product failure.  To succeed in this high-growth, high-risk environment, companies need to bring together exceptional science and remarkable people, and back them with capital.  When the blend is right, the returns can be very good indeed – but they need to be to cover the level of risk.  To an extent, the leading pharma giants mitigate the risk through the sheer size of their portfolios but in the mid-market where 3i operates, companies are typically working with a narrower product base, so each investment needs very careful assessment.

Your last three leadership roles were all at healthcare companies: how similar were the challenges you faced?
Peter: On each occasion, I joined the business at a time of change, when it needed a shift in either strategy or momentum.  The underlying approach was similar – assessing each company’s core strengths and working out how to deploy them in the best way going forward to achieve the goals.  However, the decisions taken were quite distinct.  At Bespak, we rebuilt profitability by focusing on the drug delivery business and exiting other product lines.  At Celera, we supported an evolution from a genomic information company into a discovery and diagnostics business.  And at CAT, we refocused the scientific capabilities so that we were creating high-value therapeutics for the company’s own account rather than principally for licensees. 

How did you help CAT transition from technology licensing to a commercial focus?
Peter: When I joined as CEO in 2002, CAT was already some way into its journey: it was a listed company, it had outstanding scientific strengths, and it was clearly focused on product development.  However, it was loss-making.  My role was to help CAT speed up and complete its evolution into a highly-profitable, product-based business.  In 2002, CAT’s scientists mainly developed products that were licensed to and funded by big pharma companies.  Although CAT would earn milestones and royalties from these products, this didn’t maximise the return on its exceptional capabilities.  We set and communicated clear strategic goals, and ensured that the whole organisation was aligned to them, which saw the company increasingly develop products for its own account and exit the licensing business.  At the same time, we began to seek a small number of strategic alliances to accelerate the transition, and made selective acquisitions.  We formed a major alliance in November 2004 with AstraZeneca, who acquired 20% of CAT.  Eighteen months later, they acquired the rest of the company – they had recognised the quality of CAT’s people, science and delivery, and saw that these would be central to their success in building a biopharmaceutical business.

What makes 3i an attractive partner for healthcare companies?
Peter: Because of the strong underlying growth and the opportunities for high returns, healthcare is a fundamentally attractive sector.  To unlock its potential, you have to bring together the right combination of science, people and capital.  3i is uniquely placed to do that because of its breadth of view.  From venture and growth capital through to buyouts and quoted private equity, 3i has a very strong presence right across the sector.  Its 30-strong healthcare team invests substantial amounts globally.  They work to understand which segments of the market are most attractive and seek to build relationships that deliver a flow of opportunities.  Because of this, 3i’s investors bring real insight to the evaluation of potential investments and work successfully with some of the most outstanding healthcare companies in the mid-market.

As an experienced leader, why do you choose to work with 3i?
Peter: 3i identifies companies that are at points of change and helps them to evolve rapidly.  That dovetails perfectly with my personal goals.  I’ve had the privilege of leading three businesses through periods of growth and development, and that’s what I want to continue doing.  As an Industrialist in Residence at 3i, I have the opportunity to tap into the very broad pipeline of deals that 3i’s commitment to the sector and investment strength offers, as well as to generate transactions myself.  This gives me an exceptionally wide range of companies to evaluate.  It also offers the potential to take up my next exciting roles as CEO or chairman of one – or more – of 3i’s portfolio companies.  My ambition is to continue to lead healthcare companies through their next phase of successful development and thereby create exceptional returns – I believe that those are goals that can best be met in partnership with 3i.