From Hoop Dreams to the Biopharma Big Time: Rob Perez on The Long Run

Today’s guest on the show is Rob Perez.

He grew up in a lower-middle class household in Los Angeles. Had some hoop dreams that never quite materialized. No big deal.

Perez found he had a knack for sales, and paid his way through college by working at fitness centers.

Rob Perez

Chance brought him into the pharmaceutical sales business. He liked meeting doctors, learning about medicine and how it could help people. He rose through the ranks, and ended up succeeding beyond his wildest dreams at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, the antibiotic developer acquired by Merck in 2015. Now he’s recruiting fellow biotech executives to put some of their money and talents to work on big, broad-based societal causes, like poverty and homelessness.

When you hear this personal story, I think you’ll see how this industry draws talented people from many walks of life, and how it can make an even bigger impact by simply remembering that fact. How can biotech do some more effective things to bridge some of the gaps in our society, to help some of the have-nots? He has some creative ideas to share on this score, and a model to study called Life Science Cares.