More On Astrue

From a Silicon Investor article of February 26, 2003:

Career U-turn brings ex-counsel back to TKT

On Jan. 28, with considerable effort, Michael J. Astrue shaved and put on a tie. It was the first time he had attempted either task in 11 days.

Astrue, the former general counsel at Transkaryotic Therapies Inc. of Cambridge, hadn't been taking his legendary casual-dress philosophy to an extreme. On Jan. 17, he had slipped on the ice while walking from his front door to his car. His left arm was pinned beneath him and he fractured his elbow.

But Astrue had a reason to make himself presentable: There was a reception that afternoon for people who had served on Governor-elect Mitt Romney's transition team.

Moreover, just that morning he had received an invitation to attend a board meeting at TKT's Main Street headquarters. Astrue had resigned from the firm just five weeks earlier. The directors wanted to hear his advice for righting TKT, a 15-year-old biotech firm that had just suffered a series of severe regulatory setbacks that had crushed the near-term prospects for the company's Replagal drug and in four months slashed TKT's share price by 85 percent.

Astrue was planning to spend the new year doing research at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank based in Indianapolis, and teaching at the Boston University School of Law, while he sought an appointment somewhere in the Bush administration. But he accepted the invitation to meet the directors for two reasons.

''When provided with an opportunity to offer my opinions in detail, I usually take advantage of it,'' Astrue said. The 46-year-old also had a hunch TKT's board wanted more than to just pick his brain. In fact, Dr. Richard F. Selden, TKT's founder and chief executive, had asked Astrue whether he would consider the chief executive's job in November, just weeks before he left the
company.

''I knew they might be thinking about trying to bring me back,'' said Astrue, who took a taxi and arrived at the company at 2 p.m. Astrue ate a chicken salad sandwich, and talked for about two hours, after which Rodman W. Moorhead III, the chairman, asked him, ''Would you consider coming back as CEO?''

Astrue's return to TKT was announced Feb. 11. For the Milton native, it was another in a series of unexpected career U-turns. In 1985, while serving as a staff attorney at the Department of Health and Human Services, he was asked to interview for a position in the White House counsel's office. ''I was stunned,'' recalled Astrue, who advised presidents Reagan and Bush, ''but when the White House calls and asks you for your resume, you say yes.''

In just a few years, Astrue has become one of the more influential players in Massachusetts' biotechnology industry. After serving as associate counsel to the president, he was general counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services, overseeing an army of hundreds of lawyers. He later was a partner at Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC of Boston, and served as general counsel for Biogen, the Cambridge biotech giant, starting in 1993. He left Biogen for TKT in 2000, and was chairman of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council in 2001.

For Astrue, the return to TKT is more than just another serendipitous career move. After nearly 20 years spent in supporting roles - overseeing law departments, advising chief executives, handling patent litigation - Astrue is finally the leading man. If he achieves success running TKT, it is likely to be the defining episode of what has already been a high-profile career in the biotechnology industry.

''Mike is an incredibly moral guy,'' said Dr. Burt Adelman, executive vice president of research and development for Biogen Inc., where Astrue served as general counsel. ''I suspect they got him back because he wasn't going to leave something he was committed to when they were having a problem. He doesn't walk away from a fight.'' ...

It is abundantly clear that Astrue has his work cut out for him. Next month, the company will announce a major layoff affecting about 100 employees, or more than 20 percent of its work force. Major changes are also forthcoming in TKT's senior management, according to a former TKT executive.

In a gesture to employees, Astrue said he would forgo his salary for three months. He also said he asked the board to pay him less than Selden earned last year, but declined to specify what his compensation will be. In 2001, the most recent reported year, Selden earned a salary of $400,000 and a bonus of $150,000, according to company documents. ...

Astrue left TKT convinced his future lay in Washington, with an appointment to some sort of government post. That ambition had been thwarted in 2001. President Bush was poised to nominate Astrue to head the FDA, and Astrue had been interviewed by White House officials. But Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy and other Senate Democrats blocked the nomination, saying it would be a conflict of interest for the drug industry's top watchdog to come from the industry the agency regulates. ...

''Mike is way too smart to be pigeonholed as a lawyer,'' said one TKT executive who worked closely with Astrue. ''He's a strategic thinker and a leader, as well as a lawyer. He wants to prove that he can do it all.''...