Immuron Ltd (NASDAQ:IMRN, ASX:IMC) CEO Steven Lydeamore is a numbers guy. You can tell by the thoughtful, considered way he reflects on his experience that a knack for numbers has informed his leadership style.
But that financial acumen is just part of the picture. Steven’s passion for collaboration and making products with purpose led him to Immuron, a biopharmaceutical stock making immunotherapies for gut health.
The pharmaceutical boss’ multi-decade career has taken him everywhere from Australia to the US and Canada and back to Australia again, and his latest leadership venture will see him hone Immuron’s commercial and clinical potential on home soil.
Nearly one year after joining the ASX-listed biotech, Steven talks about what brought him here and what’s next on his leadership journey.
In this article:
- The journey begins
- Making the switch
- Across the pond
- Back on home soil
- Immuron and the future
- Commercial and clinical vision
- The road ahead
The journey begins
Steven’s career trajectory has catapulted him from finance jobs in the resources sector to executive and leadership roles in the pharmaceuticals space.
A Port Pirie, South Australia, native, Steven got his start in the mining and smelting business. He worked as an accounting trainee while studying applied economics.
“Finance is essential; it’s at the heart of running any successful business’” he explains of his love of numbers.
Values have also played a crucial role in Steven’s leadership, and he believes they need to be ratified in ASX-listed companies.
“If you’re going to do any role, no matter what industry you’re in, you’ve got to have passion — not just skills and experience,” he says of his personal values.
“Collaboration is another one. Very few people are able to achieve in isolation and that’s something I really value.”
Back in Adelaide for the Christmas holidays, Steven noticed an advertisement for FH Faulding & Co — at the time, Australia’s largest pharmaceutical company.
He moved into a finance role with FH in 1992, awed by the sheer scope of FH’s operations, covering everything from wholesaling through to product lines. His work here set the course for more than 30 years of pharmaceutical experience.
Making the switch
It wasn’t long before Steven caught the biotech bug. He jumped into scientific affairs and business development at one of the FH sites in Adelaide, where he was responsible for finance and supporting business development.
Reflecting on his leadership journey and the transition from resources to pharmaceuticals, Steven says there’s scope for purpose-led innovation.
“In my time in mining, it was all about extracting every last cent of value out of the ground,” he laughs.
“In pharmaceuticals and biotech, you have more freedom to spend more time on innovation — work that can help save lives. There’s certainly some attraction in that.”
“It’s fair to say I’ve fallen in love with the industry, I’ve been in it a long time. I don’t see myself moving into any other space, really.”
Later on, Steven did his MBA through Melbourne’s RMIT University, became a fellow at CPA Australia and graduated from the Australian Institute of Company Directors in 2018 — experience that underscored his move into international territory.
Across the pond
Steven’s management and big pharma expertise soon lured him to the US. He joined Mayne Pharma in the early 2000s, working in business development and supply chain logistics before climbing the ladder to a vice president role.
“While I was there, we oversaw a number of firsts,” Steven explains.
“We launched our first product in oncology injectables into the Novaplus pharmaceutical brand, which was the largest group purchasing organisation for hospital pharmaceuticals in the US.
“We grew the business from about $20 million to more than $100 million during that four-year period.”
It wasn’t long before opportunity knocked again, this time at pharmaceutical business Apotex Inc. The role took Steven to Canada, where he worked as vice president of business development for more than a decade.
Part of his tenure put Steven back on home ground; two years in Sydney saw him promoted to executive vice president and managing director of Apotex International, overseeing all operations outside the US and Canada across some 111 countries.
“I did that for a while before the business restructured and I became the president of a newly formed division called Apobiologix, which developed biosimilar products and commercialised branded haematology and oncology products.”
Back on home soil
In 2017, Steven put down roots down under. He wanted to make sure his daughters could grow up seeing their grandparents and cousins as they settled into secondary schooling.
That decision opened the door to two executive leadership roles: first, a CFO role at Bionomics, and then a CEO job at fellow ASX-lister Anatara Lifesciences Ltd (ASX:ANR).
“At the time, I actually went for an interview for the non-executive directorship, but they decided I didn’t have ASX-specific director experience,” he laughs.
“But while I was there, they told me ‘look, you’re not really in the running for that particular role, but we are looking for a CEO’.”
It was meant to be. Steven led the team for three and a half years, building experience that would prove invaluable in his current role at Immuron.
Immuron and the future
“The thing I liked about Immuron is that they had a product on the market,” Steven explains.
Not just one product, but two. Immuron is responsible for Travelan®, an over-the-counter immune supplement that can help patients curb traveller’s sickness and diarrhoea.
It also makes Protectyn®, a targeted antibody treatment that works by removing harmful bacteria and LPS toxins in the gut.
“Instead of selling Imodium or Gastro-Stop, which is a product that people take after they get traveller's diarrhoea, wouldn’t it be better to sell a higher price product that benefits the patient?” Steven asks.
In a way, his journey has come full circle: the same site where Steven worked in scientific affairs at FH all those years ago is now one of the manufacturing hubs for Travelan.
Travelan is currently available in major pharmaceutical markets like Australia, the US and Canada, while Protectyn is gearing up for a Canadian release after launching on home soil.
“They also had multiple clinical programs underway and raised a significant amount of cash in 2020, so they were cashed up to fund growth in both the clinical and commercial pipelines,” Steven recalls of Immuron’s prospects.
Commercial and clinical vision
When asked about his Big Hairy Audacious Goals for the biotech stock, Steven said it was all about expansion in the market.
“When you sit back and look at the target population — that’s people travelling to high-risk regions — there’s no reason why we couldn’t grow that product itself to more than $50 million,” he muses.
“In Australia, we’re doing reasonably well, but we could continue to grow in Canada and the US.”
Steven also believes Immuron can go straight to the source, selling the product directly into pharmacies across popular travel destinations.
“We’re discussing distribution with a number of Southeast Asian companies at the moment, and we’ve just started the regulatory process in the UK and Europe,” he recounts.
Immuron’s growth is not restricted to its commercial pipeline: Steven also has plans to advance the company’s clinical prospects.
The CEO recently engaged one of the US’ leading consulting companies to research Immuron’s market potential. A mix of desktop and primary research revealed the revenue base case (in the US alone) for each of Immuron’s products amounted to US$100 million per annum.
“We’re committed to the market opportunities there while we advance our clinical programs,” Steven reveals.
The road ahead
In the months to come, Steven is dedicated to building on Immuron’s small-but-mighty team. He believes collaboration is key to unlocking value in the company’s commercial and clinical pipeline.
“Working in finance and business development, there’s a lot of focus on individual effort. Through experience, I think it’s easy to become very specialised and believe you’re the only one who can do things.
“But there’s a point of realisation when you find that you can’t be the only one to make things happen — you have to work as part of a team,” he explains.
“There needs to be people working together to achieve the same goal — if someone falls down, someone else can be there to pick things up.”
Wherever the road ahead takes him, Steven is keen to keep passion and collaboration at the heart of his leadership vision. How that translates into Immuron’s commercial and clinical pipeline will be a story worth watching.