When Herriot Tabuteau started a drug development company in 2012, he decided to do so differently. His focus would be brain disorders, notoriously difficult to develop, he’d be both CEO and the scientific founder, and he took no venture capital.
“If you do things exactly the same way as everybody else, you’re going to have the same outcomes as everybody else. And we wanted to have outcomes that stand apart,” Tabuteau told Forbes, during his first-ever interview with a reporter about his company, Axsome Therapeutics.
Axsome has three drugs on the market and five in the pipeline—all with the potential to help the estimated 150 million Americans suffering from conditions like depression, ADHD or Alzheimer’s disease.
Axsome is not yet profitable, but with a market cap of $6.1 billion, Tabuteau is a billionaire thanks to his 15% stake in the firm. He figures it could hit $16.5 billion in peak sales from its current drug portfolio, which would put it among the top 25 drug companies by revenue today.
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