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When Javier Femenia needs a little inspiration and reminder of the impact of his work at BioMarin, he doesn’t have to look far.
In fact, the head of the company’s BioProcess Development team just has to shift his gaze to the right of his desk where he has a photo of a child who visited BioMarin after becoming the first to receive a life-saving medicine Javier worked on earlier in his career.
“It reminds me of how he came by with his parents and we were able to show him, even in the lab, what it looked like, how we were making this medicine,” says Javier, who has worked at BioMarin for more than 21 years. “To see that energy and excitement for him, and that hope in that family, was something that carried me through and continues through even to this day.”
Javier is the first BioMarin employee to share his story in our new series, Signature Science. Highlighting scientists in roles across the company, the videos seek to uncover how our colleagues draw on their unique backgrounds and experiences to make their mark – or, put their own signature – on BioMarin’s breakthrough science.
We’re working on molecules that may be the first-in-class, so as a result, we’re trying to tackle challenges that we’ve never seen before, that nobody else out there has really seen before.”
Javier and his team play a vital role in bridging the gap from bench to bedside – essentially, figuring out how to turn a promising molecule in the lab into a safe and effective medicine that can be reliably manufactured and delivered to patients around the world.
“We’re working on molecules that may be the first-in-class, so as a result, we’re trying to tackle challenges that we’ve never seen before, that nobody else out there has really seen before,” Javier says. “So we’re going to have to leverage that technical knowledge in a way that hasn’t been done by anybody else out there.”
It’s “a Herculean effort,” he says, and one made even more urgent by the fact that the company is often working to develop medicines for conditions with limited or no options available. But, rather than daunting, it’s a challenge Javier says he and his colleagues find incredibly motivating.
“We always think, ‘How could we make things move just that little bit faster so we can save one more day for patients?’” Javier says. “We’re just so focused on the patients.”
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