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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2006
(Revised from original 2006 version)
Codon Devices
by
Joseph B. Lassiter III and David Kiron
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Abstract
In December 2005, 40-year-old John Danner was about to make his first presentation to the board of directors of Codon Devices, a one-year-old biotechnology start-up based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After a month as the company's CEO, Danner was prepared to lay out his strategic plan for the firm. The company was rapidly capturing share in the billion dollar DNA-synthesis market. Codon had several distinctive features for a company its size and age: it was already generating revenue from several different types of customer for its genetic products; it looked capable of revolutionizing the fragmented DNA-synthesis market; it received extraordinary support from its oversized Scientific Advisory Board; it had developed and secured a strong intellectual property portfolio that creates high barriers to entry for any new market entrants; and, it had $13 million of venture capital investment from Flagship Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner-Perkins, and others.
Keywords: Strategic Planning;
Venture Capital;
Intellectual Property;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Genetics;
Competitive Advantage;
Science-Based Business;
Business Startups;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Biotechnology Industry;
Cambridge;
Citation:
Lassiter, Joseph B., III, and David Kiron. "Codon Devices." Harvard Business School Case 806-198, June 2006. (Revised from original May 2006 version.)