John Crowley (biotech executive)

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John F. Crowley is an American biotechnology executive and entrepreneur. He was discussed as a potential candidate in the 2008 Republican primary for United States Senate in New Jersey to oppose incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg.

Crowley attended the United States Naval Academy and completed three semesters of study. He then graduated with a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. He entered University of Notre Dame Law School in 1989 and married his wife Aileen in 1990. After receiving his J.D. degree from Notre Dame in 1992, he worked as a litigation associate in the Health Care Practice Group of the Indianapolis-based law firm of Bingham Summers Welsh & Spilman. He went on to receive an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School in 1997 and then worked for a management consulting firm in San Francisco.^[1]^[2]

In 1998, two of Crowley's children, Megan and Patrick, were diagnosed with a fatal neuromuscular disorder, Glycogen storage disease type II, also called Pompe disease. In the face of the children's deteriorating health, the family moved to Princeton, New Jersey to be close to doctors specializing in the disease. Crowley worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he served in a number of senior management positions. Frustrated with the slow place of research on Pompe disease, Crowley left Bristol-Myers Squibb in March 2000 and took over as CEO of Novazyme, a biotechnology start-up company based in Oklahoma City that was conducting research on a new experimental treatment for the disease. In 2001 Novazyme merged into Genzyme Corporation, the world’s third largest biotechnology company.^[1]

In January 2003, Megan and Patrick Crowley received the enzyme replacement therapy for Pompe disease developed by Genzyme. John Crowley credits the experimental trial with saving his children's lives.^[1] Crowley was profiled in the Wall Street Journal by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Geeta Anand.^[3] Anand expanded the profile of Crowley into a book published in 2006, The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million – And Bucked the Medical Establishment – In a Quest to Save His Children (ISBN 978-0060734398). Harrison Ford has optioned the film rights to the book.^[4]

Crowley went on to become President and CEO of Orexigen Therapeutics, and he is currently the President and CEO of Amicus Therapeutics, based in Cranbury, New Jersey.^[5] He serves in the United States Navy Reserve as an intelligence officer and completed a six-month tour of duty at the Center for Naval Intelligence in Virginia in 2007.^[6]

In spring 2008, Crowley's name was frequently mentioned as a potential Republican candidate for United States Senate in New Jersey to oppose incumbent Frank Lautenberg. Though he initially declined, reports on April 4, 2008 indicated that he would enter the race before the April 7 filing deadline.^[7] On April 6, however, Crowley again announced that he would not run for Senate.^[8]