Page 6 of Tell Me the Truth

With coffee in hand, I read through the message about the deal that my top executives had brokered behind my back.

Subject: Seth BioTech/Brent-Sigma Pharmaceuticals Deal … general meeting of all executive level associates … discussion about the Brent-Sigma deal ... thirty percent of shares … six hundred million …

I was immediately angered by this news since I knew what the implications of such a buyout would mean. The big drug companies try to swallow smaller drug companies and market their products as their own.

In the case of Seth BioTech, Brent-Sigma just wants to shut us down. The therapies and treatments that we develop, effectively do away with the drugs that they sell. They’re just looking for a way to kill my research or hijack it and milk it for more money -- and then kill it.

But, I have a promise to fulfill; to my mother, my grandmother, and to myself. They’re the reason I started my company in the first place. Both my mother and my grandmother were in their late thirties when they died from breast cancer. I wasn’t born yet when my grandmother died. But I was a young girl when I found out my mother had cancer.

I watched my mom go through rounds of radiation and chemotherapy. She fought with all she could to be there for her family. She endured so much suffering from cancer, its treatment, and the drugs she was prescribed, and it hurt immensely to experience it all with her, especially when we knew she wasn’t going to make it in the end. When my mom died, I was 17 and I had already decided to devote my life to figuring out if there is a better way to treat cancer, and without drug dependency.

Later, Monday morning, when I arrived at my lab, I had the wherewithal to think about backing up important research onto an external hard drive. There were many things I was thinking about that gave me reason to want to perform this backup.

First, I knew that the contract I signed when I took the company public made sure that all of my antibody drugs and nucleic acid therapies that were already on the market, as well as all novel immunotherapy research and discoveries that were in the pipeline, would follow me if I were to leave the company for any reason. If there was a deal that my Board pushed through without my support, then I should make sure I am ready to leave with everything I have created.

Second, I had a feeling that I should be ready for anything. I didn’t have any evidence that there was a threat to my research, but with everything that was going on behind my back, I just had a feeling that I should cover my bases.

After backing up the necessary information, I went up to the top floor to talk with Lance.

I hired Lance two years ago as my Chief Executive Officer, after taking the company public. Since my focus has always been on the science and technology side of things, I knew that I needed someone incredible to handle the business side. The shelves in his office boast the numerous awards and accolades that he’s achieved: Salesman of the Year, Top Executive, Diamond Club, President’s Status, etc.

So far, Lance and I have co-existed perfectly together. I moved into the position of Chief Technology Officer and other than the quarterly executive meeting, I haven’t had to take my focus from the treatments and therapies we’re developing.

But I went to Lance’s office prior to the executive meeting in order to address the potential deal with Brent-Sigma. From day one, I have made it perfectly clear that big pharmaceutical companies’ interests don’t align with our mission. Period. There is no way we can ever let them buy us out. That’s Lance’s job. That’s why I made him CEO.

I remember that there was something in his eyes. Something that told me he thought me standing there in front of him or what I was saying was all just entertainment.

Lance thought that I needed to be reminded that there were six hundred million dollars at stake and that there was a reason why I put him in charge of running the business.

I reminded him that he promised me something like this would never happen. He knew that I could take my research anywhere. Iwouldtake my research elsewhere.

So, when we went into the executive meeting, I made sure to remind everyone that I had asked them to give me a year to get our current project into clinical trials. Instead, just five months later they went behind my back to make this deal with Brent-Sigma.

In addition to letting the executives know that I could leave the company and take all my research with me, I firmly stated that Seth BioTech would never be affiliated with Brent-Sigma.

After the executive meeting, I felt that I successfully quashed the Brent-Sigma deal. However, I needed to get out of the building. So I went outside for a walk and decided to head to the coffee shop that is just a couple of blocks from the office. I’ve passed by it every day on the way to and from work, but I’d never been there.

I started thinking about how the Brent-Sigma deal had gotten as far as it had. It was because I was so focused on my research that I was looking the other way when my executive board made plans behind my back.

Brent-Sigma is the largest pharmaceutical company in the country, they’re an old dinosaur. One would have to do some deep digging to find the last time they created their own drug. Nowadays all they do is buy smaller drug companies and put their drugs in Brent-Sigma packaging. But, their pockets are deep and I could see how my Board could have been lured.

On the way to the coffee shop, I made it a point to never again let my focus on the research take my eyes completely off everything else going on at Seth BioTech.

The coffee shop is where I first met Ellis.

I don’t remember which came first: his low voice vibrating through my bones from his place in line behind me or his signature sandalwood scent.

***

The elevator dings, announcing I am almost at the top floor. When the doors slide open, I walk straight to Lance’s office without talking with anyone else. The secretary eyes me heading for his office and starts to stand up. She says something, raising her hand to stop me.

“He’s in?” I ask, as she nods and tries to speak. I raise my open palm to her and interject, “Hold his calls,” I order as I enter Lance’s office and close the door behind me.

“What am I reading here, Alexandra?” he asks. “Are you hiding something from all of us? I hope this photograph wasn’t Photoshopped.”

It isn’t a surprise that Lance wants there to be ties between me and Brent-Sigma. So, it’s important to set the story straight before ideas about what the news and photographs mean can spread in his imagination.

“Unfortunately, those pictures are real,” I answer. As the words of my explanation start forming in my mind, I realize how truly humiliating and crushing the truth is.

---