Member News

August 11, 2016

After spending a life and career in research and biotech, one diagnosis changed Dale Schenk’s outlook on life. No stranger to challenges, he’s taken it in stride.  Getting a cancer diagnosis will put life in perspective.
In late 2014, Dale Schenk got the news that he had pancreatic cancer.

Following the cancer diagnosis, Schenk quickly underwent surgery to remove a tumor. The early response was critical, since pancreatic cancer has a 94 percent five-year mortality rate.

“A serious diagnosis like that, having been working in medicine all these years, it’s surreal,” he said. “For me, it’s added an important perspective. When you’re looking at a plot with a bunch of dots on it, each of those is a life.”

The daunting diagnosis has reoriented Schenk’s perception of the industry he’s dedicated his career to.

“I’m less interested in statistics,” said the chief executive of Irish drug maker Prothena Corp., which has its research headquarters in South San Francisco. “I want to know what works.”

Schenk, who is still undergoing treatment for cancer, has balanced his recovery with a busy time for Prothena, a 2012 spin out from Irish pharmaceutical giant Elan. Prothena’s NEOD-001 drug for a rare protein-misfolding heart and kidney disease is in late-stage clinical trials as the company prepares for commercialization in a highly specialized market.

“Our mission is to help patients that don’t really have any other options,” Schenk said. “We don’t even have any competition, really.”

Being out in front of a field is nothing new for Schenk, who broke from the mold when he veered off the traditional lab-bound scientific career path in the 1980s to try his luck in the nascent biotech industry. He first helped pilot Alzheimer’s and Multiple Sclerosis therapies at Athena Neuroscience, eventually leading to a $625 million acquisition by Elan.

“Back then, if you were a serious scientist, you had to go into academia,” said Schenk, who worked his way up to a dual role as chief scientific officer and an executive vice president at Elan. “I sort of grew up with the business.”

Dora Games, a scientist who worked with Schenk and a tight-knit crew of fellow researchers at Athena and beyond, cites openness to new ideas as one of her former boss’ strengths.

“He had an unusual interest and understanding and respect for fields outside his own,” Games said. “He was very unique in that he gave everybody an opportunity, and he really listened to the people who were the junior scientists.”

That included ensuring that credit was given where it was due. After a decade of working to produce the first animal model of Alzheimer’s Disease in a mouse, Games recalls Schenk’s insistence on making her the lead author of a 35-person paper on the breakthrough.

Still, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. In 2012, for instance, Schenk was in the fray when a joint Alzheimer’s drug development project with Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Elan went off the rails, opening a conversation about whether drug makers were pushing untested treatments too far and too fast.

“It’s always painful when things fall through. It’s never gotten easier,” he said. “The only thing is I think you go into things now a little more open-minded. You always know there’s a possibility.”

Games added that Schenk has a knack for helping to keep the mood light in potentially stressful situations with his “goofy” personality and fondness for sweets like donuts.

His transition from the lab to the C-Suite was also bolstered by an ability to act as a translator between the business and scientific sides of the operation.

“He became an excellent communicator with potential investors,” Games said. “It wasn’t B.S. It was true to the science, but he was able to sort of capture the most interesting and relevant pieces.”

While several members of the core scientific team that Schenk had worked with over the years have started to retire, he sees no such move in his immediate future.

“I’ve had plenty of outside friends just go, ‘Why don’t you retire?’” Schenk said. “I don’t play golf, and you only can only walk the dog so many times.”

Company: Prothena Corp.

Bay Area HQ: South San Francisco

Education: B.A. biology, UC San Diego and Ph.D, physiology and pharmacology, UC San Diego

Background: Early in his career, Schenk helped pilot Alzheimer’s and Multiple Sclerosis therapies at Athena Neurosciences. Once Elan Corp. acquired Athena, Schenk gradually moved from the lab to an executive role, serving as chief scientific officer at Elan Pharmaceuticals prior to his current position at Prothena.