WILMINGTON — In a way, the reception for the annual Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Award Tuesday night was about the promise of a new future for Wilmington with Incyte leading the way.
Founded in 2002 through a merger of two companies, Incyte first started with 23 researchers focused on developing life-changing medicines and oncology. The company has now grown to roughly 2,600 employees in Delaware, Asia and Europe. With an estimated $12 billion market valuation, it continues to draw world-class talent to innovate in areas of medicine where no company has gone yet.
Incyte is also preparing to move hundreds of employees, including members of its oncology and dermatology teams, into two long-vacated buildings in Bank of America’s Bracebridge complex. That could be a changing tide of the city’s future as the Bracebridge complex used to bustle with bankers and other corporate leaders at the height of the MBNA’s success which brought 10,000 employees to Wilmington.
“Frankly, I must say there’s a level of opportunity when we come to the center of Wilmington. We’re getting more and more excited about the construction, so it will be new inside, plus the number of other people who will be coming downtown. The restaurants will be very busy,” Incyte CEO Hervé Hoppenot said to a crowd that gathered in the Gold Ballroom of the Hotel DuPont.
Hoppenot accepted the annual Freedom Award on behalf of the company. It was the second time the award was given to a company rather than an individual; MBNA was honored in 2022.
The Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation is a nonprofit that promotes and supports entrepreneurism in Delaware and across the nation, and serves as a key piece of the late Gov. Pete du Pont’s legacy. Thère du Pont, son of the late governor and chair of the foundation’s board, said that Incyte’s innovation was touching lives beyond the state.
“First of all, you’re curing cancer. That’s no small accomplishment. It’s that spirit of free enterprise and innovation that helps take that opportunity that lies in front of us,” du Pont said.
Du Pont even likened Incyte’s pending relocation to Wilmington to the DuPont company’s own long history in the city. The global chemical company had been based out of the DuPont Building for 107 years before relocating its corporate headquarters to the suburbs.
“About a century ago, another Frenchman brought his operations to downtown Wilmington, and that worked out pretty well,” he said with a grin. “I’m glad that Incyte is here and I’m looking forward to the history they are making.”
In his own remarks, Hoppenot traced how Incyte’s own story has its roots in the DuPont company.
DuPont Pharmaceuticals research and development scientists first formed Incyte Pharmaceuticals, which later grew to attract more attention from chemists and biologists over the years. Close to 1,000 people in research and development at Incyte are now focused on traditional chemicals, while the others focus on modern biologies to treat diseases, tumors and cancers and autoimmunity.
In the past decade, Incyte’s product and royalty revenue grew to 30% to $3.7 billion. That growth is backed by its blockbuster drug Jakafi, which became the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved treatment for myelofibrosis. That growth was also supported by other developments like vitiligo treatment Opzelura, fibroblast growth receptor inhibitor Pemazyre, and lung cancer treatment Tabrecta.
“When you build a company, you cannot just do it and spend money granted from other people,” Hoppenot said, referencing the fundraising cycles biotechnology companies typically undergo to raise capital. “There’s a point where you have to spend the money you are generating yourself. When we think about economic models, it’s literally about getting more usage of our product and reinvesting in ways to continue the footprint we have.”
About 44% of Incyte’s revenue is reinvested back into research and development – more than double what other pharmaceutical companies are investing at this time.
“We are now in a situation where you can see innovations in parts of medicine that nobody has seen yet, and that’s not always the case for every company,” he added. “Research and investment is about the long term, and it obviously has ups and downs.”
Incyte’s long term investments have held clinical trials on treatments that boost white blood cells to attack cancerous cells – essentially helping to build patient immunities instead of attacking cancer with chemotherapy.
As a nod to the foundation, Hoppenot also shared with the audience a scatter data chart that measured each country’s innovation against its ranking on the Democracy index. It served as a visual representation that there is a strong correlation between innovation and democratic rights.
“It’s not happening by chance. When you think about freedom, it’s really important to think about [when] Pete du Pont was born in 1935. Compared to the world of 1975 and today, the progress has been incredible,” he said.
