Watanabe death shakes life sciences community-WEB ONLY

The unexpected death Tuesday evening of Dr. August “Gus” Watanabe leaves a large hole in the hearts of his friends and in the heart of the life sciences industry in central Indiana.

Watanabe died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Brown County cabin, according to the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.

Watanabe, 67, was chairman of Indianapolis-based BioCrossroads Inc., a life sciences business-development organization. He also sat on the boards of multiple biotech companies, including Carmel-based Marcadia Biotech and West Lafayette-based Endocyte Inc.

“We have been very, very close friends. I’m just devastated,” said Randy Tobias, the former chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly and Co.

Tobias promoted Watanabe to president of Lilly Research Laboratories, the research-and-development arm of the Indianapolis-based drug company, in 1994.

Tobias credited Watanabe with overhauling the division into an organization far more responsive to change, including Lilly’s shifting emphasis from predominantly chemical-synthesized drugs to biological ones made by cultures of living cells.

“Gus really reorganized the entire way that R&D was done at Lilly. Many of the things that have come out of the pipeline since, I would really attribute to Gus’ leadership,” Tobias said.

Watanabe retired from Lilly in 2003 and joined BioCrossroads’ board the next year.

“It is a tremendous setback. It does not mean things come to an end,” said David Johnson, CEO of BioCrossroads. Watanabe asked Johnson to become BioCrossroads CEO in late 2004.

Watanabe was also active in many community organizations. He was a director of the Indiana University Foundation, the Regenstrief Foundation, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Christel House International.

Watanabe lived with his wife, Dr. Margaret (Peg) Watanabe, in Carmel.

Johnson said Watanabe’s death is a huge loss for the organization. But he said Watanabe was so good at mentoring and training leaders that the organization will continue to thrive.

The death is the second tragedy in the Watanabe family in the last six weeks. On May 1, Watanabe’s daughter Nan Lewis, 44, died from intestinal hemorrhaging after an elective surgery, according to an obituary posted on the Web site of Crown Hill Cemetery.

Watanabe attended Wheaton College and the IU School of Medicine. He joined the medical school as a professor in 1971 and later chaired the department of medicine. He left in 1990 to become Lilly’s head of cardiology research.

In his career, Watanabe authored, co-authored or edited more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific and medical publications.

Watanabe even tried his hand at investing and business start-ups, helping to found Marcadia, a diabetes therapies discovery firm, in 2005.

“I don’t think many people realize just the kind of influence [he had]” in the life sciences industry, said Marcadia CEO Fritz French. He added, “Not many start-ups have a man of his caliber as the chairman of the board.”

Johnson said Watanabe achieved a triple crown of academic, corporate and entrepreneurial success.

“I don’t know anybody like that. He had the full package,” Johnson said. “The notion that that is going to be replaced, we can’t do that.”