Up to his own devices: Alan Finkel on life after Axon

Ask Alan Finkel what he would do differently if he started another company, and he’s quick to reply. “I wouldn’t start another company overseas,” he says.

Finkel started Axon Instruments in the US, and though he eventually moved back to Australia as the CEO of the Australian-owned but US-operated company, he travelled to and from the US at least once a month. And even now, as chief technology officer and senior VP of Molecular Devices, which acquired Axon Instruments earlier this year, he expects to make up to 10 trips a year to the US.

“The hardest thing about having your primary workplace overseas is that there are so many long- distance meetings. These days you can do them really well but it’s still not the same as being in the office next door,” he says.

Axon Instruments was started 21 years ago by Finkel, who as a postdoc with a background in electrical engineering and biophysics under Prof Stephen Redman at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, had designed an instrument for performing voltage clamp recordings in spinal cord neurons in situ – a hitherto impossible application as normally two electrodes were required, one to electrically stimulate the neuron, and a second to record the current passing through the cell. Finkel’s breakthrough was to design a system with one electrode, which switched rapidly between stimulating the neuron and recording the current to determine its conductance.

With a stronger bent for instrument design than the rigours of experimental research, Finkel realised his voltage clamp was his ticket out of the research lab, and he started Axon – initially a one-man company – in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983. In less than a year, Axon Instruments had its first voltage clamp amplifier on the market, and the company recorded a profit in its very first year, allowing Finkel to repay the money he had borrowed to get his enterprise off the ground. Over the following 20 years, the company expanded its range of voltage clamp and patch clamp instruments, adding hardware and software for data capture and analysis and bringing out improved models every couple of years. “Most people think I must have been brave to start up a company in the US after two years as a postdoc,” Finkel says. “People talk about being risk-averse. I was risk-inclined.”

Fortunately for Finkel, word of mouth in the tight-knit international scientific community ensured a ready market for his first instrument. “We had to be profitable fast, and we were fortunate in that we knew what product we wanted to make and got it out the door in about eight months,” he says.

Since then, he says, the hardest thing has been to find new product lines – Axon has expanded into software for data capture and analysis, and has released new and improved versions of its devices every couple of years to ensure it stays at the leading edge of cellular neuroscience. Finkel credits sheer doggedness for the company’s success.

That persistence, coupled with some lucky decisions, have led Axon in other directions from its neuroscience base. While an attempt to move into analytical electrochemistry was not successful, imaging technology has turned out to be a goldmine, although it took a while to get there.

“We dabbled in cellular imaging for a while, but we didn’t make a successful play in the market,” Finkel says.

“I was convinced that imaging had to have something in it.”

So in 1998 Finkel set up a taskforce to look at anything to do with imaging, and the group tossed around ideas until someone suggested microarrays.

“We instantly saw a potential opportunity and within a week we made it corporate priority number one,” he says. Eighteen months later the company shipped its first GenePix microarray scanner, which turned out to be a runaway success.

“There are more GenePix scanners installed worldwide than any other microarray scanner,” says Finkel. Back to its roots

In more recent times, Axon has gone back to its neuroscience roots with the launch late last year of an automated, medium-throughput patch clamp drug screening system. While initially the instrument was designed for discovery of drugs with activity in ion channels, it has found a significant market in secondary screening, lead optimisation and toxicology studies.

The FDA now requires all drugs to be tested for their effects on ion channels to avoid serious cardiac side-effects due to ion channel disruption. Finkel says it was another case where the company didn’t anticipate the market, but benefited from the flexible design of its products.

With the acquisition of Axon by Molecular Devices, Finkel has relinquished his role of running the company, but retains his technical focus. In fact, Finkel has always kept his hand in when it comes to the technical side of things.

“I’ve always been hands-on – it’s been a limitation as well as a strength,” he says. “Part of the reason it was good to be acquired was that we had gone as far as we could grow with the management and corporate structure we had.”

The US$140 million acquisition was done in record time. While both companies had their feelers out for opportunities, the first meeting between the two was held on March 9, and by March 20 the companies had signed the agreement.

“We knew where each other was coming from, we both had good legal teams and results-oriented management,” Finkel says.

Was it hard for the scientist who had spent so many years building his company to let it go?

“I love Axon, but I had no intention of creating a dynasty. And being an engineer I was very comfortable with change,” he says.

In any case, Axon has happily integrated into Molecular Devices – more than 90 per cent of the 125 or so employees have stayed with the company. Finkel himself has no plans to leave.

“Compared to running Axon it’s dreamily easy,” he says of his new responsibilities. “I feel more relaxed today than I did three months ago – I have a more limited realm of responsibilities so I am able to be much more focused.”

Projects in the pipeline Finkel says his most important role in the next six months or so is to provide high-quality after- sales service – that is, he needs to make sure that Molecular Devices gets what it paid for. “There were a lot of projects in the pipeline at Axon when it was sold,” he says.

In any case, Finkel is not yet sure what he would do if he moved on.

“It’s too soon to say whether I would start up another company – and it certainly would not be in the same area,” he says. “Anyway, it’s too soon to leave Molecular Devices – I’m enjoying it too much.”