Michael Burke, Ovation

Michael Burke

Chief Commercial Officer, Ovation

SPECIALIZES IN: "Creative solutions" to product strategy

ROLE MODELS: "Can do good and do well at the same time"

Doing deals is fun," says Michael Burke, who's helped build Ovation from "a couple people in a room to 350 employees, 20 products, and four development programs." Executing CEO Jeff Aronin's strategy of acquiring and relaunching Big Pharma drugs in underserved market segments, Burke has become expert in prudent risk—the industry's holy grail.

Michael Burke

Training in what he calls creative solutions primed him for setting the commercial agenda at Ovation, where innovation barely describes the new forms of life he and Aronin have discovered in acquiring, partnering, and marketing their Big Pharma ugly ducklings. Burke has had the most fun with Sabril, which prior to Ovation sat at FDA "with an open Approvable Letter longer than any other product in history." But by collaborating with academics and advocates, Ovation filed a new NDA for infantile spasms, a condition with high unmet need.