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208 grow from within

higher hurdles in receiving funding than typical projects would.
Managers often have different approaches to risk calculations
when they are entering new markets for their company, and the
Cellular Therapies program no doubt required much more rig-
orous business thinking and proof points than opportunities
generated from within business units.
In order to enable funding for Phase II, Riedel and Hunt
negotiated the transfer of the Cellular Therapies program
from NTRI to Baxter’s Regenerative Medicine Division within
the Bioscience business unit. In the process, the new oppor-
tunity became a new group, Cellular Therapies, and Hunt
became its new vice president and leader. While NTRI con-
tinued to support the emerging unit, reporting moved from
the CSO and central R&D to the Bioscience business unit
president, Joy Amundson.
This transfer began the development of a new home for Cel-
lular Therapies, but it also posed a range of new challenges. The
Bioscience division needed to work with a new entity that
would be prerevenue, at least until it completed the FDA’s
approval process, a challenge for any operating business unit.
As Cellular Therapies received the funding to enter Phase II clin-
ical trials, expectations also increased. Concurrently, Baxter was
building its capabilities across biologics, and the Cellular Ther-
apies business required reagent kits that would be scaled up and
manufactured in new ways. The Cellular Therapies device,
which was originally built in the 1990s, needed to be updated.
Meanwhile, the initial NTRI team (which had been trans-
ferred to Cellular Therapies) received a prestigious internal
Technical Innovation Award, despite the fact that the Cellular
Therapies project was not driven by new technology. The NTRI
staff once again expanded to five people and a budget of
around $3 million. While Hunt maintains contact with the
team, its leadership has been transferred to Nancy Schmelkin.