By 1985 the company had revenues of approximately $50 million. Under Schoemaker's leadership Centocor rapidly grew into a profitable diagnostic business. Central to this policy was Schoemaker's ability to network and the company's decision to design diagnostic kits so that were compatible with existing diagnostic systems. įrom the start Centocor decided to fill its product pipeline through partnerships with research institutions and marketing alliances. In 1980 Schoemaker joined Centocor and soon after became its first chief executive officer. Inspired by the work of Hilary Koprowski, who developed some of the earliest monoclonal antibodies against tumour antigens and influenza viral antigens, the objective of Centocor was to commercialise monoclonal antibodies for diagnostics and therapeutics. In 1979 Schoemaker became involved in the founding of Centocor together with a former Corning Medical colleague Ted Allen and the bioentrepreneur Michael Wall with whom he had some dealings while at Corning. Among his achievements at the company was devising effective diagnostic kit tests for thyroid disorders. At Corning Schoemaker rapidly progressed from being a specialist in immunoassay development for diagnostics to heading research and development. In 1976 Schoemaker joined Corning Medical, a Boston-based division of Corning Glass Works. This inspired Schoemaker to become involved in commercial biotechnology. His choice was influenced by the severe disabilities suffered by his first daughter, Maureen, who was born with lissencephaly and needed specialised care. Career Īfter declining postdoctoral research positions with Stanley Cohen and Klaus Weber, Schoemaker chose to work as a research scientist in industry. Supervised by Paul Schimmel, his doctoral research was an investigation of the structure function relationships of transfer RNAs and their complexes.
He then earned a doctorate in biochemistry in 1975 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1969 he moved to the United States to attend the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in chemistry, graduating in May 1972. Bernardus School in Deventer, and Canisius College, Nijmegen. Schoemaker was born in Deventer, Netherlands.
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