Scientist Alejandro Zaffaroni is the co-founder of a string of successful biotech companies including Syntex, ALZA, DNAX, Affymax, Symyx, Affymetrix, and most recently Maxygen. Throughout his career, Mr. Zaffaroni has focused on developing biotechnology platforms, or sets of tools, rather than specific drugs. His earliest success came in 1951 with Syntex, the Mexican pharmaceutical manufacturer that developed the Pill for contraception. He went on to found ALZA in 1968, as the developer of innovative drug-delivery systems, such as skin-patches and time-release capsules. Then came DNAX in 1980, which specialized in combining genetic engineering with immunobiology. Affymax followed in 1988 to pioneer work in the new field of combinatorial chemistry. It was followed by Symyx in 1993 to focus on combinatorial materials; Affymetrix in 1993 to develop a tool called the GeneChip that revolutionized genomics research; and lastly, Maxygen in 1997 to hurry evolution with a set of DNA-shuffling techniques called "molecular" breeding." The scorecard for investors: DNAX was sold to Schering Plough in 1982; Affymax went to Glaxo Wellcome fo $553 million in 1995 and ALZA went to Abbott Laboratories in 1999 for $7.3 billion. Of the currently independent firms, Affymetrix today fetches a market capitalization of $6 billion, Maxygen is worth $5 billion and Symyx is the baby of the family at $1.2 billion.

Note: Biographical material was taken from an article at TheStreet.com