Insmed is a biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes drugs for serious and rare diseases – advancing a diverse portfolio of approved and mid- to late-stage investigational medicines as well as cutting-edge drug discovery focused on serving the most pressing patient needs. Its most advanced programs are in pulmonary and inflammatory conditions, including a therapy approved in the U.S., Europe and Japan to treat a chronic, debilitating lung disease.

The Bridgewater-based business is poised for even more in New Jersey.

In addition to its Somerset County headquarters, Insmed also has offices and research locations around the world – including a separate R&D facility Bridgewater. NJBIZ recently toured that facility to learn more.

The company is led by Will Lewis, who joined Insmed in 2012 after a stint in investment banking. Under his watch, the company has grown from a 30-person biotech company to a more than 1,200-person emerging global biopharmaceutical company with a nearly $13 billion market cap.

In October, Insmed earned the highest ranking in Science’s 2024 Top Employers Survey.

“It is a tremendous honor to have been named the No. 1 employer in Science’s annual survey for the fourth consecutive year,” said Lewis in an Oct. 24 statement. “This past year has been transformational for our company, as we’ve demonstrated the strength of our commercial and pipeline programs, continued to fuel the innovation engine behind our early-stage research, and enhanced our culture while growing to more than 1,200 employees around the world. Looking to the future, I am filled with pride and excitement as I think about the talent, dedication, and potential of our team as we strive to make a real difference in the lives of patients with serious diseases.”

“The culture we’ve built at Insmed is unlike any other I’ve experienced, and I am proud to see it continue to grow and strengthen as we expand our global team,” said Nicole Schaeffer, chief people strategy officer, Insmed. “Thank you to our colleagues around the world who show up every day with a desire to help patients, enrich our communities, and support one another. It is because of you that we have once again been recognized by Science as the top employer in the biopharma industry.”

In February, at BioNJ’s 31st Annual Dinner Meeting & Innovation Celebration, Lewis received the Dr. Sol J. Barer Award for Vision, Innovation, and Leadership.

“Often described as one of the humblest people in the industry, it is with immense pleasure that I present this year’s award to a truly fine human being – an individual who epitomizes vision, innovation, and leadership through tireless advocacy for patients, the health care system, and New Jersey’s life sciences ecosystem,” said Barer, former chair and CEO at Celegene Corp. and chair of the board at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, as he presented his namesake award.

“It struck me as I was walking up here that prior recipients and, indeed, going all the way back to when you began – have literally altered the lives or saved the lives of thousands, if not, millions of patients,” said Lewis. “That’s quite a remarkable achievement. It’s a daunting thing to receive this award – and I think I could spend the rest of my career trying to earn its worth, so thank you.

The greatest companies are forged during the most difficult times.
– Will Lewis, Insmed CEO

“For those of you in the room who are trying to build companies, I have been coming to this event for a long time,” said Lewis. “I was previously at a different company that struggled for many years – failing to go public three times before it eventually found success. I joined Insmed 11 years ago when it had a zero-enterprise value. Wall Street said we were worth nothing. Maybe this sounds familiar to some of you who are currently trying to build companies and run them during the worst market correction in several decades. My message to you is this – hold fast, your time will come. You can do this.”

Lewis noted that BioNJ and the attendees in the room were there to help entrepreneurs build companies.

“The greatest companies are forged during the most difficult times. And that means there are a lot of great companies being made right now – yours among them,” Lewis explained.

Preserving company culture

NJBIZ recently caught up with the Insmed CEO to discuss the latest happenings and milestones at the company, what’s on the horizon and more.

The conversation opened with Lewis lauding the efforts and passion of his team. He detailed how important culture and collaboration are at Insmed, which was on full display during the NJBIZ visit to the R&D facility.

“Honestly, it’s the thing that I’m the most proud of at the company,” he said, recounting a recent town hall. “We’ve gone from 30 people when I joined to 1,200 – and we’ll go to 1,700 at the end of next year. Actually, the biggest question that people have is – how do we preserve our culture? Because as we’ve gone through that journey, we’ve sort of maintained this commitment – everybody in this industry says they’re about the patient. But it takes about five minutes when you walk into any company to know – is that authentic? Is the screen that shows the CNBC channel bigger than the one that talks about what the medicine might do? You get the signals rather quickly.

“We want people to bring their authentic selves to work – feel like they are in a place where they can do their best work,” he continued. “And we always say to folks – the mantra that should be in your head is: How can I help? And if we can get that, then you really don’t have to manage anybody.”

Lewis spoke about his unique and personal journey into this role – from foreign service to investment banking to this sector. “I had a family member who passed as a result of a rare disease – and that really activated my interest in what biotechnology could do,” Lewis explained, discussing his older brother. “His life was literally preserved for a much longer time than would have otherwise been the case. I always think about that. When you talk about the commitment to the patient and all that sort of stuff – and you’re running a business. And people say – how quickly does that get corrupted?

“It always brings it back to the personal for me – and I think for a lot of people,” Lewis continued. “If you are in health care, really checking yourself at the mirror and saying – what am I going to do today and why? And no matter how big or successful the company gets, you have to remember that if the medicine makes a difference in the patient’s lives – and the people around them who experience that, then you will generate the revenue. Then, the stock price will go up. It’s a derivative – it’s not the driver.

What’s next for Insmed?

Lewis was asked to describe some of the products and areas the company is focusing on.

“The trick, in my view, and I worked as a banker sort of supporting this industry as well as an operator within it,” said Lewis. “It comes from both sides of that experience. The most important thing you can do is prove that you can develop a drug and ultimately get it approved – and launch it. So, the first identification of Insmed is the creation, development, approval and launch of a drug called ARIKAYCE. It treats a respiratory condition. And with that success, we’ve been able to then layer in other development programs.

“The second development program has been astonishingly successful – and that is what has driven us on to the map of a lot of people, in the aftermath of what happened this year when the Phase III data, the last trial, showed positive results,” Lewis continued. “Think of us as taking one drug through that long journey and as we start to look like we are going to have success, we added some others. And those now start to look like they’re successful.”

Despite all of these positive developments and continued momentum – Lewis believes Insmed is still early in its journey.

“As much as we’ve changed and as much as we’ve grown, we literally are at the beginning right now of becoming the next great biotech company,” said Lewis. “And we have everything we need to do that, starting with people – coupled with those products. This is a really rare moment in biotech development where a company has really important, impactful products aligned with good people. And watch out, it just goes like an Elon Musk rocket into the air.”

A quirk of the New Jersey Devils’ season has been that, until tonight, they had not lost a game in which they scored a goal since October 25th, a 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders. The four losses they suffered in that span were all shutout defeats. That roughly month-long streak ended tonight, as the Devils fell to the Washington Capitals 6-4 in a sloppy, uneven game.

Over this recent stretch of games, we have lamented the slow starts New Jersey has gotten off to. I am displeased to report that tonight was yet another slow start. The Devils allowed the other team to score first for the seventh straight game. That marker from Andrew Mangiapane was part of an overall dismal first period for the Devils, who were outshot 17-5 in the opening 20 minutes. According to Natural Stat Trick, New Jersey registered a 5-on-5 Expected Goals For% of 17.43%, a shockingly low number. Nico Hischier did score against the run of play to get his team to the intermission tied, but the only reason Washington didn’t enter the locker room down a goal or two was because Jake Allen had himself a terrific first period.

The second period was a little better of an effort, and it even saw the Devils take the lead on a Justin Dowling redirection goal. Brett Pesce produced the shot that led to the tip-in, which was his first point as a Devil. Congratulations to him.

From there though, the Devils gave up three consecutive power play goals. Yes you read that correctly. New Jersey began the night with the top ranked power play in the entire league, yet it was the Capitals who took advantage of a Devils parade to the penalty box in the second period. Connor McMichael scored on a 4-on-3 during which Johnathan Kovacevic broke his stick and a lucky bounce led to McMichael’s slam dunk goal. Jakob Chychrun fired a laser past Allen off the post and in on the ensuing 5-on-4. Rasmus Sandin found a puck off a mad scramble when nobody else could, and he smacked a shot home to put New Jersey down 4-2. That’s where we ended up heading to the second intermission.

But if nothing else, this Devils team has shown they are tough to kill. They are the comeback kids, and one night after they overcame a two-goal deficit, they overcame another. Stefan Noesen tapped home a great Jack Hughes feed on a power play to cut the deficit to one. Then shortly after at even strength, Ondrej Palat stole a puck in the Capitals’ zone, fed Hughes who ripped a shot on net, and it banked off Jesper Bratt’s skate and in. All this within the first five minutes of the period, by the way. And the goals did not come against the run of play like Hischier’s in the opening frame. New Jersey found their footing and started battling the Capitals more evenly in the second period (outside the penalties of course). This continued in the third, and they came away with two goals for their troubles.

But unfortunately, the Capitals would strike twice in quick succession late in regulation. Taylor Raddysh redirected a shot home with just over six minutes left to give Washington the lead. Then 10 seconds later (yes, really) Jake Allen lost the puck behind his own net, turned it over to the Capitals, and Pierre-Luc Dubois got the luckiest goal of his life to put Washington ahead 6-4.

Unfortunately, that horrific blunder from Allen would turn out to be the game-winner. With New Jersey on the power play once again very late in the third, Stefan Noesen fought home his second PPG of the game. But the Devils could not find the equalizer and lost by that 6-5 final score.

This was a very frustrating night. The Devils once again failed to start on time, allowing the first goal and getting buried in puck possession. The never-ending run to the penalty box in the second period killed New Jersey, especially considering they were the slightly better team at 5-on-5 over the final 40 minutes of the game. I really can’t point to anyone in particular and say they had a good game. Allen came the closest to me after his amazing first period, but he ended up letting six goals past him, including that absolute dagger on the sixth and deciding goal.

Perhaps Noesen deserves credit for his two power play goals. Jack Hughes had a three-point night, all assists. Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt also had multi-point nights. But the team finished with a 5-on-5 xGF% around 36% per NST, which sounds about right. The Devils did outplay Washington over the final two periods, but not nearly as much as Washington outplayed them in the first. And while I don’t want to use this as an excuse because the Devils were not the better team overall, they really did seem to be on the receiving end of some pretty terrible luck tonight. Bryce Salvador pointed out that Washington got away with a penalty in their own end right before going down the ice on their opening goal. Later, Salvador said that the penalty Jesper Bratt took on Tom Wilson in the first period was, and I quote, “a terrible call”. When Sal is complaining that much, you know there’s something there. Wilson and the Capitals got away with some pretty bad hits and cross checks tonight as well. And of course, the puck luck was in Washington’s favor all night long. Again, the Devils did not lose solely because of bad luck and uneven officiating. But I bring this up to point out that it would be reasonable to say the luck should turn around next game.

But make no mistake, this was an ugly game. New Jersey is finished with their season series against the Capitals now, and they came away with five of a possible eight points, while Washington got four points themselves. So in the end, the Devils did get the better of the Caps this year. But they laid two eggs at home against them, and while the schedule inexplicably gave us four matchups in the first two months of the season and none the rest of the way, it is very possible we see these two teams clash in a postseason series. And if that happens, the Devils need to clean up a lot of what they did against the Capitals this season. Dust yourself off and move on.

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com

The One Bright Spot

Ok so maybe I was a little harsh in saying no one deserved credit for having a “good” game tonight. The one unit you can genuinely point to as a positive was the Ondrej Palat-Jack Hughes-Jesper Bratt line. Each of those players finished with a 5-on-5 xGF% in the 60’s. As mentioned, Hughes had three assists, Bratt had a goal and an assist, and Palat even got himself a helper on Bratt’s goal. When nothing else was working for New Jersey, at least the Hughes line won their matchup.

Tracking The Misery

Two things that infuriated all of us a season ago were the Devils allowing the first goal (and getting off to tough starts in general), and the horrendous results in the second half of back-to-backs. A lot went wrong in 2023-24, but those two elements were near the top of the list of things that sunk New Jersey.

Fast forward to today, and the Devils have now given up the first goal in seven consecutive games. To find the last time New Jersey beat their opponent to the scoreboard, you have to go back to November 14th and their 6-2 victory over the Florida Panthers. Miraculously the Devils are 4-3-0 in those games, so it hasn’t completely buried them. But it’s still a trend that seemed to be a thing of the past until the last couple of weeks. Please start scoring first again, Devils.

Meanwhile thanks to their loss tonight, New Jersey falls to 1-3-1 in the second half of back-to-backs this season. Their only win under those circumstances came in their very first back-to-back of the year, the season opening pair of contests in Prague against the Buffalo Sabres. So since then the Devils are 0-3-1 and have not won the second half of a back-to-back in almost two months. They don’t even have the excuse of a rest disadvantage, as Washington played yesterday as well.

Looking ahead, the Devils have seven more back-to-backs the rest of the season, meaning a total of 14 more points up for grabs in the latter half of those. The Devils really, really, REALLY need to figure out a way to not let those 14 points slip away, or it could mean another playoff miss.

Next Time Out

The Devils play their first game of the season against their bitter rivals, the New York Rangers, on Monday at Madison Square Garden. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.

Your Take

What did you make of tonight’s game? How frustrated are you with the slow starts and the poor performances in back-to-backs? What do you expect in the first matchup of the season against the Rangers? As always, thanks for reading.

Today is the last day of November. It is also the last time, for this season, that the New Jersey Devils will play the Washington Capitals. Make it count, Devils.

The Time: 7:00 PM ET

The Broadcast: TV: MSG, Monument; Audio: Devils Hockey Radio

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils vs. the Washington Capitals

The Song of the Evening: NoMeansNovember is at its conclusion. I shall end it with a classic. One that led to a NoMeansNo mention at the New York Times website. It is in how I referenced the song in my recap of the 2010 playoff elimination loss to Philadelphia (Aside: I should continue to nickname players, Dan Carcillo absolutely was An Actor. Even right down to the moral condensation.) to the song “The Day Everything Became Nothing.” The song was also the title of an EP and would get compiled with Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed in future releases. It is fantastic live, but language reasons keep me from using the Live and Cuddly version.

The Rules: The rules remain as they are as the Devils are ending the month with their final regular season game against the Caps. Please keep your language clean (this means no swearing, don’t mask it, it’s not enough, no I don’t care what Tom Fitzgerald said), respect your fellow Devils fan with no personal attacks (play nice or you will not play here), no illegal streams (this means no asking, no hints, no nothing about it), and please keep your comments relevant to this game. Go Devils!