Remembering Frazier Senior Advisor
Randy Whitcomb, MD (1954-2020)

We are saddened to provide news that our Frazier Senior Advisor, Randy Whitcomb, passed away on Sunday, April 19th. His obituary can be found here. We would like to provide a few additional thoughts on what Randy has meant to our firm, our portfolio companies, and our team.

Randy joined Frazier in 2007 as one of our first Senior Advisors; however, his relationships with Frazier partners go back to the 1990’s when Randy was a senior executive at Parke-Davis, the Pharmaceutical Research Division of Warner-Lambert Co. (Randy was actually one of Patrick Heron’s clients at McKinsey). When Randy co-founded a biotech company – QuatRx Pharmaceuticals – Patrick Heron and the Frazier team were fortunate to work with Randy to start and finance the company. That experience led to an approved drug (Osphena), but more importantly, helped build the relationship that culminated in Randy joining the Frazier team.

As a Senior Advisor at Frazier, Randy provided unique insights into clinical development and regulatory strategy, building on his extensive experiences as a pharmaceutical executive and endocrinologist. He helped build and served on the boards of Marcadia Biotech (acquired by Roche) and Millendo (NASDAQ: MLND), and was also instrumental in nearly every development stage investment we have made since 2007 including Tobira (acquired by Allergan) and Silvergate (acquired). Several of Randy’s core values – which we would like to think have also become Frazier Life Sciences core values include:

• Laser focus on the patient: Randy was first and foremost a skilled physician and endocrinologist, and he was always the voice in the room reminding us to never lose focus on how the patient will benefit and exactly how a prospective drug would be used in the clinic. Even after joining pharma (and Frazier), Randy continued to see patients at the Hope Clinic in Ypsilanti, MI as a volunteer physician.


• Fundamental view – don’t get lost in the hype: Randy had a vast array of experiences and wonderful stories in drug development – from leading early development of Lipitor, FemHRT, Estrostep, and Rezulin to managing collaborations in Finland (in the winter). He was always quick to share his experiences and helped countless companies in our portfolio design and manage the best possible clinical studies.


• Unflinching honesty and high degree of genuineness: Any company that presented to Randy will almost certainly remember the interaction – both the depth of questions and insights, but also the very honest and straightforward style that he brought to the conversation.

Beyond his technical contributions, Randy was even more impactful as a mentor to our Frazier team and our portfolio companies. All of us at Frazier will miss the calls with Randy that would always immediately follow a company pitch. Randy would of course be spot on with his opinions and thoughts, but he treated these interactions as a way to get to know junior Frazier team members and share his experiences and insights in a particular disease area or technology. Randy was incredibly passionate about his wonderful family, and he made all of us at Frazier feel like extended members of his family through his mentorship and friendship.

We will always remember fondly the experiences we have shared with Randy – not just building companies together, but also having a ton of fun together in cheering on Randy’s beloved Michigan Wolverines (GO BLUE!) or sharing a glass of Pinot Noir during a Frazier retreat. And we all hope to honor his memory through the work we do at Frazier.

Randy’s family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Randy’s honor to: