Skip to content
Subscriber Only

Pharmaceutical Titan’s Senate Bid Will Test Voters’ Views on Drug Prices

  • Former Celgene CEO, a donor to Trump, sets sights on Senate
  • Rising costs draw ire, but an attack may fizzle in New Jersey

Bob Hugin helped build a pharmaceutical powerhouse. As he seeks to claim the seat of an embattled Democratic senator in New Jersey, that legacy could be both a blessing and a burden.

Raised in Union City, a blue-collar town at the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel, Hugin, 63, was the first member of his family to go to college. Princeton was followed by the Marine Corps and a successful stint on Wall Street. He left in the dot-com era to join what was then a small and, as Hugin tells it, near-bankrupt biotechnology firm.