Early career Bonney began his formal business career after graduating from Bates in 1984 in small pharmaceutical startups, before leaving the companies in various sales management positions. In 1995, he joined
Biogen, where he rose through management positions to
vice president for
Sales and
Marketing, a position he held from 1999 to 2001. At the company, "he built the commercial infrastructure for the launch of Avonex, an
injectable biologic therapy for the treatment of
multiple sclerosis. He held various positions in sales, marketing and strategic planning at Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, ending his eleven-year career and served as its National Business Director."
Cubist pharmaceuticals Bonney served as the
chief operating officer of the company from January 2002 to June 2003. In later 2010, over all sales for the drug hit near $625 million. The drug quickly gained the approval of the
Food and Drug Administration and generates over $1 billion in sales annually.
As chief executive Bonney was awarded the MASSBio Innovative Leadership Award in 2010. In 2011, in an interview with
New England Cable Network's business show
CEO Corner, he outlined his development philosophy.Let's separate out discovery from development, on the development side, absolutely it helps [to have successfully developed a drug]. We understand how to interact with regulators and what they want to see from a new antibiotic that has activity against resistant bacteria. On the discovery side, you’re talking about an incredibly complex set of problems that you have to deal with. I’m not sure that having one success means you will have a string of them. We have expertise, so we increase the odds, but finding new antibiotics, keeping ahead of the bacteria, is really hard work.In January 2012, Bonney was profiled by
Market Watch in a piece entitled, "Nothing bugs Cubist CEO Michael Bonney", which outlined his contributions to the company from its start with mixed results followed by his turning it around into "a $2.5 billion rising star." Bonney received a total annual compensation as CEO of $6.6 million; $750,000 as base salary, $840,000 as bonuses, $2,499,998 in stock options, $2,499,998 in awarded stock, and $16,953 in other compensation. In 2014, succeeding Michael Bonney as president, Robert J. Perez, was announced to take leadership on January 1, 2015. In January 2015, Cubist Pharmaceuticals was sold to
Merck & Co, for a total of $9.5 billion. Bonney left the company as CEO tracked to reach $2 billion in sales and to expand the revenue stream of its flagship drug
Cubicin. == Post-Cubist activities ==