Axovant Sciences has appointed Medivation founder David Hung, M.D., as CEO. The news sparked a 30% surge in Axovant’s share price as investors cheered the potential implications of the man who led Medivation to a $14 billion buyout taking charge of the Alzheimer’s hopeful.
Hung bowed out as CEO of Medivation after 13 years by engineering one final deal in September: A $14 billion takeover by Pfizer. That deal left Hung $354 million better off, before taxes, and catapulted him toward the top of the list of the most eligible unattached biotech execs. Axovant, an Alzheimer’s player, has pulled off a coup by securing Hung’s services, along with another member of the Medivation management team.
Investors responded to the coup by driving the share price of Axovant up 30%, a considerable feat for a company with a market cap now touching $2 billion.
The surge is, in part, a reflection of the credibility Hung and fellow new arrival Marion McCourt—the former COO of Medivation—bring to the Axovant. The company usually gets a double dose of skepticism because of its chosen therapeutic field and its jaw dropping rise from nowhere to a $315 million IPO.
With Axovant having set its course toward clinical data under the leadership of founder Vivek Ramaswamy, it is questionable how much Hung can influence whether the company succeeds. But the fact that a man with his pick of roles chose Axovant paints it and its prospects in a good light.
The snag in that rosy interpretation of Hung’s arrival is that his reputation is built on success in cancer, not Alzheimer’s. Hung’s track record in Alzheimer’s is blemished.
Medivation began life by picking up Dimebon from Russian researchers and went on to strike a $725 million pact with Pfizer. That unraveled when clinical trial data came up short.
Now, Hung gets another crack at the toughest of indications.
By Nick Paul Taylor
Source: Fierce Biotech
The Food and Drug Administration’s top scientist Namandjé Bumpus will assume the role of principal deputy commissioner when longtime agency leader Janet Woodcock retires from that role in early 2024, according to an announcement Thursday.
US biopharma AbbVie has agreed to acquire ImmunoGen in a deal which values the company at about $10.1 billion and gives AbbVie access to flagship cancer therapy Elahere (mirvetuximab soravtansine-gynx), a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) approved for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC), as well as a pipeline of promising next-generation ADCs.
EUROAPI today announced the appointment of David Seignolle as Chief Operating Officer, succeeding Eric Berger, and Marion Santin as Chief Legal, Compliance, and IP Officer, both joining the company’s Executive Committee. In his new role, David Seignolle will lead the transformation of the Industrial Operations organization.