Alexion Boss Shakes Up Executive Team, Head of R&D Retires, CFO and HR Exec Step Down

Alexion Boss Shakes Up Executive Team, Head of R&D Retires, CFO and HR Exec Step Down May 23, 2017
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

Major changes in the executive suite are happening at New Haven, Conn.-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN).

About two months ago, Ludwig Hantson replaced interim chief executive officer David Brennan, who had stepped in after David Hallal, the company’s chief executive officer and Vikas Sinha, its chief financial officer, were forced out after a scandal involving whistleblower allegations of the company’s sales of Soliris. Prior to joining Alexion, Hantson was president and chief executive officer of Baxalta (BXLT) .

Alexion’s troubles started in May 2015, when it received a subpoena regarding an investigation by the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asking for information related to grant-making activities and compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in several countries. The data was related to Alexion’s recalls of specific lots of Soliris, as well as related securities disclosures.

In late November and early December 2016, Alexion delayed its quarterly finding. The reason was an internal investigation based on the whistleblower allegations.

It appears that Hantson is swapping out the former C-suite with his own team. Changes include bringing in Brian Goff as chief commercial officer, effective June 1. Goff has had positions with Neurovance, Baxalta, Baxter (BAX), Novartis (NVS) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) . He is replacing Carsten Thiel.

Dave Anderson, the company’s chief financial officer, is resigning at the end of August. Alexion has launched a search for his replacement.

Martin Mackay, executive vice president, Head of Research & Development, will retire from Alexion at the end of this year. A search is starting under the auspices of SpencerStuart.

John Carroll, writing for Endpoints News, says, “Mackay has had a long and storied career in R&D. Former AstraZeneca CEO David Brennan—who ironically filled the interim CEO role at Alexion after the first purge in December—poached him from a top job at Pfizer. And Mackay was wheeling and dealing his way to beefing up Big Pharma’s worst pipeline when Soriot arrived.”

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