Acacia Founder and ViiV’s Longtime CSO Are Planning to Step Down From Their Companies

Acacia Pharma founder Julian Gilbert is stepping down from his role as chief executive officer and as a director of the company at the end of the month, the company said. Gilbert will be succeeded by Acacia Chief Commercial Officer Michael Bolinder.

Gilbert’s departure is part of a succession planning exercise initiated by the Cambridge, U.K.-based Acacia Board of Directors over the past year. He is expected to serve in an advisory role for some time following his handing over the reins. Part of that succession planning includes a keen focus on the commercialization of Barhemsys (amisulpride injection) in the U.S. In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued Acacia a Complete Response Letter for Barhemsys following the discovery of continuing deficiencies at the contract manufacturer of amisulpride, the active pharmaceutical ingredient used in the Acacia medication. Earlier this month, the company said it will resubmit its New Drug Application to the FDA in the third quarter with a new supplier of amisulpride who has successfully undergone regular inspections by regulatory authorities.

Bolinder, who will assume the reins of the company at the start of August, has been with Acacia for the past four years and has extensive knowledge of the post-operative nausea and vomiting market, and the opportunity Barhemsys is expected to address once approved, the company said.

Prior to Acacia Pharma, Bolinder was head of Marketing and Commercial Strategy for the hospital division of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. He joined Mallinckrodt upon its acquisition of Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. which commercialized Ofirmev, a post-operative pain control product promoted to anesthetists and surgical teams. Before Mallinckrodt, Bolinder served in various sales and marketing roles at Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly. While at Lilly, he gained significant experience working on various product launches.

Patrick Vink, chairman of Acacia Pharma, thanked Gilbert for his role in establishing Acacia and for driving the discovery and development of Barhemsys. Vink added that Bolinder’s extensive experience in launching new products will be invaluable as the company prepares for the potential launch of Barhemsys.

Another departure of a longtime executive reported today is ViiV Healthcare’s John Pottage. First reported by Endpoints, Pottage, the chief scientific and chief medical officer, is stepping away from ViiV, the company jointly owned by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. Pottage told the publication that he likes to “do things” in 10-year blocks. After a decade at ViiV, it’s time to move on to the next opportunity. Pottage’s last day will be Oct. 1. He will be succeeded by two women. Kim Smith, head of global research and medical strategy, will take over the role of CSO, while Har­mo­ny Garges, the current head of Glob­al Med­ical Af­fairs at Vi­iV, will be­come CMO, according to the report.

ViiV was formed with a singular focus developing treatments for HIV and the company has been making significant headway in this direction. Earlier this year, ViiV submitted an NDA for potential approval of its investigational combination treatment for HIV-1. Submission of the NDA came less than a month after ViiV snagged regulatory approval of Dovato, a two-drug combination for HIV. The newest NDA is for a monthly injectable combination of ViiV’s cabotegravir and Janssen’s rilpivirine (Edurant) as a treatment of HIV-1 in adults whose viral load is suppressed and who are not resistant to cabotegravir or rilpivirine.