Healthcare investor Kevin Tang and his allies now hold almost every leadership position at Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, the company at the heart of former CDER Director George Tidmarsh’s exit from the FDA.
Six months after clashing with former Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Director George Tidmarsh over his comments regarding Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, Kevin Tang is taking over as CEO of the company—and has appointed his associates to other key positions.
Tang, who has been chair of Aurinia’s board of directors since 2024, has replaced Peter Greenleaf as CEO, the company announced Monday. The new CEO is president of Tang Capital Management, an investment group that made its name offering an exit route to troubled biotechs. Tang Capital has built a position in Aurinia in recent years, growing its stake from 5.1% in September 2024 to 9.2% by late last month.
The investment group has now secured control of Aurinia’s C-suite. Tang’s appointment as CEO is part of sweeping changes that have given other Tang Capital employees key roles in Aurinia’s leadership team.
Ryan Cole is Aurinia’s new chief operating officer; Michael Hearne has joined as chief financial officer and Thomas Wei is the new chief scientific officer. Cole has worked at Tang Capital since 2014, while Hearne and Wei joined the investment company in 2015.
They join Stew Kroll, Aurinia’s chief development officer who has worked at Tang Capital since 2016. According to Aurinia’s current leadership page, Kroll joined the biotech last year. Kroll’s appointment by Aurinia was not announced, and he is not listed on an archived version of the company’s leadership page that was live last month.
Greenleaf, who spent seven years as Aurinia CEO, is one of several executives who are leaving the biotech as part of the changes. Chief Operating Officer Matthew Donley, Chief Medical Officer Gregory Keenan and Chief Financial Officer Joseph Miller are all following Greenleaf out the door. Donley, Miller and Keenan joined Aurinia in 2019, 2020 and 2023, respectively.
Stephen Robertson will continue as general counsel, Aurinia said Monday. Robertson joined Aurinia in 2020, making him the most senior person still left at the company who arrived before the Tang era.
The new-look leadership team takes over as the company focuses on growing sales of lupus nephritis treatment Lupkynis, the target of a social media attack from Tidmarsh. Last fall, Tidmarsh posted to LinkedIn that Lupkynis’ active ingredient vocolosporin had “significant toxicity” and that it had “not been shown to provide a direct clinical benefit for patients.”
The post, which was quickly removed, prompted Tang to file a complaint with the FDA, which was ultimately handed off to the Office of Inspector General. Aurinia also filed a lawsuit that accused Tidmarsh of a “longstanding personal vendetta against Kevin Tang.” In the end, Tidmarsh left the agency amid an investigation into his “personal conduct.”
In addition to Lupkynis’ growth, Aurinia is working on showing that its investigational drug aritinercept is a challenger in a competitive autoimmune disease market. Aritinercept is a dual inhibitor of BAFF and APRIL, a mechanism it shares with Vertex’s povetacicept and Vera Therapeutics’ atacicept. Vertex and Vera could win FDA approval for their drugs in immunoglobulin A nephropathy this year. Jefferies analysts said last year that Aurinia’s drug candidate looks at least as good as povetacicept on all measures.
Aurinia recently forecast sales of $305 million to $315 million this year, compared to $271 million in 2025. Jefferies analysts said in a February note to investors that the outlook could be considered conservative.
