December 18, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Cambridge, Mass.-based Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has appointed Paris Panayiotopoulos as president and chief executive officer as of January 1, 2016.
In April of this year, the company announced that the company’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer, Harvey Berger, was retiring at the end of the year, or when a replacement was found, whichever came first. This was related to a possible proxy battle with Alex Denner’s Sarissa Capital Management.
Sarissa acquired a 6.9 percent stake in Ariad, which gave it enough leverage to call for changes at the company. As part of the control, Denner received a seat on Ariad’s board in February 2014 and a year later started pushing for major changes at the company, including forcing out Berger and bringing in himself and Anna Protopapas, chief executive officer of Mersana Therapeutics, Inc., as a member of the board.
In late 2012, Ariad’s blood cancer drug, Iclusig, was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But in 2013, the company halted marketing it after the FDA warned about dangerous side effects. At this point, the company laid off 160 people, reevaluated its plans for a new headquarters at Cambridge’s Kendall Square, and its stock plunged.
There has also been speculation that Ariad might get acquired by a bigger company, with potential suitors including Roche , Celgene Corporation , Amgen , AbbVie Inc. and Gilead Sciences, Inc. .
Other analysts pushed back on the idea of a sale. Biotech blogger Adam Feuerstein at The Street, wrote in an April post, “Ariad sells a leukemia drug (Iclusig) with limited efficacy due to a worrisome safety profile. A competing leukemia drug is going generic soon. Ariad’s lead pipeline drug, brigatinib, is a me-too OALK inhibitor for a small subset of lung cancer patients that might be the third or fourth drug in its class to reach the market. There’s nothing at Ariad compelling enough to garner interest from Roche.” He also poo-pooed the other buyers.
Panayiotopoulos, will be leaving his current job as president of EMD Serono, Inc. He will also join Ariad’s board. EMD Serono is owned by Merck KgaA in Darmstadt, Germany. He was president of EMD Serono Inc., US from November 2013 in Boston. Prior to that he was president of Merck Serono Japan, was head of its Global COO Office in Geneva, Switzerland, and head of its Western Europe Global Business Unit Fertility & Endocrinology. Prior to joining EMD Serono and Merck, he was with Eli Lilly and Co. for five years.
“We are delighted to welcome Paris as our new CEO,” said Wayne Wilson, lead director for Ariad, in a statement. “Paris is a dynamic leader with a proven ability to set vision, define strategy, build culture and align teams to successfully execute against objectives. He has the necessary skills to bring a renewed focus to company execution as we work together to explore all paths in maximizing value for shareholders. We thank Harvey for his stewardship of Ariad over the past 24 years, the contributions that he has made in building Ariad and wish him well.”
Ariad has had a tough year overall. Shares traded on Jan. 22 for $6.20, rose to $9.71 on April 24, then dropped back down to $6.44 on Aug. 24. Shares spiked to a year high of $9.89 on Aug. 28, then plunged to $4.81 on Sept. 29. Shares traded on Dec. 17 for $6.33 and are currently trading for $5.74.
