A day after Genmab's battered stock spiked following renewed rumors of a GlaxoSmithKline takeover, the American CEO of the Danish biotech stood down from the helm and was replaced by the developer's chief scientific officer.
Lisa Drakeman (photo) headed the company through its celebrated $2.1 billion partnership with GSK for the leukemia drug Arzerra. But as Reuters notes, the company has run into some trouble in subsequent clinical trials and has had to cut costs twice. Its stock has plunged 80 percent over the last three years. Jan van de Winkel, a Dutchman, was named to fill her post immediately.
Whatever else the change at the top might mean for Genmab, Drakeman's departure helped still the fresh speculation that Glaxo would come in and scoop up Genmab after its share price had bottomed out at only twice the amount of cash the biotech company had in the bank.
"To me Drakeman's exit shows a GSK takeover of Genmab is not imminent. If it had been just around the corner she would have seen it through. It would have left her with a better reputation," Sydbank analyst Rune Dahl told Reuters.
- see Genmab's release
- here's the story from Reuters