Cloonan quits Sage to pursue a biopharma CEO position

Mike Cloonan is set to step down as chief operating officer of Sage Therapeutics. Cloonan is leaving to pursue a CEO position in the biopharma industry shortly after being overlooked for the top job at Sage.

Sage hired Cloonan as chief business officer in 2017. With Cloonan in the C-suite, Sage struck a major deal with his former employer. Biogen, where Cloonan spent 14 years prior to joining Sage, agreed to a deal worth $1.5 billion upfront for a stake in the biotech’s once-failed depression therapy zuranolone and an earlier-phase asset in November. 

At the time, Cloonan was covering for then-CEO Jeff Jonas, who underwent a scheduled surgical procedure in October. Jonas was due to return full-time to the CEO role in December but ultimately transitioned to the new role of chief innovation officer.

Sage appointed Barry Greene, the former president and chief operating officer of Alnylam, to replace Jonas as CEO. Cloonan initially continued as chief operating officer but has now given his notice. “I made the decision that it is the right time in my career to pursue a chief executive officer position in the biopharmaceutical industry,” Cloonan said in a statement. 

Cloonan is set to leave Sage effective May 3. Sage has opted against moving to immediately fill the role vacated by Cloonan, choosing instead to have Greene take over his responsibilities. Cloonan will provide support during the transition, but, seven weeks from now, Sage will have a relatively new CEO with responsibilities that until recently occupied two executives.

Sage disclosed news of Cloonan’s departure the day before providing an update on one of its ongoing zuranolone clinical trials. The biotech now has complete 12-month data from the 30-mg cohort of the open-label trial in major depressive disorder. More than 75% of patients responded to treatment. Forty percent of evaluable patients were in remission by Day 15.

Responders continued into a follow-up period. Almost 60% of patients had at least one additional course of zuranolone. Many of those patients only had one additional dose, but repeat dosing was seen, with 9% of subjects using a total of five courses. Incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events, which affected 51% of people after the first dose, fell across the later uses of zuranolone.

Sage now also has initial data from the 50-mg arm of the study. The rates of response and remission in the 50-mg arm, which is still gathering data, are a little higher than in the 30-mg cohort so far, but so is the frequency of treatment-emergent adverse events.