Exelixis is still feuding with Farallon Capital Management, but the biotech’s board likes at least some of the activist investor’s ideas—including two new recommended board members.
As two longtime members step down from the board, Exelixis will put Interlaken Therapeutics CEO Tomas Heyman and former CEO of Otsuka America Pharmaceutical Robert Oliver up for the roles in a “board refreshment” plan, according to a Thursday press release. Carl Feldbaum and Vincent Marchesi, M.D., Ph.D., will leave their seats.
Heyman, who at one time served as president of Johnson & Johnson’s corporate venture capital group, and Oliver were both recommended for appointment by Farallon. Exelixis’ board—which is chaired by Stelios Papadopoulos, Ph.D., who also serves in that role at Biogen—met with the candidates “as part of the company’s efforts to reach an agreement with Farallon to avoid a proxy contest” in March.
Farallon, which has a 7.2% stake in Exelixis, mounted an attack earlier this month, saying the company’s R&D approach was neither disciplined nor coherent. The company is apparently sitting on the cancer asset Cabometyx and instead spending on more than 80 programs, leaving it “spread too thin,” according to Farallon.
In addition to the verbal strike, Farallon vowed to put up three candidates for the board—Heyman, Oliver and David Johnson, managing partner of investment adviser Caligan Partners LP.
As it turns out, the board thought Heyman and Oliver would be excellent additions to the board after interviews with both. The battle with Farallon will go on, however.
Exelixis agreed to nominate Heyman and Oliver as part of a settlement agreement, which was ultimately unsuccessful. The company said the board has refused to give in to the firm’s demand for “a highly unusual breadth and depth of access to company confidential and proprietary information.” The investor wanted “unprecedented access” to Exelixis’ pipeline, people and clinical trial data, the company explained.
“The board determined at the time of the interviews that Messrs. Heyman and Oliver were excellent candidates for the board, and the failure of settlement negotiations with Farallon does not in any way affect that view,” Exelixis said in the release.