Richard Hollis (photo), the controversial CEO and founder of drug developer Hollis-Eden, has been fired from his post for an unspecified offense. The San Diego Union-Tribune's Terri Somers reports that Hollis was terminated for cause, meaning he could have been fired for a list of potential infractions, including "misappropriation of funds, fraud, engaging in an activity that is harmful to the company or conviction of a crime." Hollis-Eden has refused to clarify just why its founder was fired last Wednesday.
Hollis has been a high-profile biotech exec. After the U.S. government decided against stockpiling its radiation drug Neumune in 2007, Hollis became one of Project Bioshield's harshest critics. The federal project had been given the task of finding new therapies to combat a bioterror attack or pandemic.
The Union-Tribune, though, notes that several experts questioned Hollis-Eden's data for Neumune, saying that the company never hosted a big enough primate study to demonstrate Neumune's survival benefit. The company later dumped the program and recently announced it was laying off a third of its staff in the wake of the economic crisis.
- read the report from the San Diego Union-Tribune