Alexion Poaches Biogen's Longtime CFO

Alexion Poaches Biogen's Longtime CFO June 14, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Alexion Pharmaceuticals Chief Executive Officer Ludwig Hantson continues to shape the company’s leadership team. This time Hantson bagged longtime Biogen executive Paul J. Clancy as Alexion’s new chief financial officer.

Clancy will join the Alexion leadership team beginning July 10 and fully assume his duties as CFO on July 31, the company announced this morning. Clancy will take over the top financial spot from Dave Anderson, who will remain with Alexion until the end of August. Hantson called Clancy a “world-class CFO” with a distinguished record in the biopharma industry who will be able to help the company with its growth plans.

“He brings deep experience and a proven track record of managing a global organization, executing successful financial and capital allocation strategies to deliver long-term shareholder value, and cultivating strong relationships with the investment community,” Hantson said in a statement.

Clancy comes to Alexion after serving 10 years as CFO for Boston-based Biogen, where he delivered 16 percent average annual revenue growth and 25 percent average annual non-GAAP EPS growth over the past 10 years, Alexion said in its statement. Clancy first joined Biogen in 2001 and was named CFO of that company in 2007. Before Biogen Clancy spent 13 years at PepsiCo, serving in a range of finance, strategy and general management positions.

In addition to his time at Biogen, Clancy also serves on the boards of directors of several biopharma companies, including Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Incyte Corporation .

After his many years in the biopharmaceutical industry, Clancy said he has been “consistently impressed” with Alexion and its rare disease platform.

Since taking over the reins of embattled Alexion in March, Hantson has been reshaping the leadership team of the company. He conducted a purge of Alexion’s former leadership team, and then began to bring in new C-suite-level leaders, many of them his former colleagues from Baxalta . The former leadership of the company has been under a dark cloud as lawmakers have looked into company sales practices surrounding its blood-disorder drug Soliris. With an annual price tag of about $440,000, Soliris is known as the world’s most expensive drug. It is used to treat paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a rare blood disorder that affects about one or two people out of every million.

In January, the company admitted that unnamed members of its senior management team used “inappropriate business tactics” to market the drug. Investigations into the company sparked the resignation of the former CEO David Hallal, as well as Vikas Sinha, the company’s chief financial officer.

Other executives Hantson brought on to the leadership team at Alexion include former Baxalta executive, John Orloff, who serves as the new R&D head. He also brought on former Baxalta human resources executive Ann-Marie Law as the head of human resources. Hantson also tapped former Pfizer executive Indrani Lall Franchini as the company’s chief compliance officer.

Investors have responded positively to Hantson’s leadership team shakeups. This morning the stock was up nearly 6 percent in premarket trading, hitting $114.25.

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