More Shakeups at Aegerion as CEO and COO Resign
July 27, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Cambridge, Mass.-based Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , announced today that Marc Beer, chief executive officer and board member, resigned, effective immediately.
Craig Fraser, chief operating officer, also resigned. Sandford Drexel Smith, a board member, has been appointed interim chief executive officer. He will also take on Fraser’s duties temporarily.
“We thank Marc Beer for his years of hard work and many contributions to the Company, including marketing approval and overseeing the successful launch of JUXTAPID (lomitapide) capsules in the United States as well as leading the Company’s acquisition and re-launch of MYALEPT (metreleptin) for injection,” said David Scheer, board chair, in a statement. “We thank Craig for his leadership of Aegerion’s U.S. commercial organization. We wish both Marc and Craig the very best in their future endeavors.”
Smith was most recently executive vice president and president of Genzyme’s international group, and a member of the company’s Executive Committee. In 15 years at Genzyme, Smith oversaw the successful launch of 12 new products and an international revenue growth of nearly $5 billion.
Marc Beer was brought into the company in 2010, when Aegerion was $4 million in debt and nearly insolvent. Beer developed a plan for the company’s cholesterol medication and took the company public, which raised $48.8 million.
The drug, lomitapide, has had relatively poor sales and the company hasn’t been able to diversify its portfolio, despite acquiring Myalept (metreleptin) from AstraZeneca PLC for $325 million in 2014.
Myalept is an injectable for the treatment of generalized lipodystrophy, a rare metabolic disorder characterized by the loss of fat tissue. Although a number of companies have tried to develop the drug into something usable, such as Amylin Pharmaceuticals, which was bought by Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca, it has only been approved for complications for general lipodystrophy, which the company indicates affects only about one in one million individuals.
Lomitapide is also likely to have competition from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi’s Praluent (alirocumab), which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last Friday.
Earlier this year, activist investor Sarissa Capital Management acquired a 5.8 percent stake in Aegerion. Beer and Fraser are not the only ones to leave since then. In May, Mark Fitzpatrick, Aegerion’s chief financial officer, resigned. In addition to the stock, Aegerion appointed a new independent director to its board and Sarissa had the option to appoint an additional director in January 2016.
In January 2014, Marc Beer was accused by the FDA of “misbranding” its drug Juxtapid by claiming it “is intended for new uses, for which it lacks approval and for which its labeling does not provide adequate directions for use.”
The reprimand came after two appearances on CNBC’s “Fast Money” in 2013. Beer at least hinted that the drug could be used alone for lowering cholesterol and was suggesting new uses for the drug. The FDA also brought up serious potential side effects related to the drug in its warning letter.
took a hard fall on Oct. 31, 2014, down to $20.19 from $32.78 on Oct. 29. It rebounded a bit to $28.02 on Mar. 4, 2015, and is currently trading for $18.18.