NeuroVive Chief Executive Brönnegârd Replaced After Stocks Tank and Clinical Trial Falters
September 1, 2015
By Alex Keown and Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
STOCKHOLM – Mikael Brönnegård is out as chief executive officer of NeuroVive Pharmaceutical AB (NVP).
Less than 24 hours after the company discontinued development of CicloMulsion for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) the Swedish company announced Jan Nilsson, the company’s chief operational officer, will take over as interim CEO.
The company board of directors wished Brönnegård well in his future endeavors this morning.
“We believe that the time is right for a change in the leadership of the company’s management team. The NeuroVive board is confident that Jan Nilsson has the experience required to lead the company until a new CEO has been recruited,” Gregory Batcheller, NeuroVive’s chairman of the board of directors said in a statement.
NeuroVive’s stock, which is traded on the Stockholm NASDAQ exchange, continued to fall after the announcement of the management change. Stock is down more than 7 percent this morning, trading at $13 per share, however, the stock has fallen nearly 50 percent since the company announced the failure of CicloMulsion for the treatment of myocardial infarction. On Monday, stock had hit a five-day high of $24.80 per share before free-falling to $11.65 per share.
The company did not specify if Brönnegård was dismissed from his post, or if he resigned. NeuroVive swiftly changed its management team profile page on its website, removing Brönnegård’s name.
On Monday the company announced the data from clinical trials for CicloMulsion for the treatment of myocardial infarction had no therapeutic effect on patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.
“The lack of therapeutic effect in AMI patients may be due to the administration time, as significant injury to the cardiac muscle has already occurred at the time of PCI. We will continue to evaluate our drug candidates in different organs and conditions,” Eskil Elmér, NeuroVive’s chief science officer said in a statement.
While the company discontinued research into the drug’s use for myocardial infarction, it did say it was committed to the study of CicloMulsion in pretreatment of acute kidney injury during major surgery.
Brönnegård has served as CEO since 2010. Prior to that he served as director of business development for IdMos for one year and served as investment director at InnovaionsKapital from 2001 to 2006. He also served a two-year stint as a clinical research physician at Eli Lilly and Company from 1996 to 1998.
Before his time with NeuroVive, Nilsson served as vice president of the Nordic region for Schering-Plough.
NeuroVive is scheduled to host a shareholder information meeting at its Stockholm site on Sept. 10.
In addition to CicloMulsion, the company is also conducting a Phase II study of NeuroSTAT for traumatic brain injury.
Earlier this year NeuroVive signed a deal with Paris-based Sanofi to develop and commercialize CicloMulsion in South Korea. Financial details were not disclosed, but Sanofi agreed to pay NeuroVive Asia an upfront payment, milestone payments and a royalty based on future sales. There is no news yet on whether today’s announcement will negatively affect this partnership.
The company also recently released its six-month earnings report. Net revenues were SEK 2,502,000 and losses before tax was SEK -15,216,000 in the second quarter. Net revenues for the six-month period were SEK 2,502,000 and losses before tax were SEK -29,487,000.