Ac­tivist in­vestor Alex Den­ner has now so­lid­i­fied his con­trol over Irish drug­mak­er Amarin.

In the wake of last week’s share­hold­er elec­tion that saw Den­ner’s VC Saris­sa Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment in­stall sev­en di­rec­tors on Amarin’s board, the com­pa­ny an­nounced Mon­day af­ter­noon that the sev­en non-Saris­sa board mem­bers are ex­it­ing from their po­si­tions “to avoid fur­ther proxy con­tests.”

Mur­ray Stew­art, a for­mer CMO at GSK who was added to Amarin’s board just ear­li­er this year and was a cat­a­lyst that led to the vote, is al­so leav­ing the board.

The de­part­ing di­rec­tors said in a state­ment: “We are step­ping down to al­low Saris­sa, as it has re­quest­ed, to gain im­me­di­ate con­trol of the Com­pa­ny. We con­tin­ue to be­lieve in Amarin’s val­ue po­ten­tial, and are con­fi­dent we leave the Com­pa­ny with a strong lead­er­ship and man­age­ment team.”

That Feb. 28 share­hold­er vote al­so led to the ouster of ex-chair Per Wold-Olsen, ef­fec­tive im­me­di­ate­ly.

With the sev­en gone, it leaves eight peo­ple on the board of di­rec­tors — sev­en in­di­vid­u­als Saris­sa nom­i­nat­ed and CEO Karim Mikhail. Den­ner did not take a board po­si­tion.

Saris­sa Cap­i­tal start­ed its ac­tivist at­tack in Jan­u­ary, call­ing for a share­hold­er vote af­ter ac­cus­ing the Irish biotech of a sham board re­fresh­ment process while seek­ing to re­move the chair­man and add sev­en di­rec­tors. Saris­sa al­so threat­ened le­gal ac­tion if the board tried to fill any va­can­cies or if it “in­ter­feres with Saris­sa’s ex­er­cise of its share­hold­er rights.”

Saris­sa, as Amarin’s largest in­vestor, owns more than 6% of Amarin: over 25 mil­lion shares.

Paul McKenzie took over as CEO of Australian pharma giant CSL this month, following in the footsteps of long-time CSL vet Paul Perreault.

With an eye on mRNA, and quickly commercializing its new, $3.5 million-per-shot gene therapy for hemophilia B, McKenzie and chief medical officer Bill Mezzanotte answered some questions from Endpoints News this afternoon about where McKenzie is going to take the company and what advances may be coming to market from CSL’s pipeline. Below is a lightly edited transcript.

Boehringer Ingelheim reported human pharma sales of €18.5 billion on Wednesday, led by type 2 diabetes and heart failure drug Jardiance and pulmonary fibrosis med Ofev. Jardiance sales reached €5.8 billion, growing 39% year over year, while Ofev took in €3.2 billion, notching its own 20.6% annual jump.

However, Boehringer is also looking ahead with its pipeline, estimating “In the next seven years the company expects about 20 regulatory approvals in human pharma.”

Two small gene therapy makers and a biotech working on an investigational migraine drug have let employees go. The moves add to a broader year-long wave of layoffs that have sidelined thousands of workers in the industry.

Satsuma Pharmaceuticals said after Tuesday’s market close that it will lay off 36% of its workers, effective this Friday. The South San Francisco and Durham, NC biotech submitted its approval request to the FDA this month for a migraine drug, but Satsuma won’t be building a commercial team as it seeks an “established pharmaceutical company” to deliver STS101 to patients, should it get the green light. The company had 25 employees at the end of 2022.

The FDA today approved Emergent BioSolutions’ Narcan brand naloxone nasal spray for over-the-counter sales. The nod was expected and comes on the heels of a unanimous 19-0 advisory committee vote in favor of approval last month.

The move to OTC means the opioid overdose reversal agent will now be available on grocery, convenience and gas stations shelves, as well as potentially for purchase online.