Brent Saunders’ team gets hit with a PhIII disaster — and a growing mob of Allergan critics seizes the moment
Usually when a large cap biopharma company has a big Phase III disaster, the top execs give it a quick midnight burial, issue a brief press release, put up with a few headlines, watch the market cap erode a bit and move on down the pipeline.
For Allergan $AGN, it’s a lot more complicated than that.
Already under pressure from the hedge fund Appaloosa to split the roles of CEO and chairman in Brent Saunders’ shop, the activists pointed to the debacle with rapastinel — Saunders’ $560 million depression drug that flat failed a full slate of pivotal trials — as another sign that someone needs to set things right at the company. And that no longer stops with a new chairman to help steer a better course. Appaloosa wants to put a revamp of the management team on the table, along with a sale, breakup or merger.
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