John John­son is back try­ing his hand as a turn­around artist for a trou­bled biotech. Can he win this time?

John John­son is once again try­ing his hand as a turn­around artist. The long­time bio­phar­ma ex­ec has been named per­ma­nent CEO of the trou­bled Melin­ta Ther­a­peu­tics $ML­NT, which has been strug­gling to re­or­ga­nize af­ter build­ing up a port­fo­lio of an­tibi­otics.

John­son sig­naled more bud­get cuts ahead for Melin­ta as a top pri­or­i­ty as he fin­ished lin­ing up a $135 mil­lion cred­it line for the biotech.

John­son has been here be­fore. He was re­cruit­ed to save Den­dreon af­ter its dis­as­trous launch of Provenge — though that sal­vage ef­fort failed bad­ly. And he was brought in from Savient, which had its own sna­fus to deal with on the launch of the gout drug Krys­texxa.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER