Mer­sana CEO to step down af­ter eight years; Roy­al­ty Phar­ma pays $150M for Skytro­fa roy­al­ties

Mer­sana Ther­a­peu­tics said Wednes­day that pres­i­dent and CEO An­na Pro­topa­pas is re­tir­ing Sept. 10, and board mem­ber Mar­tin Hu­ber will take over her role.

Pro­topa­pas, who joined the com­pa­ny as CEO in 2015, will re­main on the biotech’s board. Hu­ber, who has been on the biotech’s board since 2020, is cur­rent­ly the pres­i­dent and head of R&D at Xilio Ther­a­peu­tics.

It has been a rough ride for Mer­sana in re­cent months. The FDA im­posed a par­tial hold on three ovar­i­an can­cer tri­als in June af­ter five pa­tients died. It then halved its work­force in Ju­ly af­ter an ADC can­di­date failed a Phase III tri­al in plat­inum-re­sis­tant ovar­i­an can­cer. — Paul Schloess­er

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