
Tillman Gerngross makes it official: He's out as CEO as troubled Adagio vows to soldier on
The other shoe has dropped at Adagio.

On Wednesday evening, the company put out a release saying that founding CEO Tillman Gerngross, a high profile figure in the antibody world, had resigned — confirming an earlier SEC filing that he had agreed to leave. In his place, the board appointed COO David Hering to the interim CEO job, while launching a search for a new chief.
The board went on to praise Gerngross for creating a strong foundation at the company, which includes a cushion of cash after raising more than $800 million in a little more than a year while taking the company public $ADGI.

Gerngross’ exit, though, comes after some conflicting messages on the efficacy of their antibody against the Covid-19 Omicron variant. The stock price was flattened by a cut of the data which showed a dramatic collapse in efficacy, followed by assertions that they had a drug that was just as effective as the best available alternative.
At that point, though, investors had bailed and Adagio’s multibillion-dollar market cap — stoked by high expectations — had shriveled to a fraction of its peak. Gerngross’ abrupt departure did nothing to increase confidence in the company, but it still has a market cap of $687 million.
René Russo, the co-founder and chairman of Adagio and a longtime associate of Gerngross’, plans to carry on in the face of some extreme adversity. She noted:
I am confident in the future of ADG20 and our pipeline of innovative antibody-based therapies and pleased to help lead Adagio into this next chapter as a company. We look forward to evaluating data from our EVADE and STAMP clinical trials to assess the optimal path forward for ADG20.
Adagio is a spinout of Adimab, the antibody company Gerngross founded in 2007. And Adimab had a large chunk of the equity when Adagio went public.