Geron’s chief commercial officer is hitting the exit just as the party is getting started. Less than 50 days after the biotech won FDA approval for its first drug, the exec who played a starring role in creating its commercial strategy has announced he is leaving “to pursue other interests.”
When Geron won FDA approval for its blood cancer drug Rytelo just last month, Anil Kapur was the executive who talked investors through the biotech’s plans for a “prioritized and targeted launch to a concentrated prescriber base of approximately 8,000 healthcare professionals” on a conference call. However, Kapur has now told Geron he will leave the company at the end of August.
Geron CEO John Scarlett, M.D., sought to allay worries raised by the change. The CEO used the statement about Kapur’s exit to tell investors the biotech is encouraged by uptake of Rytelo in the first month and to point to the strength of the plan and commercial team the departing exec helped put in place.
Scarlett’s comments failed to quell the concerns of investors, who sent Geron’s stock down 9% to $4.20 in the aftermath of the news. The drop sunk the stock to its lowest level since the FDA approved Rytelo.
Geron is searching for a replacement for Kapur and has put an interim leadership team in place for the transition. Andrew Grethlein, Ph.D., Geron’s chief operating officer, will lead the commercial organization in the interim. Dawn Carter Bir, a board member who was involved with launches at Reata Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacyclics, will support Grethlein “with additional oversight of the commercial business.”
Grethlein will oversee a team that took on staff in the run-up to the FDA decision. Lorraine Shui and Scott Hutson joined from Novartis and AstraZeneca, respectively, to become the vice presidents of marketing and sales. Geron promoted Nishan Sengupta to VP of market access and pricing.