Four months after emerging from bankruptcy, Endo is in transition again with the sudden departure of CEO Blaise Coleman.
Tuesday, without providing a reason, the Dublin-based company revealed Coleman’s eventful four-year tenure will end Thursday. Scott Hirsch, formerly the CEO of Solta Medical, will take over as Endo's interim CEO. Hirsch joined the company’s board in April. Endo has brought on executive search firm Spencer Stuart to assist in finding a new CEO.
Coleman leaves after navigating Endo through a challenging period in which it faced a mountain of litigation over marketing of its opioid products. The company filed for bankruptcy in August 2022.
“We thank Blaise for his successful leadership of Endo over the last four years, which were integral to establishing our strong foundational footing following our restructuring,” Endo’s chairman, Paul Herendeen, said in a release.
After stints at AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, Coleman served as the chief financial officer at Endo for three-plus years before taking over the troubled company as CEO in March 2020.
Two years later, when Endo filed for Chapter 11, it agreed to pay a $450 million settlement to 36 states to resolve allegations that it falsely marketed opioids. That deal came on top of the company paying a combined $204 million to settle individual lawsuits with four other states.
Around the same time, the company drew much criticism for paying lucrative pre-bankruptcy bonuses to its top execs, including $11.85 million to Coleman.
Later in the year, Endo laid off 90 staffers as it pulled the plug on its innovative cellulite treatment Qwo (collagenase clostridium histolyticum-aaes), which was plagued by skin discoloration and injection-site bruising.
In February of this year, Endo agreed to a $465 million bankruptcy settlement with the federal government that superseded deals to resolve civil and criminal lawsuits for its marketing of Opana ER (oxymorphone).
Four months ago, Endo revealed the completion of its reorganization and exit from Chapter 11.
“Endo is strategically well-positioned to become a vibrant growth company with a strong balance sheet, a broad, diversified portfolio of on-market medicines, and a pipeline of innovative and differentiated product candidates,” Herendeen added in the release. “As we work toward our goal of re-listing on a national stock exchange, the board is focused on identifying a new chief executive with the experience, skill set and strategic vision to guide Endo through its next phase of development.”
In also reporting its second-quarter financials Tuesday, Endo is showing signs of recovery as it bumped up its 2024 revenue projection from a window of $1.68 billion to $1.77 billion to a new range of $1.72 billion to $1.78 billion.
Endo also provided guidance for 2025, saying it expects revenue to increase by a low single-digit percentage over its new expected sales figure for 2024.
“In the near term, our priority will be continued focus on execution across our branded, sterile injectables and generics portfolios as we position the company for long-term growth,” Hirsch said.