Spectrum Pharmaceutecals Inc (SPPI)

[antihama]

CEO Rajesh Shrotriya fired!!!

WOW!!! That's better than coffee to wake me up in the morning. Who would of thunk? As for why, I'm more inclined to think his baggage just kept accumulating (Fusilev forecasts and leading us on with the apaziquone application). Couple that with the Rolontis BLA planned submittal at the end of next year... a year later than I would have thought a year ago, and perhaps the influence of 70 something % of the shares in the hands of institutions w Blackrock holding 10% or more and voila!!! bye bye Dr Raj.

One of my personal laments is the failure of improving the sales potential of their 'boring' drugs on the market. If they would have been more proactive in investing in phase 3 studies these drugs wouldn't be so boring. An old example is starting a P3 study in Zevalin who some of us (I) think is a better Rituxan (e.g. the cancelled ZAR trial, Rituxan vs. Zevalin Head to Head comes to mind) 8 or so yrs ago. While I'm thinking about it, a big mistake at that time was the one-time dividend they gave us. That would have funded a bunch of studies. And the one thing now which drives me ABSOLUTELY CRAZY is not committing to Folotyn. Here we have Columbia University running a P2 for Romidepsin vs Romidepsin/Pralatrexate RR PTCL showing great interim results (who could forget Raj being asked by an analyst about working with collaborators and completely dropping the ball about this study with this video on the internet (https://vimeo.com/110122034 and subsequent ASCO/ASH interim results posters available) with a new randomized P3 of same that has not started (why not work w them to expand this into a bigger multi-site trial). I could go on some about lost opportunities w Marqibo and Beleodaq but you get the picture.

So in summary, I think it's about Raj's past w the exception of why is the Rolontis study seemingly delayed ~ a year.