Trimeris sets departure date for leaders
Thursday October 11, 4:45 pm ET
Trimeris' top executives, temporary consultants brought on to turn around the drug company after its previous executives left, will leave the Morrisville concern Jan. 2.
E. Lawrence Hill, president and chief operating officer, and Daniel Ratto, chief financial officer, joined Trimeris earlier this year after former CEO and co-founder Dani Bolognesi and CFO Robert Bonczek were asked to resign from the company, which has developed an AIDS drug known as Fuzeon.
Hill and Ratto are consultants employed by California firm Hickey and Hill. Their job at Trimeris was to prepare the company for human studies of its next-generation AIDS drug, T-1144, said Andrew Graham, the company's director of finance. Trimeris plans to file for permission to start human trials on the drug in the first half of 2008.
"They were hired to do a specific job, and that was to put us in a position to file an (Investigational New Drug Application) for 1144, which they've done," Graham said. "... It's nearing the end of the time when they can add value to the company."
Still at question is whether any development can add value to Trimeris at this point.
Bolognesi and Bonczek left the company at the end of a trying 12 months that saw sales of Fuzeon come in below expectations. Also leaving were dozens of employees, who lost their jobs as a cost-cutting measure.
At the same time, the company lost the support of its drug development partner, Swiss company Roche, for T-1144.
Meanwhile, Pfizer won U.S. regulatory approval for a new AIDS drug known as Selzentry. And Merck is seeking this week approval of an AIDS treatment called Isentress. Both could take market share away from Fuzeon, which must be adminstered through painful injections.
Finally, New York investment firm HealthCor has bought nearly 19 percent of Trimeris' shares and has demanded changes. In particular, it wants Trimeris to seriously reconsider plans to develop T-1144, a course of action it calls "too expensive, lengthy and risky," and look into selling the company.
Graham said Trimeris has been in contact with HealthCor.
"The company has had communication, as it would with any large shareholder," he said. "But I'm not going to comment beyond that."
He also said Trimeris has made no decision on who will lead the company after Jan. 2.
"We're taking it one step at a time," he said. "... Right now the board's confident that we have the correct management team in place."
