Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc (ONXX)

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Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. CFO Gregory Schafer will leave the company by mid-December.

Schafer, Onyx's top financial officer since April 2006, is the third executive to leave or announce his departure from the Emeryville cancer drug developer (NASDAQ: ONXX) in the past six months. He's also the first officer to leave since N. Anthony Coles was hired as president and CEO in February.

Hollings Renton retired as chairman and CEO of Onyx in March and Edward Kenney left his president and COO jobs at the end of last year.

The company said Monday that Schafer, 43, said June 17 that he would quit, but it did not say why Schafer was leaving the company. He will leave Dec. 15 or sooner, if Onyx hires a new CFO before then.

Just as when Renton and Kenney retired, Schafer's departure includes consulting work for Onyx. He will consult for up to six months after he leaves the company at a rate of $250 an hour.

Schafer also will receive a lump-sum payment equal to 12 months of his current base salary -- $300,000, according to Onyx filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission -- reimbursed COBRA medical insurance premiums for 12 months and reimbursement for up to six months of job-search assistance up to $15,000.

Before joining Onyx, Schafer spent a month as a consultant to the company. He also had been a senior financial consultant to several public biotech companies and was CFO of Cerus Corp.

Schafer's total compensation last year, including stock and option awards and other compensation, totaled $689,897, according to Onyx's proxy statement to shareholders.