CEO leaves as Swedish Orphan Biovitrum moves into new phase

In a somewhat unexpected development, Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (STO: SOBI) on Friday revealed that chief executive Martin Nicklasson will leave the company. The search for a new CEO will be initiated immediately. Kennet Rooth, currently head of marketing and sales and who had already announced his plans to leave the firm for personal reasons, has agreed to assume the position on an interim basis.

In a statement, the Swedish company said that, based upon the growth aspirations, the emerging late-stage clinical development pipeline and the continuous increasing commercial portfolio, it is entering into a new phase in its development. Therefore, the board of directors initiated a dialogue with Mr Nicklasson regarding the profile needed to match the next phase the company is entering into. They jointly come to the conclusion that a new leadership is desired for the company going forward. Mr Nicklasson will leave SOBI on January 1, 2011.

SOBI chairman Bo Jesper Hansen said that, over the past three years, Mr Nicklasson has been material in transforming Biovitrum from a research company focusing on small molecular drugs, to become a niche specialty pharma leader in the field of rare diseases with an attractive pipeline of biological drugs, noting the recent acquisition and integration of Swedish Orphan International last year in a $493 million deal (The Pharma Letter November 5, 2009.