Chief financial officer of biopharmaceutical firm Amarin to step down

IRISH BIOPHARMACEUTICAL firm Amarin has announced that the company’s chief financial officer Alan Cooke will step down in the latest management upheaval at the firm.

Mr Cooke, president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of the drug development business, is leaving the company business following its decision to transfer “certain corporate functions” from Amarin’s Dublin office to the US, where it is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

However, the firm said it would continue to operate an office in Dublin.

News of Mr Cooke’s departure “to pursue other interests” comes just weeks after chief executive Tom Lynch announced he was giving up the role as part of a $70 million fundraising at the company.

Mr Lynch assumed the post of chief executive in late 2007 following the departure of Rick Stewart in the wake of a clinical trial failure that dramatically undermined the business. He will continue as company chairman, a position he has held since he joined the Amarin board in 2000.

He has been replaced by Amarin’s head of research and development Dr Declan Doogan, who assumes the position of interim chief executive.

Mr Lynch, Mr Cooke and Mr Doogan are credited with reinventing Amarin as a cardiovascular drug firm following the failure of the Huntington’s trials.

The announcement yesterday of Mr Cooke’s departure came alongside confirmation of the completion of the $70 million private placement led by existing investor Fountain Health Partners, an Irish private equity house.

New investors were led by funds associated with British-based life sciences and healthcare investor Abbingworth. The new resources are expected to fund Amarin’s cardiovascular drug-development programme over the next three years.

Amarin also announced yesterday that it has signed an agreement with US clinical trials group Medpace, which will see the firm, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, run the phase III trials of Amarin’s AMR101.

AMR101 is designed to treat hypertriglyceridemia, a condition affecting up to 28 million people in the US alone, which can lead to cardiovascular disease and even death.