Dive Brief:
- FibroGen CEO Enrique Conterno has resigned from his post, the company announced Tuesday, in the latest shakeup affecting the anemia drug developer.
- In its statement, FibroGen said Conterno stepped down for “personal reasons” but didn’t provide additional details. Chief Commercial Officer Thane Wettig, who previously worked at Intarcia Therapeutics and Eli Lilly, is serving as CEO on an interim basis. Conterno will stay on as a special advisor during a transition period.
- Conterno came to FibroGen in 2019, following a 27-year stint at Eli Lilly. He helped the company bring its first drug to market, the anemia pill roxadustat, in Europe and other countries. But the company has struggled to win an approval in the U.S., and had several other clinical setbacks. It just announced a restructuring last month.
Dive Insight:
In what’s already been a tough year for biotechnology companies, FibroGen’s has been particularly difficult.
Following a yearslong struggle to win U.S. approval of roxadustat as a treatment for chronic kidney disease patients, the company had been looking to a group of study readouts to boost its outlook. Instead, all of them, at least so far, have disappointed.
In May, roxadustat missed its mark in a Phase 3 study in a type of bone marrow cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome. The following month, its only other candidate in human testing, pamrevlumab, failed two late-stage trials in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
The pulmonary fibrosis study failure was particularly costly, leading FibroGen to discontinue a second trial and cut jobs. Last week, the company revealed those layoffs would affect 32%, or 104, of its U.S. employees, its second restructuring since 2021. It’s joined more than 90 other biotech companies to cut jobs this year.
FibroGen still has another Phase 3 study set to read out in Duchenne, and roxadustat is marketed in nearly 30 countries. Wettig aims to steer the company through that study and beyond.
“We have a strong cash position, and have built a great team at FibroGen, including a highly experienced and collaborative leadership team,” Wettig said. “I am grateful to have the opportunity to continue our work as we apply groundbreaking science with the goal of helping patients around the world.”