Investor who referred to as for ouster of Athira Pharma CEO suspends marketing campaign
The activist shareholder behind an try to switch the CEO of Athira Pharma has suspended his marketing campaign.
Billionaire Richard (Ric) Kayne nominated himself and an affiliate to the board in March, and lately proffered Ronald Krall, the chief medical officer of GlaxoSmithKline, as a alternative for present CEO Mark Litton. However Kayne pulled again in a letter to the board on Monday, days earlier than the corporate’s annual shareholder assembly on Thursday.
“It’s clear it might be a really shut vote. With no resounding mandate from my fellow shareholders, I concern the longer term with me on the Board can be very contentious and unproductive, an final result that I don’t consider can be within the pursuits of the Firm or its shareholders,” stated Kayne. “I’ve due to this fact determined to droop my marketing campaign.”
Although he’s now not campaigning for change, shareholders are nonetheless allowed to vote for Kayne’s nominees.
Kayne is a supporter of earlier CEO Leen Kawas, who resigned from the corporate final fall within the wake of an investigation into the manipulation of data-containing photographs in scientific papers she had co-authored. Kawas and Kayne have since co-founded an funding agency, Propel Bio Companions, LP.
