Actelion goes on the defensive as Elliott seeks to remove chairman and CEO

Switzerland based Actelion (SIX: ATLN), Europe largest biotech company, went on the defensive last Friday after one of its investors, Elliot Associates hedge fund, sent a letter to the firm’s directors (which came into the public domain), saying that chairman Robert Cawthorn should resign and the chief executive Jean-Paul Clozel should step down from the board, and calling for the formation of a strategic committee to explore the company’s options on rumored takeover approaches.

Actelion has been the subject of several bouts of takeover speculation, particularly given that some of its pipeline drugs have disappointed, Most recently, along with partner GlaxoSmithKline, the company pulled the plug on a Phase III potential insomnia drug candidate, the dual orexin receptor antagonist almorexant (The Pharma Letter January 28). Prior to that, Actelion also revealed that BUILD-3, a clinical study evaluating the safety and efficacy of its lead product bosentan (sold as Tracleer) in patients suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) failed to meet its primary endpoint (TPL March 2, 2010). Tracleer, marketed for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension, generated sales of 1.51 billion Swiss francs ($1.60 billion) in 2010, making up the bulk of the firm’s turnover that year of 1.64 billion francs. However, net income for 2010 dipped 3% to 105.3 million francs.

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