BRIEF—FibroGen names interim CEO following unexpected death of Thomas Neff

FibroGen has announced that Thomas Neff, founder, chief executive and chairman of FibroGen, passed away unexpectedly this past weekend.

James Schoeneck, a nine-year member of FibroGen’s board of directors, chairman of FibroGen’s Compensation Committee, and a member of FibroGen’s Audit Committee, has been named interim CEO while the company pursues the process of retaining a permanent world-class CEO to fill the position.

Mr Schoeneck was CEO at Depomed, and has previous CEO experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, as well as serving as vice president and general manager, immunology, at Centocor (now Janssen Biotech), where he led the development of Centocor’s commercial capabilities. He will step down from committee service while he serves as interim CEO.

FibroGen is currently waiting for the potential approval of its US and EU filings for its anemia drug roxadustat, which FibroGen developed with Astellas and AstraZeneca.