Well, well, well. Of all the people to replace CEO Jim Mullen, the ever-more-Icahnized Biogen Idec tabbed George Scangos, the chief of Exelixis. Scangos' replacement is less of a surprise (small hint above), but more on that in a moment.
There are plenty of fun juxtapositions -- East Coast/West Coast, rumpled Mullen/dapper Scangos -- but one that can't be waved away is that Biogen Idec is squarely a commercial company, squeezing as much revenue as possible from its multiple-sclerosis leader Avonex and turning more and more to business development to bolster its pipeline; while Scangos, for all his revving of Exelixis' oncology discovery engine, has never brought a drug to market, let alone run a four-billion-dollar commercial operation.
"The Pink Sheet" Daily will dissect the major move in greater detail, so we don't want to steal our sister publication's thunder. [UPDATE: Here's the PSD piece.] Meanwhile, we point you to the other man behind the Exelixis engine, Michael Morrissey, the R&D chief who now steps into Scangos's CEO shoes.
Morrissey? We can't help wonder which song he'll use to take the stage at his first investor conference as CEO...
"A Rush and a Push and the Kinase is Ours"
"How Soon is NDA?"
"Please Please Please Let Me Get XL184 Approved"
"Panic" (Hang the VP, hang the VP, hang the VP...)
Feel free to suggest your own. If you're not a Smiths fan, just tap your foot to whatever song is in your head.
Photo courtesy of flickr user Djenan.
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