Dendreon Announces Leadership Transition
June 09 2014 - 4:15PM
Business Wire
John H. Johnson to Step Down as Chairman,
President and CEO; Douglas G. Watson Elected Chairman
Dendreon Corporation (Nasdaq:DNDN) today announced that John H.
Johnson has informed the Board of Directors of his plans to step
down as president and chief executive officer for personal reasons.
Mr. Johnson has resigned from the Board, effective June 3, 2014,
and the Board has elected Douglas G. Watson, Dendreon’s lead
independent director, as chairman of the Board.
Dendreon’s Board is working with an executive search firm to
help identify Mr. Johnson’s successor. Mr. Johnson will serve as
chief executive officer until August 15, 2014.
“On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank John for his
leadership, dedication, and passion for helping prostate cancer
patients live longer and better lives through PROVENGE,” said Mr.
Watson. “While serving as chief executive officer, John has made
many significant contributions to Dendreon and driven important
strategic initiatives to help reposition the Company, including
launching a new commercial strategy, gaining marketing
authorization in the European Union, increasing manufacturing
efficiencies, significantly lowering costs, and advancing our
clinical pipeline.”
“I want to thank the team for all that they have accomplished
over the past two years in the face of significant challenges,”
said Mr. Johnson. “I first joined Dendreon because of my admiration
for the Company as a pioneer in immunotherapy and because of my
belief in the power of PROVENGE as a personalized cancer treatment.
That belief still holds true today. While now is the right time
personally for me to transition from my leadership role, I am
confident that PROVENGE will continue to be an important treatment
option to help patients in their fight against cancer. Dendreon has
some of the most passionate and dedicated employees in the
industry, and I know they will remain focused on the Company’s
important mission.”
Mr. Watson has served as one of Dendreon’s independent directors
since February 2000. He is chief executive officer of Pittencrieff
Glen Associates, a consulting firm that he founded in 1999. Prior
to that, Mr. Watson’s career spanned 33 years with
Geigy/Ciba-Geigy/Novartis, during which time he held a variety of
positions in the UK, Switzerland and the U.S. Mr. Watson was
president of Ciba U.S. Pharmaceuticals Division from 1986-1996,
when he was appointed president and chief executive officer of
Ciba-Geigy U.S. Corporation. Mr. Watson also served as president
and chief executive officer of Novartis U.S. Corporation from
1997-1999. Mr. Watson currently serves as chairman of OraSure
Technologies, Inc. and is a director of Wright Medical Group,
Inc.
About Dendreon
Dendreon Corporation is a biotechnology company whose mission is
to target cancer and transform lives through the discovery,
development, commercialization and manufacturing of novel
therapeutics. The Company applies its expertise in antigen
identification, engineering and cell processing to produce active
cellular immunotherapy (ACI) product candidates designed to
stimulate an immune response in a variety of tumor types.
Dendreon’s first product, PROVENGE® (sipuleucel-T), was approved by
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2010. Dendreon
is exploring the application of additional ACI product candidates
and small molecules for the potential treatment of a variety of
cancers. The Company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and
is traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol DNDN. For
more information about the Company and its programs, visit
http://www.dendreon.com/.
Statements in this press release that are not strictly
historical in nature constitute "forward-looking statements." Such
statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding a
successor chief executive officer, and the future success of
PROVENGE and our clinical pipeline. Such forward-looking statements
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors
which may cause Dendreon's actual results to be
materially different from historical results or from any results
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These
factors include, but are not limited to, whether we are able to
identify and successfully recruit a successor chief executive
officer; our inability to achieve and sustain commercial success
for PROVENGE; the identification of efficacy, safety or other
issues with PROVENGE; a slower than anticipated adoption by
treating physicians of PROVENGE for the treatment of patients with
advanced prostate cancer for a variety of reasons, including
competing therapies, instability in our sales force, the risk that
we cannot replace vacant sales positions on a prompt basis,
perceived difficulties in the treatment process, delays in
obtaining reimbursement or for other reasons; any promotional
limitations imposed by the FDA or the EU on our ability
to commercialize and market PROVENGE; unexpected difficulties and
costs associated with the rapid expansion of our commercial
operations to support the commercial launch of PROVENGE; the impact
of competing therapies on sales of PROVENGE, the failure to achieve
reimbursement approvals in Europe, manufacturing or quality
difficulties, the dilution or other effects resulting from capital
raising or debt restructuring transactions, disruptions or delays
and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of
Dendreon's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter
ended March 31, 2014. All forward-looking statements are
qualified in their entirety by this cautionary
statement. Dendreon is providing this information as of
the date of this press release and does not undertake any
obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in
this release as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
Dendreon CorporationCorporate CommunicationsLindsay Rocco,
862-596-1304media@dendreon.com