Alexion Pharmaceuticals Shuffles the Deck With Recent Executive Changes

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN) saw its shares slide on Monday after the company reported a change in its executive team. Headlining this change and effective immediately, the company announced that it has named David Brennan as interim CEO, to take the place of David Hallal.

Brennan is the former chief executive and executive director of AstraZeneca and has been a member of the Alexion board of directors since July 2014. Brennan succeeds Hallal, who has resigned for personal reasons, effective immediately. Hallal has also resigned from the board. Spencer Stuart has been engaged to commence the search for a permanent CEO.

Additionally, the board announced that David J. Anderson, the former senior vice president and chief financial officer of Honeywell for 11 years, has joined the company as CFO, effective immediately. Anderson succeeds Vikas Sinha, who has left Alexion to pursue other opportunities.

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Leonard Bell, M.D., board chair, commented:

This leadership transition comes during a period of great strength and momentum. The fundamentals of Alexion are very strong. We have three highly effective therapies and a robust rare disease pipeline. We are well-positioned for sustainable growth. Moreover, we have a clear strategy to continue our mission to develop and deliver transformative therapies for patients with devastating and rare diseases.

Doug Norby, lead independent director, commented:

Both David Brennan and Dave Anderson are highly experienced executives who bring outstanding leadership skills, valuable expertise, and global perspective, making them well-suited to lead Alexion as we embark on our next exciting phase of growth. David Brennan is an extremely talented and seasoned pharmaceutical chief executive who has a deep understanding of Alexion based on his work on our Board. We are fortunate to have someone of his caliber guide us during this transition. We are also delighted that Dave Anderson is joining Alexion as our new CFO. Dave has distinguished himself over his career as one of the most experienced and well-respected financial executives across industries. We welcome Dave to his new role and look forward to his leadership.

Following this announcement, analyst firm Wedbush issued a call in which it reiterated a Neutral rating with a $135 price target.

Shares of Alexion were trading down more than 15% at $111.47 on Monday, with a consensus analyst price target of $171.67 and a 52-week trading range of $110.56 to $193.45.

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