Shares of La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company Crash As CEO Departs

Shares of La Jolla Pharmaceutical were nosediving on Monday in pre-market trading after Wall Street learned that the company’s president and CEO George Tidmarsh left the company.

Tidmarsh, M.D., has left the Company to pursue other interests. A search for a new Chief Executive Officer has been initiated. In the interim, a committee of the Board, comprised of Kevin Tang and Craig Johnson, will provide Board-level oversight of the Company’s management team.

“We would like to thank George for his contributions to the Company,” said Kevin Tang, Chairman of the Board. “We wish George success in his future endeavors.”

Shares fell 30% on the news of Tidmarsh’s departure and on the news that the company plans to “re-evaluate its current operating plan” following mixed-results in two clinical studies.

La Jolla said it discontinued one study evaluating its experimental treatment, LJPC-401, for iron overload in some patients with beta thalassemia over a lack of efficacy. A separate study testing LJPC-401 as a treatment for patients with hereditary hemochromatosis had met the primary endpoint in a Phase 2 study. 24%.

La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies intended to significantly improve outcomes in patients suffering from life- threatening diseases.

Disclaimer: We have no position in La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company (NASDAQ: LJPC) and have not been compensated for this article.