Surprise departure of Karolinska Development chief executive

Swedish life sciences investor Karolinska Development AB and its chief executive officer, Bruno Lucidi, have parted ways after only three months.

An official statement from the publicly owned company on Wednesday (28 January) read, "The Board of Directors recognises that the Board and Bruno Lucidi are of different opinions regarding the implementation of the company's strategy, which is the reason for Bruno Lucidi leaving the company.”

There were “serious disagreements” over day-to-day running of the business, Karolinska chairman Bo Jesper Hansen said in a telephone interview with Science|Business. When asked about the nature of the disagreements, Hansen replied that they concerned the “implementation and execution of the business strategy.”

“Relations between the Board and CEO became more and more troublesome,” he added. “We came to a situation where we said it was unsustainable.” Lucidi could not be reached for comment.

Lucidi is replaced by deputy CEO Terje Kalland until a new, permanent CEO is appointed. “We already have a few candidates – all within Europe,” said Hansen.

Karolinska’s interim financial statements for January-September of 2014, shows a net loss of SEK336m (€36m) compared with the SEK58m (€6.2m) loss recorded the year before. Revenues slipped to SEK3.5 million (€369,000), down 13 per cent compared with SEK4m (€428,000) for the same period a year ago. Since those results were released, the company announced that Asian conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) would take a €7.3m stake in Karolinska. Chia Tai Medicines, which is part of CP Group, has also "declared an interest" in investing around €80m in Karolinska Development's portfolio companies.

Karolinska Development, founded in 2003 and headquartered in Stockholm, provides capital to biotech companies, more than 30 of which have spun out of Sweden’s largest medical university, Karolinska Institutet, according to its website. It mainly puts its chips down on pharmaceutical research and development, medical research, healthcare technology, gene research and development, drug delivery technologies, and life science tools and service sectors. It has a particular focus on investments in Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Denmark.

Before joining Karolinska Development, Lucidi founded Idenix and served as chairman of Pharmasset, both producers of Hepatitis C treatments acquired by multinational pharma companies. He’s also held senior positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline.

Upheaval

It’s the latest in a series of comings and goings for the firm. Lucidi replaced Torbjörn Bjerke as CEO in October, nine months after the chief financial officer Robin Wright departed.

The difficulties facing management stem from slow progress at some of Karolinska's portfolio companies and are reflected in its stock, which slumped almost 55 per cent in a year, according to data compiled by Nasdaq, and around 70 per cent since the company went public in 2011. Shares stand at SEK11.7 (€1.26), down from SEK25 (€2.68) this time last year.