ImClone Systems CEO Daniel Lynch has resigned and will be replaced, on an interim basis, by chief scientific officer Philip Frost, the New York-based biotech company announced today.
The company said in a statement that it would look outside the organization for a permanent replacement for Lynch but did not provide a reason for his resignation.
The company also said it plans to continue to focus its efforts on sales and marketing of its colon cancer treatment Erbitux, which for the first nine months of 2005 had global sales of $ 292 million, and advance its pipeline of oncology product candidates.
Lynch took the reins at ImClone from former CEO Harlan Waskal, first as interim CEO in 2003 and as permanent CEO in Feb. 2004.
Harlan Waskal replaced Sam Waskal, who pleaded guilty to insider trading charges in a case that also shared celebrity investor Martha Stewart and is serving a seven-year prison sentence.