Amarin lays off US salesforce, names new CEO in shakeup

The new crew in charge at Amarin has outlined their plans to turn things around — and it involves a sweeping reorg.

Patrick Holt

Amarin will cut all US sales positions and 30% of non-sales roles, while retaining a limited team to support Vascepa, its pharmaceutical-grade fish oil derivative. Instead, it will focus on reaching more patients in Europe (where the drug is marketed as Vazkepa) as well as other international markets. Patrick Holt is stepping in as president and CEO, replacing interim chief Aaron Berg, who will stay on as EVP and president in the US.

The decisions come from a board now controlled by Sarissa Capital, the Alex Denner-led activist investor that forced the ouster of Amarin’s former chairman and CEO. Shares $AMRN fell 17% in pre-market trading on Wednesday.

Odysseas Kostas, Amarin’s chairman and senior managing director at Sarissa Capital, highlighted Holt’s “track record of turnaround success” in a statement. Most recently, Holt was the president of Cordis, a cardiovascular-focused medtech company, until its $1 billion sale.

“A thorough review confirmed our belief in the inherent value of Amarin and the need for change when it comes to managing the business for value creation,” Kostas added in a separate statement.

All told, Amarin hopes the restructuring will save $40 million per year.

The FDA first approved Vascepa in 2012 to lower triglyceride levels. In 2019, Amarin scored an expanded label for its use to reduce risk of cardiovascular events in certain patient groups — an approval tied to blockbuster hopes, as the company predicted that the drug could benefit millions of American patients — only to find itself on the losing end of a big patent fight a few months later. It has previously lowered its headcount to cut costs.

Generics have since kept pricing pressure on Amarin, which reported $65 million in preliminary product sales for the second quarter, down from $85 million in Q1 and “significantly below consensus,” Jefferies analyst Michael Yee wrote.

Meanwhile in Europe, the biotech has run into reimbursement issues — resulting in just $600,000 in Q2 sales. Moving forward, it plans to redesign the commercial infrastructure and streamline cross-geographic functions. Yee noted that it would be focused on “launching the product in countries where AMRN already has access and eliminating the spending in countries with low sales potential.”

generics
biotech
fda
shares
markets
trading