Biogen chairman Papadopoulos, who saw company through highs and lows, to retire

Biogen chairman Stelios Papadopoulos will step down later this year, ending a long-running tenure that culminated with one of biotech’s more volatile rides.

Papadopoulos — who has been Biogen’s chairman since 2014  — will leave his post before the end of the year, new CEO Chris Viehbacher said Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the company. The company hasn’t put out an official statement or regulatory filing, hasn’t said when the retirement will happen, and hasn’t named a replacement.

Biogen’s mandatory retirement age is 75 and Papadopoulos is currently 74.

Chris Viehbacher

Papadopoulos’ exit, combined with Viehbacher taking over the CEO role in November, will amount to a reset at the top of the company. On Wednesday, Viehbacher said that the biotech had “lost its way” and needed to reverse its revenue declines.

Papadopoulos’ departure will also give Viehbacher more breathing room to enact changes at the company, which had its reputation bruised following the high-profile failure of its Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm. It will share revenue with partner Eisai on their follow-up Alzheimer’s drug, Leqembi, but the Japanese company will be in the driver’s seat on commercializing the treatment.

Papadopoulos started out in academia before moving to the realm of finance as an analyst at firms such as Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and then at Drexel Burnham Lambert before the firms were either sold or forced into bankruptcy. He then moved to PaineWebber in the late 1980s, spending over a decade leading the firm’s biotech division as an investment banker. At the turn of the century he joined investment bank Cowen as its vice chairman, retiring in 2006.

He joined Biogen’s board as a director in 2008, securing the chairmanship six years later in 2014. He made just under $680,000 in 2021 for his role as chairman, per SEC filings.

He has sometimes been called the “godfather of biotech,” and when he was named Biogen chairman, there was wide praise for the pick. “Stelios has as much, if not more, experience than anyone on Planet Earth right now advising biotech companies on how to create shareholder value,” Mark Schoenebaum, the late analyst with ISI Group, told Bloomberg News in an interview at the time. The company’s shares lost about a fifth of their value during his chairmanship, however.

Outside of Biogen, he co-founded Exelixis and Anadys Pharmaceuticals, which was sold to Roche in 2011 for $230 million. Papadopoulos has been on Exelixis’ board since 1994, and its chair since 1998.

Viehbacher has his work cut out for him: An earnings call Wednesday pointed to declining revenue which led to the axing of a $125 million MS partnership with InnoCare.

“The first order of the day is really to restore the growth of the company,” Viehbacher added.

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