Axovant Surges After Appointing New CEO Who Led Medivation To $14B Buyout

Shares of Axovant Sciences (AXON) are surging after Dr. David Hung was named Chief Executive Officer. Hung, who also joined Axovant’s board, succeeds founding CEO Vivek Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy will continue to serve on Axovant’s board of directors. Axovant is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engaged in acquiring, developing, and commercializing novel therapeutics for the treatment of dementia in the United States and Europe. Its lead product candidate, intepirdine, is a selective 5-HT6 receptor antagonist, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of visual hallucinations in patients with Lewy body dementia and REM behavior disorder in patients with DLB. In addition, it focuses on developing a pipeline of product candidates to address the cognitive, behavioral, and functional aspects of dementia.

MEDIVATION HOPES: Investors jumped into Axovant shares this morning on the hopes that Dr. Hung may be able to replicate the success he had with Medivation. He founded Medivation in 2003 and served as president and CEO through its acquisition by Pfizer (PFE) in 2016. During his tenure as CEO, Medivation achieved FDA approval for Xtandi as a treatment for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Fellow Medivation alum Marion McCourt also joined Axovant and will serve as president and COO, a role she held while working with Dr. Hung at Medivation. “I am excited by the opportunity to lead Axovant to become a leader in neurology,” Dr. Hung said. “Vivek and his team have done an incredible job of building Axovant over the past two years. I am especially excited by the MINDSET study and the opportunity to build a world-leading and highly innovative neurology pipeline over the next decade. While I am proud of my accomplishments at Medivation, I aspire to even greater lasting accomplishments here at Axovant.”

MINDSET: With is announcement of the earlier management changes, Axovant said it recently completed enrollment for the MINDSET study. In total, the study randomized 1,315 patients on a stable background therapy of donepezil to treatment with either once-daily 35 mg intepirdine or placebo. The company expects top-line results from the MINDSET study in late September 2017.