Array Biopharma starts search to replace Conway

BOULDER – Array BioPharma Inc. is looking for a new leader, after it longtime chief executive and director Robert E. Conway resigned for personal reasons.

In the interm, Kyle Lefkoff, chairman of Boulder-based Array’s board of directors, has been named executive chairman. Lefkoff said he plans to lead the search for a new CEO who has clinical development and commercialization expertise. Conway’s decision to resign was not related to Array, Lefkoff said.

“As a venture capitalist, leading searches for CEOs of companies is not new, it’s what we do,´ said Lefkoff, who is also a founder and partner of the Boulder firm Boulder Ventures, a key investor in Array.

Array has several clinical drug development programs at the moment, which focus on drugs to treat cancer, pain and asthma, among others. In general, drug development companies put new drugs through years of clinical trials before receiving approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market them to consumers.

The company (Nasdaq: ARRY) posted a net loss of $3.58 million, or 6 cents a share in the most recent quarter reported, which ended Sept. 30. That loss was smaller than its $10.6 million loss, or 20 cents a share, in the same quarter a year earlier, however. Revenue totaled $22.1 million, up from $18.5 million in the year-ago quarter.

“Revenues have been increasing dramatically, Array is performing really well, and we will have key readouts on clinical drugs that are coming this year. This is an important year for Array,” Lefkoff said.

“We’re going to be a commercial biopharmaceutical company, and we have lots of drugs to get us there,” Lefkoff said.

Under Conway, Array raised more than $500 million in financing through its partnered programs, Lefkoff said in a press statement. Array currently has $3.4 billion in potential milestone payments under its collaborations with biopharmaceutical giants such as AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN), based in Wilmington, Delaware, and Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS), according to the press statement.

Conway thanked the team and the board at Array in the press statement. He said he will be available to work with the company on transition issues.

on Facebook on LinkedIn