MiRagen CEO resigns, company hires strategic review adviser

BOULDER — Bill Marshall, a cofounder and former CEO of MiRagen Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: MGEN), has resigned from the Boulder biotech company as it made signals that it’s looking to merge or be acquired in the near future.

In a statement, Miragen said Chief Operating Officer Lee Rauch would take over the company’s top spot. Marshall will remain as an adviser to the company but also relinquished his role as the board chairman along with the top executive spot. He has been with the company since its inception in 2006.

Rauch, a veteran of biotech companies such as Global Blood Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: GBT) and most recently an executive-in-residence at a venture-Bcapital firm and at Columbia University, joined Miragen in June.

The company also announced that it would review its current pipeline and focus on MRG-229, a pre-clinical drug candidate to treat pulmonary fibrosis, or excessive lung scarring.

That may indicate a spinoff of other drugs in the company’s portfolio, including cobomarsen, a potential treatment for rare forms of lymphoma that was granted orphan drug status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July. Miragen said it would conclude Phase II studies for that drug and report initial results by the end of the year.

Finally, Miragen said it hired Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. for a review of “strategic alternatives,” a forerunner event that signals a company is interested in a merger, acquisition, taking on additional research work for another drug company or some other type of major business event.

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