Two Bioenvision board members associated with the Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund have resigned, the New York biotech firm announced today. The move could clear the deck for minority shareholder SCO Capital to fill the slots and continue its fight against a Genzyme takeover.
Andrew N. Schiff and Steven A. Elms were advisors to the Perseus-Soros fund, which sold its holdings in the company in response to a tender offer made by Genzyme. The offer was rejected by most common-stock shareholders, but Genzyme said it would continue to press for a merger of the two companies. Last week, as we reported, SCO asserted its claimed prior rights to two board spots and called for an overhaul of Bioenvision’s leadership—as well as the revocation of Genzyme’s existing rights to Bioenvision’s promising leukemia drug, clofarabine.
A Genzyme spokesperson said today that her company would not seek the two open board positions, so they might well go to SCO Capital. We’ve put in calls to SCO and Bioenvision and will continue to follow this story as it unfolds.
Author: Robert Buderi
Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative.
Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.
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