Orexigen Director, Daniel Turner, Buys 300,000 Shares After Bad News Depressed The Stock

One of the directors of San Diego-based Orexigen Therapeutics, Daniel K. Turner III of Montreux Equity Partners, bought 300,000 shares of the company’s stock today for his fund after the price dipped on some bad news. Turner, who joined the board in April 2005, disclosed today’s purchases, at prices between $3.20 and $3.50 a share, in a regulatory filing today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Orexigen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:OREX]]) stock plummeted 35 percent today after the company disclosed it was scrapping development of two experimental drugs, and the resignations of four senior executives. Entities controlled by Turner held 1.4 million shares of Orexigen, about 4.1 percent of the company, at the end of March, according to the company’s annual proxy filing. Orexigen is awaiting results next month from a final-stage study of its lead obesity drug in development.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.