Specialty pharmaceutical company Depomed, Inc. (DEPO) Monday said its President and Chief Executive Officer Carl Pelzel has resigned from the company due to personal reasons. The company has named one of its directors James Schoeneck as the replacement, effective April 18.
Pelzel is stepping down shortly after the FDA approved the Menlo Park, California-based company's Gralise tablets (gabapentin) for the once-daily treatment of post-herpetic neuralgia.
Schoeneck, a member of Depomed's board since 2007, has been closely involved in overseeing the company's business strategy and operations.
He served a Chief Executive Officer of San Diego, California-based private biopharmaceutical company BrainCells Inc. from 2005. Prior to that, he was the Chief Executive Officer of ActivX BioSciences, a development stage biotechnology company.
His experience also includes three years as the President and Chief Executive Officer of specialty pharmaceutical firm Prometheus Laboratories Inc.
Before joining Prometheus, Schoeneck spent three years at Centocor, Inc., leading the development of Centocor's commercial capabilities. There, his group launched Remicade, which has become the world's fifth largest selling pharmaceutical product with over $7 billion in sales in 2010.
Earlier in his career, he spent 13 years at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Inc., which is now known as Sanofi-Aventis (SNY, SNYNF.PK), serving in various sales and marketing positions there.
DEPO is trading at $9.31, down $0.57 or 5.76 percent, on a volume of 340,607 shares.
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