Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Catching [Emerging] Conflicts? Carrie S. Cox Named Board Chair At Prism Pharma


Inexplicably, I neglected to inform the readership last week that another small, privately-held, venture capital-backed US pharma outfit has added Carrie Cox to its board. It happened January 11, 2011 (I really thought I had already put this up).

This time, she's been named the chairman of the Prism Pharmaceuticals board of directors. Almost all her fellow board members are representatives of the venture investor/funds staking Prism. Here's the Prism presser:

. . . .Prism Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today the appointment of Carrie S. Cox as Chairman of its Board of Directors. Ms. Cox. . . will help oversee ongoing development of the company’s U.S. commercial business. . . .

"Carrie is uniquely qualified to help drive our success as we approach the launch of our recently approved product Nexterone® (amiodarone HCl -- depicted at right; click to enlarge) Premixed Injection, the first and only premixed intravenous (IV) bag formulation of the antiarrhythmic agent amiodarone IV. . . . ."

A registered pharmacist, Cox is the Chief Executive Officer of Humacyte and currently serves on other boards, including Texas Instruments, Cardinal Health and Celgene. . . .

Prism Pharmaceuticals. . . is a specialty pharmaceutical company committed to developing and commercializing acute care cardiovascular products. . . .

Note that Prism's release makes only a very-scant mention of her seat as CEO of Humacyte (elected effective September 20, 2010, to that Duke U. spinoff). Why? Because these two are at least potentially competitors, that's why. I'm not sure I'd be thrilled about her latest seat, if I were a shareholder of either Celgene (re any grafts-potential), Cardinal (re any tissue bulker), or a Duke University-affiliated venture investor in Humacyte (for the cardio-vascular applications of the potential grafts).

Wild. But nothing new, for the way she's managed her career. Just cash whatever check (and all those) offered, right Carrie? Right.

3 comments:

Roy M. Poses MD said...

If she is a director of two corporations that are at least potentially direct competitors, isn't this possibly a violation of the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act?

condor said...

In a word, yes. But the trick is getting the right people at DoJ/FTC to focus on these smaller cases. She does have history, though -- so I write to make it easier. Thanks for noticing, my friend.

Namaste

Condor said...

And Prism is no more -- Baxter just agreed to take them out.

Unlikely that Cox survives the transaction -- as she was soleley board chair.

Namaste