Howard “Ted” Greene Jr., a co-founder of Amylin Pharmaceuticals and long-time CEO, is supporting a bid by dissident shareholders Carl Icahn and Eastbourne Capital Management to remake the company’s board of directors, the U-T’s Thomas Kupper is reporting today.
Greene’s support, which he made public through a letter to shareholders, is the latest in a months-long proxy battle between Amylin’s board and the Icahn/Eastbourne contingent, which owns a combined 22 percent of Amylin stock.
Greene, who was Amylin’s CEO from 1987 to 1996, supports a slate of five new directors nominated by Icahn, the billionaire corporate raider, and Eastbourne. Here is a snippet from the letter as reported by Kupper:
“There needs to be a fresh wind blowing through the boardroom,” Greene said in an interview. “I think our science and technology is first in class … On the other hand, the last few years have shown that our commercialization of that has been pretty disappointing.”
Last week the company announced that it has applied for Food and Drug Administration approval for the once-weekly version of its diabetes medication Byetta, and that it had laid off 200 sales people.