Durham-based Fennec Pharmaceuticals, which develops oncology drugs, appointed Jeff Hackman as its CEO and a board member, effective on or about Aug. 16.
Hackman’s appointment comes as Fennec is promoting its drug PEDMARK as the “first and only therapy approved in the U.S. and Europe to reduce the risk of permanent damage from cisplatin-induced ototoxicity in pediatric cancer patients,” says Dr. Khalid Islam, chair of Fennec Pharmaceuticals, in a release.
Rosty Raykov, who has served as Fennec’s CEO since 2009, will remain a member of the board. “Rosty’s unwavering commitment and leadership since 2009 has been critical to Fennec in bringing a much-needed therapy to the oncology population at risk of irreversible hearing loss, which can have a profound lifelong impact on patients,” says Islam.
Hackman has more than 30 years of commercial leadership experience, including oversight of more than 10 product launches across a wide range of therapeutic areas and markets.
Over the past 12 years Hackman has worked on oncology projects Sigma Tau, Baxalta, Shire, and EUSA Pharma, where he was responsible for the U.S. commercial organizations and managing the company’s product portfolio in multiple franchises, which generated billions in revenues over the years. Hackman also successfully commercialized products that are specifically relevant to the PEDMARK markets, including the outpatient oncology community and the adolescent and young adult population.
Fennec is focused on the development of PEDMARK and Pedmarqsi to reduce the risk of cisplatin-induced ototoxicity in pediatric patients. PEDMARK received FDA approval in September 2022, and Pedmarqsi received European Commission Marketing Authorization in June 2023 and U.K. approval in October 2023.
PEDMARK has received Orphan Drug Exclusivity in the U.S. for seven years of market protection and Pedmarqsi has received Pediatric Use Marketing Authorization in Europe, which includes eight years plus two years of data and market protection.
Fennec has a license agreement with Oregon Health and Science University for exclusive worldwide license rights to intellectual property directed to sodium thiosulfate and its use for chemoprotection, including the reduction of risk of ototoxicity induced by platinum chemotherapy, in humans.
Fennec closed Friday at $5.76, and has a 52-week range of between $5.66 and $11.92. It has a market cap of $157.3 million.
Fennec had net product sales of $21.3 million in fiscal 2023 compared with $1.5 million in 2022. The company reported gross profit of $20 million for 2023. The company went public in 2020, raising $30 with an opening price of $6.25