Akorn, a Lake Forest, Illinois-headquartered specialty generic pharmaceutical company, named Douglas S. Boothe as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective January 1, 2019. Most recently, Boothe served as the President of the generics division of Impax Laboratories, which was acquired by Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC in a reverse merger transaction in May 2018. He succeeds CEO Raj Rai, who retired following Fresenius’ termination of its $4.75-billion merger agreement with Akorn in 2018.

Prior to his role at Impax Laboratories, Boothe was Executive Vice President and General Manager of Perrigo Company Plc, with responsibility for the approximately $1-billion US pharmaceuticals business, which included generics and specialty pharmaceutical products. He also served as the CEO of Actavis Inc., the US manufacturing and marketing division of Actavis Group, and held senior positions at Alpharma and Pharmacia Corp.

Boothe’s predecessor, Raj Rai, announced last month (December 2018) that he would be stepping down from the company and retiring upon the completion of the company’s search for a new CEO. That move followed a decision by the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware to allow Fresenius Kabi AG, a specialty and generic pharmaceuticals company, to terminate the companies’ merger agreement.

Fresenius originally agreed to acquire Akorn for $4.3 billion plus approximately $450 million of net debt, for a total of $4.75 billion in April 2017. Fresenius, however, later moved to terminate the company’s merger agreement, asserting that Akorn failed to fulfill several closing conditions. In an October 1, 2018 decision, Delaware Civil Court Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster declared that Fresenius fulfilled its contractual obligations with Akorn and could legally exit the merger, which Akorn appealed. Fresenius said its decision to terminate the merger was based on, among other factors, material breaches of US Food and Drug Administration data-integrity requirements relating to Akorn’s operations found during Fresenius’ independent investigation.

Source: Akorn