Biopharmaceutical company Amarin (AMRN -0.53%) won approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its hypertriglyceridemia drug Vascepa in July. Speculation surrounding an Amarin buyout has ebbed and flowed in the past few months. Most recently, rumors emerged that AstraZeneca (AZN 0.49%) -- a struggling pharma giant that could turn the page with its new chief executive -- might be interested in making a bid. If opportunity knocks and Amarin does in fact receive an offer, can investors trust the company's management to negotiate a good deal?
To help you weigh both the opportunities and risks associated with this stock, we're launching a brand new premium report on Amarin. The following – which focuses on Amarin's leadership-is only a small sample of what you'll find in the complete report.
Leadership
Amarin has had five different chief executives over the past decade, but it currently has the ideal management team to carry the company forward. CEO Joseph Zakrzewski is an industry veteran who served as the COO of Reliant Pharmaceuticals -- which coincidentally licensed the U.S. rights to Lovaza from Norwegian drugmaker ProNova BioPharma.
That's right: Amarin's CEO was an integral part of the company that commercialized Vascepa's chief competitor in the hypertriglyceridemia space. Zakrzewski was also at Reliant when the company was sold to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK -0.92%) in 2007 for a hefty $1.65 billion. I bet he knows his way around a negotiating table, and these skills might come in handy if Amarin starts to aggressively look for a buyer.
Amarin also has a management team that can capably launch Vascepa if it decides to fly solo. The company's chief commercial officer, Paul Huff, and president of R&D, Steven Ketchum, also held senior management positions at Reliant during the commercialization of Lovaza.
