What happened
After the company reported turnover in the executive suite and weak fourth-quarter results, shares of Dova Pharmaceuticals (DOVA), a commercial-stage biopharma focused on diseases of the liver, dropped 27% as of 11:30 a.m. EST on Monday.
So what
Here are the key takeaways from today's announcement:
- Dr. David Zaccardelli has been appointed as Dova's president and chief executive officer. Dr. Zaccardelli was formerly an executive at United Therapeutics Corporation.
- Alex Sapir, the company's outgoing CEO, is no longer with the company. This change went into effect on Sunday.
- Jason Hoitt is joining the company as chief commercial officer. Hoitt spent a good portion of his career with Gilead Sciences and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
- The company also provided investors with a preliminary look at net product sales for Doptelet, which are expected to land between $2.4 million and $2.7 million in the fourth quarter. For context, Wall Street was expecting $4.8 million in revenue, so this was a substantial miss.
Traders slammed the stock in response to the weak quarterly results and surprise management shake-up.
Now what
Dova's stock is currently trading at an all-time low, which makes sense given the uncertainty surrounding its leadership team and disappointing fourth-quarter results.
Time might show that hiring Dr. Zaccardelli was the right move for the business to make and that the company's opportunity ahead warrants investor attention at today's prices. However, right now, there are a lot of unanswered questions lingering in the air, so I think that caution is appropriate.