Amarin has its third new CEO since 2021 following the resignation of Patrick Holt.
The company announced Wednesday that the board of directors promoted Aaron Berg, EVP and president of the US business, to CEO. Holt had been CEO since mid-2023.
Aaron Berg“As I begin this new role, my focus is clear — to find ways to deliver value for investors, and to maximize the potential of Vascepa/Vazkepa for patients,” Berg said in a statement.
Vascepa is a pharmaceutical-grade fish oil derivative initially approved in 2012 to lower triglyceride levels and then in 2019 to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in certain patient groups. It’s marketed as Vazkepa in Europe.
Berg has been with the company since 2012, previously working in marketing roles before being named CCO in 2018. He also briefly served as interim chief executive last year following the previous C-suite shake-up.
In 2021, John Thero left Amarin after seven years. He was replaced by Karim Mikhail, who led the commercialization of Vazkepa in Europe. The following year, CFO Michael Kalb resigned amid commercial cost-cutting following a negative ruling in federal court for Amarin, which had sought to keep generics from entering the US market. In Europe, Vazkepa has patent protection until 2039.
Mikhail left the company in 2023, pushed out by a board controlled by Sarissa Capital (the Alex Denner-led activist investor), and then Amarin cut the rest of its US sales roles and one-third of non-sales positions.
Amarin reported first-quarter revenues of $57 million, a 41% decline year-over-year, though Leerink analysts noted in May that “increasing US generic competition and pricing pressure continue to erode the US Vascepa business, albeit not as much as we expected.”