ANN ARBOR—Esperion Therapeutics Inc. has named veteran cardiovascular pharmaceutical industry executive Sheldon Koenig as its chief operating officer. Koenig will report to president and CEO Tim M. Mayleben.
In this new role, Koenig will provide vision, leadership, strategy and operations expertise to help Esperion grow into a commercial leader in cardiovascular medicine, as well as a highly successful, efficiently operated global company.
“Sheldon brings an incredible amount of relevant experience to our company that will be familiar to all of our stakeholders,” Mayleben said. “His commercial knowledge and applied learnings in directly correlated launches will be invaluable to us and we are pleased to have him join Esperion. Sheldon is the right leader at the right time to navigate our company through the opportunities that lie ahead of us as we continue a period of rapid growth as a company in 2021 and beyond.”
Koenig brings more than 25 years of leadership roles to Esperion. Most recently, he served as executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Portola pharmaceuticals until it was acquired by Alexion. At Portola, Koenig and his team delivered more than $130 million in sales of Andexxa, a drug that reverses anticoagulants, in its first year of commercialization, making it one of the top five most successful hospital launches in 30 years. Prior to joining Portola, Koenig was senior vice president and head of the cardiovascular franchise for Sanofi, where he led business operations in the United States and product launches in more than 20 countries. Previously, he served as vice president and global brand leader for the cardiovascular division of Merck & Co., where, for more than 25 years, he took on roles of increasing responsibility within the company’s cardiovascular and thrombosis franchises and led marketing for the launch of the cholesterol-reducer ezetimibe.
“Joining Esperion gives me the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on an organization that has incredible potential to make a difference in the lives of patients where currently marketed medicines fall short,” Koenig said. “The company is in a unique position to deliver with two recently approved and launched medicines in a market that is neglected in terms of innovation and where physicians and patients alike can benefit from additional therapeutic options.”
Koenig will assume responsibility for the commercial team at Esperion. As part of today’s announcement, Mark Glickman, chief commercial officer, will leave Esperion, effective immediately. “I want to thank Mark and recognize his contribution in building our commercial function and laying the initial groundwork in which our company can grow,” Mayleben said.
Esperion has developed a novel cholesterol-reducing drug, bembedoic acid, that has been shown to be effective in people who cannot tolerate the side effects of statin drugs. It is being marketed as Nexletol and Nexlizet. More at www.esperion.com.