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news.Biogen Idec has announced that its executive vice president and general counsel, Thomas Bucknum, has resigned from the company. This move follows Bucknum's sale of Biogen Idec shares the day it was announced that Tysabri had been linked to a fatal brain disease.
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Bucknum’s sudden departure comes shortly after a sale of company stock which, according to Biogen Idec’s regulatory filings, made Bucknum a tidy profit of around $1.9 million.
Biogen Idec and Elan Corporation voluntary suspended sales of multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri and withdrew the drug from clinical trials at the start of March 2005. The decision to withdraw the drug came after reports that two patients treated with Tysabri in clinical trials contracted progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare and frequently fatal demyelinating disease.
Biogen Idec’s shares, which have already tumbled recently following the Tysabri announcements, have fallen almost 2% after Bucknum’s departure.