Gilead Sciences, the leading biopharmaceutical company of America has announced that John Milligan, the president and chief executive officer of the company will step down after serving the company for 28 long years.
Milligan will remain in his present position by the end of the year while the company’s board conducts a search for his successor. A replacement has not been done yet, however, the company’s board is looking for it.
“It has been an honor to work at Gilead for my entire professional career and, now that the company is on solid footing for the future, the Board and I have agreed it is a good time to turn the reins over to a new leader,” Milligan exclaimed. “I’m looking forward to a well-deserved break and will then move on to new and different opportunities.”
Along with this, Milligan will also resign from the company’s board at the end of the year. With this, John Martin, chairman of the board, stated that he would step down as soon as a new CEO is appointed.
Martin and Milligan were quite instrumental in turning Gilead into one of the most successful and largest biotech companies in the industry. Under their leadership, Gilead developed new combination therapies that helped transform HIV from a universally fatal disease into one that could be survived and managed.
However, lately, Gilead reported a lower quarterly profit, as sales of its hepatitis C drugs continued to slide due to price competition and a drop in the number of patients in need of a cure for the liver disease. Shares of the company were down nearly 2 percent after the bell Wednesday. Along with this, net income fell to $1.82 billion from $3.07 billion a year earlier.