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Three months after taking the helm, the CEO of a publicly traded Cincinnati firm has exited the role.
Neil Campbell, who’s led Onconetix, formally known as Blue Water Biotech, since October, resigned as president and chief executive officer, effective Jan. 10. The company disclosed the move in U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filing Jan. 12, tapping Ralph Schiess, the company’s newly named chief science officer, to fill the post in the interim.
Onconetix (Nasdaq: ONCO) did not cite a reason for the departure other than to say the resignation “was not the result of any disagreement” with the downtown-based company. Campbell originally replaced Blue Water founder Joseph Hernandez, who resigned without explanation in August 2023.
Campbell helped helm a major pivot as Onconetix has recently shifted into the oncology space – dropping its long-pursued vaccine development programs along the way. As Blue Water, the company was looking to develop a universal flu vaccine, but it never made it to clinic.
The company’s stock price has flatlined since it took a major nosedive starting in April 2022. The recent moves under Campbell – which also included the December acquisition of Proteomedix, a Swiss-based private, commercial-stage diagnostics oncology company – have done little to revive it.
Campbell's resignation also includes vacating his seat on the company’s board of directors. James Sapirstein, the current non-executive chairman of the board, will serve as Onconetix’s lead independent director pending the board’s appointment of a permanent CEO.
Sapirstein will receive $40,000 per month as compensation for that role. Campbell will receive a one-time severance payment of $158,333, according to the SEC filing.
Interim CEO Ralph Schiess joined Onconetix in latest acquisition
Schiess, 45, is among the newest additions to the Onconetix/Blue Water team. The co-founder of Proteomedix joined the company as its chief scientific officer last month following Blue Water’s acquisition of his firm – an all-stock deal valued at $75 million, and the impetus for the company’s name change.
Onconetix said Schiess has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He co-founded Proteomedix in March 2010 and served as its CEO until December 2019. He then served as Proteomedix’s chief scientific officer from January 2020 to May 2023. He returned to the role as CEO in June 2023 and served in that capacity until the consummation of the share exchange.
Proteomedix's flagship product is Proclarix, a next-generation blood test for prostate cancer. Proclarix is already available in Europe and will soon be introduced in the United States, Onconetix said last month.
Onconetix is also focusing on another drug called Entadfi, which it bought from Miami-based biopharma company Veru in a $100 million deal. Entadfi is a Food & Drug Administration-approved, once-daily pill for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), also known as enlarged prostate.
The company hopes to launch it commercially in 2024.
Onconetix, meanwhile, is transitioning its other programs back to its vaccine partners. Onconetix, as Blue Water, was developing a single-dose vaccine to provide lifelong protection against all flu strains. Its other programs included a streptococcus pneumoniae vaccine, designed to prevent highly infectious middle ear infections, known as acute otitis media, or AOM, in children; and a chlamydia vaccine.
It had also licensed a platform from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to develop vaccines for multiple other infectious diseases, including norovirus/rotavirus and malaria, among others.
Onconetix closed trading Tuesday, Jan. 16, at 17 cents a share.