Tranzyme Pharma (NASDAQ:TZYM) is locking up agreements with its key executives in case the company is acquired.
Tranzyme announced last week it was exploring “strategic alternatives” that include a merger or sale. The Research Triangle Park- based drug developer updated the employment terms of Chief Business Officer David Moore with a severance agreement that provides pay and benefits in the event that ownership control of the company changes, according to an SEC filing this week. Moore, who had been Tranzyme’s vice president of commercial operations, had his duties expanded last month to include business development.
The company also filed a retention agreement with Tranzyme’s Controller Rhonda Stanley, who assumed the financial responsibilities of former CFO Richard Eisenstadt who resigned last month. Tranzyme’s Director of Corporate Communications Susan Sharpe said that the agreements were filed in case of a change in control in the company.
“This is not a function of anything that has occurred,” she told WRAL Tech Wire. “There have been no terminations or firings.”
The announcement follows the failure of the company’s two top drugs in clinical trials. Ulimorelin, an experimental treatment to restore gastrointestinal function in patients following surgery, failed in a phase III results announced last spring.
In December, Tranzyme announced it would stop phase II clinical work on TZP-102, a compound being studied as a way to restore normal gastrointestinal function in diabetics. In clinical studies of both drug candidates, the placebo response was so strong that the performance of the compounds was not statistically significant.
