Endo acts quickly to name CEO: David Holveck

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, March, 2008 | by Linda Loyd Inquirer Staff Writer

Acting swiftly to replace its departed chief executive officer, Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc. yesterday named pharmaceutical veteran David P. Holveck to lead the Chadds Ford drugmaker. Holveck, 62, who lives in Ambler and retired March 1 as president of Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., made a name for himself in the 1990s as chief executive officer of Centocor Inc., the Philadelphia region's first major biotechnology company.

Holveck's appointment may calm investor jitters after Endo's largest shareholder, D.E. Shaw & Co., demanded Feb. 27 that the board hire an investment bank to explore strategic alternatives, including a possible sale, before hiring a new CEO. Shaw has been pushing to change the company's focus away from acquisitions and licensing and toward...