First Manhattan adds Denner, others to Vivus slate

Vivus Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS) investor First Manhattan Co. added three additional nominees, including Alex Denner, to its slate of proposed directors for the biotech's board. Denner had been a managing director of entities associated with Carl Icahn since 2006, but he departed and last year founded hedge fund Sarissa Capital Management. Sarissa has a 2% stake in Vivus. First Manhattan also added Rolf Bass, former head of EMA's Human Medicines Evaluation Unit, and Melvin Keating, former president and CEO of Alliance Semiconductor Corp., to its slate.

First Manhattan, which has been a Vivus shareholder since 2008 and holds a 9.9% stake, is dissatisfied with Vivus' launch of obesity drug Qsymia phentermine/topiramate, which had 1Q13 revenues of $4.1 million. The firm said its additional nominees are in response to Vivus' addition of three new directors to its board earlier this month (see BioCentury, May 20). ...