Tony Weir, the finance chief who announced Tuesday that he would be leaving UK biotech firm Vernalis for Summit, told Reuters in an interview that he would be looking at communication issues in his new job. Summit was one of the biggest fallers on London's Alternative Investment Market, shedding over 40 percent of its value, after the company reported a first-half loss that was wider than many analysts had expected.
"There's undoubtedly one or two areas which have been communicated today (which) came as a surprise to some people and I think there's questions over whether the communication previously could have been improved and I think that's something which I will certainly ensure gets addressed," he said.
He added that he decided to leave Vernalis following the unexpected rejection last year of its headache drug Frova for the preventative treatment of menstrual migraine. He said he was moving to Summit because of the group's technology and the experienced board. "Summit is a very, very interesting, albeit early-stage, company with a couple of very strong platform technologies and the ability to generate exciting new products from that area," he said.