Kwik fix to avert disaster

Just over a month ago, with his company on the verge of big new international deals, Peptech managing director Stephen Kwik agreed to leave the company so the board could replace him with a CEO with scientific background and commercial expertise.

Kwik, a banker who joined Peptech a few years ago, told Australian Biotechnology News in March that he had decided to leave the Sydney-based company to make room for someone more "appropriate": "I maintain that ideally, a biotechnology company should be run by a scientist with commercial knowledge," he said.

But a series of dramatic events has left Kwik at the helm -- and shareholders are grateful.

"It would be disastrous if I left now," he said this week.

When Peptech's high-profile chairman Ed Tweddell walked out two weeks ago, taking two directors with him, they left the company with only two directors in Sydney and two overseas in the UK.

"I've been asked to stay for another year to assist in making plans for the company in the longer term," Kwik said.

Meanwhile, John Leaver, the only other Sydney-based board member besides Kwik, has been appointed chairman.

"How long he will remain chairman is unknown. Nothing is definite at the moment," Kwik said.

The drama of Tweddell's departure, prompted by a near revolt by a group of retail shareholders, took its toll on Peptech's share price. But the company itself is improving, Kwik said.

Building Peptech over two years from a small biotechnology company with a few million in the bank to a player with substantial IP assets and a market cap of $35 million was "quite a feat", he said.