=Merrimack Pharmaceuticals (MACK) : CFO resigns

Dr. Yasir Al-Wakeel said he will resign as Merrimack's chief financial officer and head of corporate development effective June 9, 2017.

Merrimack's shares have been in free fall ever since management decided to sell pancreatic-cancer drug Onivyde and the generic version of the anti-cancer medicine Doxil to the French drugmaker Ipsen SA in January. In a nutshell, Merrimack has reverted back to being a high-risk clinical-stage biotech since this deal, and the unexpected departure of its CFO adds yet another layer of uncertainty regarding the company's ability to create value for shareholders moving forward.

Merrimack's future now squarely depends on the fate of its trio of anti-cancer clinical candidates: MM-121, MM-141, and MM-310. The glaring problem is that experimental cancer drugs in general have an absurdly poor track record, with over 95% of these drugs failing to ever reach the market. In fact, prospective cancer drugs are the least likely to get a green light from the FDA.