Elan's Martin Named Worst Biotech CEO of '08

The winner of the first-ever Worst Biotech CEO of the Year award goes to Elan Corp. (ELN) Chief Executive Kelly Martin.

Martin takes home the Nance Trophy (more on the award's name below) for a year in which he and his management team promised investors the sky and more when it came to Elan's experimental Alzheimer's disease drug bapineuzumab.

Unfortunately for Martin, the high expectations he set for the drug never materialized. As a result, Elan's share price fell through the floor, the company's investors lost a fortune and Martin's reputation and credibility were shattered.

Elan's stock price is down about 70% for the year and 80% from its high in early July, right before the big bapineuzumab setback sent shares plunging, never to recover.

Overseeing the decimation of shareholder value was not enough to win the Worst Biotech CEO of the Year award, not in a year when pain-inducing stock market returns were all too common. In 2008, a chief executive really had to screw things up good in order to be a contender.

Martin was not without competition. Some readers nominated Diane Goostree of Artes Medical (ARTE) -- a worthy pick, but since she resigned earlier this year and Artes is in the process of liquidating under bankruptcy, she's out of the running.

Meanwhile, an FDA drug rejection inflicted critical wounds to Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA). But CEO Mihael Polymeropoulos did very well for himself by selling a lot of stock in 2007 before his company blew up and his shareholders lost millions.

Ariad Pharmaceuticals (ARIA) CEO Harvey Berger was a popular choice given his low approval rating among institutional investors. Even members of his own board of directors hate the guy, as evidenced by the resignation last week of four independent directors, all of whom specifically blamed Berger for their exit.