Myriad Genetics' Meldrum Is Best In Biotech

How many times do you see a drug company's stock price go up after a phase III clinical trial fails? Answer: Not very often. With Myriad's genetics diagnostics base business doing very well, the stock has returned about 35% this year.

Meldrum was a relatively easy choice for this award, but that's not to say other chief executives aren't also deserving of praise.

By my count, there were about three dozen biotech and drug firms that managed to deliver positive returns for the year. That's a feat that deserves congratulations given the assault on the equity markets this year.

I don't have room to mention all the CEOs who created positive shareholder value this year, but I will highlight the top three: Emergent Biosolutions (EBS Quote) CEO Fuad El-Hibri, Idenix Pharmaceuticals (IDIX Quote) CEO Jean-Pierre Sommadossi and IDM Pharma (IDMI Quote) CEO Tim Walbert.

A special shout-out for 2008 performance also needs to go to Sequenom (SQNM Quote) CEO Harry Stylli. Sequenom is a diagnostics business, so I'm stretching the definition of my best biotech CEO award here, but then, I'm doing the same with Myriad Genetics, also a diagnostics business at its core.

Like my selection last week of Elan's (ELN Quote) Kelly Martin as 2008's worst biotech CEO, it takes more than just stock performance to get on the list.

Being acquired for a healthy premium sure gets notice, which is why Sirtris Pharmaceuticals CEO Christoph Westphal deserves praise for selling out for $720 million to GlaxoSmithKline(GSK Quote).

On that same note, Millennium Pharmaceuticals Chief Executive Deborah Dunsire did right by her shareholders when she sold the company to Takeda for $9 billion.