Tampa biotech company parts ways with CEO

Tampa-based Oragenics, a high-tech pharmaceutical company, says its CEO stepped down as of Monday.

In a Monday evening news release, Oragenics says former CEO Kimberly Murphy entered into a mutual separation agreement. Murphy will stay on the company board, officials say. 

The board appointed Michael Redmond, company president, as interim "principal executive officer."

Details of Murphy's agreement were not immediately made available by the publicly traded company, which has a market cap of $10.2 million as of Tuesday. The separation agreement provides Murphy with the benefits under her employment agreement for a separation without cause, the company says.

Oragenics says Murphy's resignation was not because of any disagreement with the company. Murphy was elevated from the board to the CEO's office in June 2022.

Murphy has served on the Oragenics board since 2020. She previously served as vice president of GSK, where she was part of the teams charged with developing vaccines for influenza and shingles.

Oragenics develops complex intranasal pharmaceuticals for the treatment of neurological disorders. It is also examining drugs fighting infectious diseases including coronaviruses, and organisms resistant to multiple drugs, it says.

Oragenics'  lead product is NT-CoV2-1, an intranasal vaccine candidate to prevent COVID-19 and variants of coronavirus. And the company's "ONP-002" product is a fully synthetic neurosteroid being developed to treat mild traumatic brain injury, the company says.

Oragenics officials say its board will provide direction to the company during the transition in management, with Charlie Pope, the board chairman, serving as executive chairman on an interim basis.