OGS boss quits as Celltech moves in

David Ebsworth, the chief executive of Oxford Glycosciences, is negotiating his departure, following the success of the hostile bid for the company by Celltech.

Mr Ebsworth is understood to be eligible for at least £400,000 as part of his contract at the company. He spoke of his forthcoming exit to The Independent on Sunday while standing next to Peter Fellner, chairman of Celltech, which is the largest biotechnology company in the UK.

Despite Celltech's disruption of a planned merger between OGS and another small biotech, Cambridge Antibody Technology, the two men appeared to be on good terms.

CAT and OGS announced a merger in January, but in late February Celltech came in with a £101m offer. OGS initially described it as "inadequate" and searched for other merger partners, but earlier this month Celltech managed to win over shareholders.

Dr Fellner has brought in Celltech's finance director, Peter Allen, at OGS to begin restructuring the company. He has put up for sale the proteomics division, a service-based operation that studies proteins and is not considered a core business. Last year it was the only revenue-earning part of OGS, bringing in around £14m. Celltech will retain its oncology division, which is developing several cancer-fighting drugs.

A separate drug development division may be retained if the bids put in are not high enough. This division owns Zavesca, recently approved in the EU for the treatment of a rare genetic disorder called Gaucher disease, and some drugs in early-stage clinical trials for Tay-Sachs, a fatal genetic condition that affects children.

The biotechnology sector has seen a series of mergers and acquisitions, including Ribotargets and British Biotech, and an offer to take stem-cell research company Reneuron private. The industry is suffering from a lack of investor interest after the late 1990s boom.

"You can't persuade individual investors to be more patient, but over time, by getting the business models right, you can persuade new groups of investors in," said Dr Fellner last week. "One could say Celltech is a success model for the sector."