Michael Griffith resigned as CEO of Aptuit Inc., a Norwalk-based pharmaceutical contract development company with more than 2,000 employees.
The company named as his replacement Timothy Tyson, who resigned in February as CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. Griffith and Aptuit did not detail the reasons for his departure, except to state he would pursue other opportunities.
Griffith, Frank Wright and Jon Tropsa co-founded Aptuit in December 2004 as GDP, receiving initial funding from Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. In 2005, the team reached an agreement to acquire Quintiles”™ EDP division, renaming the company Aptuit.
In April 2006, Aptuit received a $750 million private equity commitment.
Last year, the drug contract research market grew 28 percent, according to a study last month by Research and Markets.
Most recently, Tyson was CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, an Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based company that sells a wide range of drugs for neurological conditions and skin ailments. Tyson received $3.8 million in compensation last year, and in February received severance compensation totaling $3.7 million, as well as an accelerated stock option vesting schedule valued at $5.5 million.
Before that, he led multiple units at GlaxoSmithKline that launched eight drugs that achieved $1 billion in sales each.
Tyson is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served on active duty for five years at Fort McClellan in Alabama.
