Newport Pharmaceuticals’ Technical Chief to Quit Post

A former National Institutes of Health official who left that government agency seven months ago to become head of research and development at embattled Newport Pharmaceuticals International Inc., said Friday that he will return to government work at the end of this month.

Dr. Michael Chirigos, whose arrival in February had been widely hailed as evidence of the Newport Beach drug maker’s new credibility, will assume a scientific post with the Department of Defense.

However, the former NIH section head will continue to be affiliated with Newport Pharmaceuticals as a member of its newly formed scientific advisory board, said J. Roberts Fosberg, Newport Pharmaceuticals’ president and chief executive. Fosberg announced Chirigos’ resignation at the company’s annual meeting Friday.

Dr. Charles G. Smith, who has served as a research executive for several drug makers, including Revlon Inc.’s health care group, USV Pharmaceutical Corp. and E.R. Squibb & Sons Inc., also has been named to the advisory board, Fosberg said.

In a related development, Alvin Glasky--Newport Pharmaceuticals’ founder--said in an interview Friday that he had recently sold most of his stock in the company and that he had resigned early Friday from the board of directors. The board fired Glasky as president, chairman and chief executive in March. He said Friday he had sold all but a fraction of about 400,000 shares at prices at ranging from $4.50 to $7 a share.

Chirigos said in an interview after Friday’s meeting that his departure has nothing to do with Newport Pharmaceuticals’ recent troubles--which include lawsuits between the company and Glasky, as well as a class-action suit by three unhappy shareholders who say the company hyped the prospect of its drug Isoprinosine winning federal approval as a treatment for AIDS patients.

Eugene Melnitchenko, who follows drug stocks for the Dallas investment firm of Rauscher Pierce Refsnes Inc. said the news of Chirigos’ leaving Newport was disquieting. “I would say he was the first legitimate scientist they had,” Melnitchenko said.

However, said Jim McCamant, editor of the Medical Technology Stock Letter, Newport already has received “the biggest value” possible from Chirigos--a measure of credibility. “That is something they didn’t have when Glasky was running things.”

Glasky, who founded Newport 18 years ago, was fired from his operating positions following the Food and Drug Administration’s refusal to approve Isoprinosine as a treatment for pre-AIDS, a series of conditions which often precede the full onset of the disease.