Cancer Clinic Operator Replaces CEO
BioPulse International Inc., which operated a controversial cancer clinic in Tijuana, replaced its chief executive after cancer researcher Howard Soule denied joining the company’s board of directors.
Jonathan Neville, the company’s chief executive and co- founder, will be replaced by board member Reid Jilek, the company said in a release distributed by the PR Newswire. Jilek, founder of Asia Pacific Alliance Co., a pharmaceutical development concern, holds degrees including a doctorate in pathology, the company said.
BioPulse announced in a press release issued Feb. 6 that Soule had been appointed to its board of directors.
“I am NOT on their board,” said Soule, in an exchange of e- mail messages over the weekend with Bloomberg News. “I repeat, I was never on their board.”
He remains chief scientist of CaPCure, the prostate cancer research foundation founded by financier Michael Milken in 1993. A spokesman for CaPCure said Soule said he met just once with BioPulse representatives and then “declined to pursue any affiliation.”
BioPulse’s unorthodox cancer treatments, which include inducing daily comas in patients and injecting them with vaccines made from their own urine, were halted Thursday by Mexican health authorities.
Neville declined to answer a reporter’s questions about Soule’s denial. Neville hung up when asked about Soule in two separate telephone calls.
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Today, BioPulse announced that Soule won’t be serving on the board, blaming “his extraordinary business schedule.” BioPulse said Neville, a lawyer with a degree in agricultural economics, will remain with the company, helping to develop new drugs and tests. Soule’s position on the board will be filled by John Allen, the company said. It didn’t otherwise identify Allen.
The company wasn’t available for comment.
Another medical professional on BioPulse’s board, co-founder Robert Morrow, a physician, resigned last month, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Stephen Fey, chairman of the board and a third director, F. Briton McConkie, quit BioPulse’s board earlier this month, according to the filing.
