SKYEPHARMA is close to finalising the sale of its San Diego-based injectible medicines business as part of a break-up of the troubled drug developer.

It is understood that the company’s board, which spent most of yesterday discussing future strategy as well as a boardroom reshuffle, is ready to approve the sale.

Details of a prelimininary agreement could come as early as this morning, when the company is expected to name a new chairman, chief executive and, possibly, finance director.

Disgruntled shareholders forced Ian Gowrie-Smith, the company’s founder and chairman, to resign after the failure of a plan to auction off the entire company last month.

The rebel investors want to replace Mr Gowrie-Smith with Bob Thian, the chairman of Whatman, the specialist paper maker, and have said that they will oppose any other candidate proposed by the board.

SkyePharma’s non-executive directors have rejected the plan to install Mr Thian, however, and last night were considering promoting one of their own number to the position.

Sources familiar with the situation suggested that David Ebsworth, who joined the company in 2002 after serving as the worldwide head of pharmaceuticals for Bayer, had indicated that he would accept the job. A. N. Karabelas, a former chief executive of pharmaceuticals for Novartis who has served on SkyePharma’s board for more than five years, was also understood to be in the running.

Either appointment, which could be confirmed this morning, would infuriate the rebel camp, which argues that the company needs to bring in outside talent to strengthen its management after a terrible year.

A deal to sell its loss-making San Diego business and the appointment of a big-hitting outsider as chief executive might help to take some of the sting out of any criticisms that are likely to accompany the appointment of either Mr Ebsworth or Mr Karabelas as chairman. Yet it is likely that the rebels would oppose both any transaction involving SkyePharma’s assets and any appointments made by the board.

If the dispute leads to the calling of an extraordinary meeting, every vote will count. The rebels would need 50.1 per cent of votes cast on the day to push through their resolutions. Analysts believe that up to

60 per cent of the company’s shareholders are smaller investors who are unlikely to participate in an extraordinary meeting. That could leave the company’s future in the hands of a handful of City institutions.

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