Eli Lilly's chief financial officer resigned after a misconduct investigation revealed he sent 'consensual though inappropriate' personal messages to employees

• Eli Lilly chief financial officer Josh Smiley resigned Tuesday following a misconduct investigation.
• "Upon hearing these allegations, we took swift and significant action," a spokesperson told Insider.
• Smiley sent "consensual though inappropriate" messages to employees, the investigation found.

Eli Lilly's chief financial officer resigned Tuesday following a misconduct investigation.

The pharmaceutical giant said CFO Josh Smiley will step down after an independent counsel revealed "consensual though inappropriate" personal messages between the executive and employees.

"The investigation revealed consensual though inappropriate personal communications between Mr. Smiley and certain Lilly employees and behavior that Lilly leadership concluded exhibited poor judgment," a spokesperson said in a statement to Insider. "Our of respect for the privacy of the individuals involved, we are not disclosing any additional details other than to say that immediately upon hearing these allegations, we took swift and significant action."

Anat Ashkenazi, former chief financial officer of Lilly Research Laboratories, will replace Smiley as senior vice president and chief financial officer. Smiley will assist in Ashkenazi's transition, the company said.

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Eli Lilly recorded record-high shares in January after announcing the firm's experimental Alzheimer's drug slowed the rate of decline in trial patients. The drug, known as donanemab, could become the first Alzheimer's drug to show positive results in a phase 2 trial, per the New York Times.

The pharmaceutical firm will release the full results of the 272-patient, two-year trial in a future meeting and submit the research for publication in a peer-reviewed clinical journal.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized Eli Lilly's COVID-19 antibody therapy for emergency use late last year. The drug maker agreed to supply the US with 300,000 vials of the treatment for $375 million.

The company recently announced the antibody could not only help treat COVID-19 patients, but prevent infections in a study of 1,097 nursing home residents.

But CEO Dave Ricks recently warned the coronavirus variant found in South Africa could "evade" Eli Lilly's antibody treatment.

"The South African variant...is the one of concern. It has more dramatic mutations to that spike protein, which is the target" of these antibody drugs, Ricks told CNBC. "Theoretically, it could evade our medicines."