Columbia-based Celsion Corp. plans to move forward with its biotechnology efforts under new management, new divisions and a reprieve from Wall Street regulators.

The company announced Thursday that chief executive officer Dr. Lawrence Olanoff resigned as the top manager of Celsion effective Oct. 6. Olanoff plans to return to Forest Laboratories Inc. as chief operating officer.

Olanoff will remain on the board of directors for Celsion. He had resigned as chief operating officer of Forest Laboratories in July 2005 to become CEO of Celsion.

“For personal and professional reasons, I have decided to return to Forest Laboratories, Inc.,” Olanoff said in a company announcement.

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Olanoff’s interim replacement is Anthony Deasey who currently is Celsion’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer as well as executive vice president.

Deasey will serve as interim director, “during a transitional period while a permanent [CEO] is recruited,” the company said in its release.

The company said that Gary Pace and Kris Venkat, two board members, will take a more active role in managing the company.

Celsion also announced that it has reached an agreement with the American Stock Exchange to continue listing Celsion’s stock shares.

The stock exchange notified Celsion in June that the company was on the verge of becoming delisted because it was not meeting requirements for shareholder equity and because it reported losses for three of the last four fiscal years.

Celsion has less than $2 million in shareholder equity, according a Celsion company release.

The company submitted a plan to comply with American Stock Exchange standards. The exchange agreed to the plan and gave Celsion until Dec. 14, 2007, to meet the standards, which include a minimum of $6 million in shareholder equity.

“The company will be subject to periodic review by [exchange] staff during the extension period,” Celsion officials said in a company release.

Also, Celsion announced it is creating two divisions. One division, called Prolieve, will focus on Prolieve, a device to treat enlarged prostates. Another division, Oncology, will focus on all drugs related to cancer treatment.

Celsion develops and commercializes heat-activated treatment systems for cancer and has research, license and other agreements with several institutions including the National Institutes of Health, Duke University Medical Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others.

eeldridge@baltimoreexaminer.com