The cause was complications related to leukemia, the company said in a statement. In August, Dr. Baldino, who lived in West Chester, Pa., had taken a leave of absence from his posts as Cephalon’s chairman and chief executive.
The company, which Dr. Baldino founded in 1987, sells a variety of drugs, including some that are used to treat pain and sleepiness. Besides Provigil, its best-known brands include Actiq, a painkiller, and Gabitril, a treatment for seizure disorders.
Provigil, which was originally approved to treat sleepiness related to narcolepsy, became a huge success, used by millions of people, who generally found that it kept them alert with little or none of the jitteriness associated with caffeine or the euphoria and often addiction resulting from amphetamines.
Provigil was particularly popular with college students, long-haul truckers and others who needed to stay awake late into the night.
“There are no warts on this drug,” Dr. Baldino said in 2002. “The only question is how big we can make it.”
By 2004, Cephalon said that 90 percent of all prescriptions for the drug were for “off label” uses, including fatigue, depression, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and sleepiness caused by other prescription medications.
Despite its success, Cephalon had its share of run-ins with the authorities.
In 2007, the company said it would pay $425 million to settle a federal investigation into its sales and marketing practices and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of federal prescription drug laws.
In addition, the Federal Trade Commission has sued Cephalon, saying it made illegal deals with generic drug companies to delay generic competition to Provigil. Cephalon disputes that.
And the company paid $17 million to settle shareholder lawsuits accusing Dr. Baldino and other executives of overstating the effectiveness of an experimental drug for Lou Gehrig’s disease. The company said it had settled for reasons of expediency and denied any wrongdoing. Seven outsiders associated with the company were charged with insider trading.
Dr. Baldino was born May 13, 1953, and grew up in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He graduated from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., and received a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Temple University.
He worked for seven years in the 1980s for E. I. du Pont de Nemours as a senior research biologist developing potential drugs. During his career, he wrote more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals, Cephalon said.
Survivors include his wife, Sandra; four sons, Jeff, James, Douglas and Harris; a daughter, Leslie; his mother, Sally; and two brothers, Guy and Paul.
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