Full Press Release Details
Milestone Pharmaceuticals Refreshes Board of Directors
- Two New Independent Directors, Stuart
Duty and Andrew Saik, Appointed
- Third New Independent Director to Be
Appointed to Board in Near Term
and CHARLOTTE, N.C. - July 15, 2024 - Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: MIST) ("Milestone"
or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative cardiovascular
medicines, today announced steps to refresh its Board of Directors ("Board"). Stuart Duty and Andrew Saik have been appointed
to its Board, effective immediately, and will stand for election at the Company's 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the "Annual
Meeting"). The Company will appoint a third independent director to its Board in the near term. In conjunction with the announcement,
the Company entered into a Cooperation Agreement (the "Agreement") with Alta Fundamental Advisers LLC ("Alta"),
one of the Company's shareholders.
Mr. Duty has over 30 years of experience
in investment banking and operations primarily in the biotechnology and specialty pharmaceuticals sectors. Most recently, he served as
a Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim Securities, LLC from 2012 to 2023 where he advised senior executives and boards on a range of
financing activities and strategic transactions.
Mr. Saik has over 25 years of accounting
and finance experience, including as Chief Financial Officer of biopharmaceutical companies Arvinas, Inc., Intercept Pharmaceuticals,
Vyne Therapeutics Inc., PDS Biotechnology, Inc. and Vertice Pharma, LLC, where he has led numerous capital structure transformations.
"We welcome Stuart and Andrew to our Board
and look forward to benefitting from their varied perspectives and experiences," said Robert J. Wills, PhD, Chairman of the Milestone
Board of Directors. "We believe Stuart and Andrew will provide important insights to the Board and are great additions as we approach
this particularly exciting time for Milestone."
The Company also announced that Debra K. Liebert
and Richard C. Pasternak, MD, will not stand for reelection at the Annual Meeting.
Dr. Wills added, "We want to thank
Debra and Richard for their years of service and significant contributions as members of the Board. Their invaluable insights in the boardroom
brought us closer to realizing our mission of providing a new treatment option for patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia
and atrial fibrillation. We wish them all the best for the future."
Pursuant to the Agreement, Alta has agreed to
customary standstill, voting and other related provisions. The Agreement will be included as an exhibit to the Company's current
report on Form 8-K, which will be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC").
Stuart Duty brings over 30 years of experience
in investment banking and operations primarily in the biotechnology and specialty pharmaceuticals sectors. Mr. Duty most recently
served as a Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim Securities, LLC from 2012 to 2023, where he advised senior executives and boards on
a range of financing activities and strategic transactions, including significant in-country and cross-border transactions in the U.S.,
Japan, China, Canada and many European countries. Prior to joining Guggenheim, he was a Managing Director, Co-Head, Healthcare Investment
Banking at Piper Jaffray from 2007 to 2012, returning to the firm after serving in the same role from 1999 to 2002. Mr. Duty served
as Chief Operating Officer of Oracle Partners from 2002 to 2007. Earlier in his career, he served as a Managing Director, Healthcare Investment
Banking at Montgomery Securities, as Director, Business Development at Curative Technologies and as a healthcare investment banking analyst
at Kidder Peabody. Mr. Duty has served on the board of directors of Achieve Life Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACHV) since March 2023,
where he serves as the chair of the audit committee and sits on the nominating and corporate governance committee, and on the board of
directors of EyePoint Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: EYPT) since November 2023, where he sits on the audit committee. Mr. Duty holds
a B.A. in Biochemistry from Occidental College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Andrew Saik brings over 25 years of accounting
and finance experience at biopharmaceutical companies. Mr. Saik is currently Chief Financial Officer at Arvinas, Inc. (Nasdaq:
ARVN). Prior to joining Arvinas, Mr. Saik served as Chief Financial Officer at Intercept Pharmaceuticals from 2021 to 2023, where
he led a restructuring of the company's balance sheet that included the sale of its international business and recapitalization
of the company's debt. Mr. Saik served as Chief Financial Officer of Vyne Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: VYNE) from 2020 to 2021.
He was Chief Financial Officer and served on the board of directors of PDS Biotechnology, Inc. (Nasdaq: PDSB) (formerly Edge Therapeutics)
from 2017 to 2020. Before joining PDS, he was Chief Financial Officer at Vertice Pharma, LLC, a Warburg Pincus-backed company, from 2015
to 2017. Mr. Saik was Chief Financial Officer of Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2014 to 2015, where he helped lead the
execution of Auxilium's growth strategy culminating in the sale of the company. Before joining Auxilium, he was Senior Vice President,
Finance and Treasurer at Endo Pharmaceuticals from 2013 to 2014. Earlier in his career, Mr. Saik served in senior financial management
roles with increasing responsibility at Valeant Pharmaceuticals International from 2001 to 2012, including as Senior Vice President, Finance.
He was a Finance Manager at Nexgenix from 1999 to 2001 and began his career at Atlantic Richfield as Finance Consultant from 1996 to 1999.
Mr. Saik holds a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California.
About Milestone Pharmaceuticals
Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: MIST)
is a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing innovative cardiovascular solutions to improve the lives of people living
with complex and life-altering heart conditions. The Company's focus on understanding unmet patient needs and improving the patient
experience has led us to develop new treatment approaches that provide patients with an active role in self-managing their care. Milestone's
lead investigational product is etripamil, a novel calcium channel blocker nasal spray that is being studied for patients to self-administer
without medical supervision to treat symptomatic episodic attacks associated with PSVT and AFib-RVR.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements
and forward-looking information within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities
laws ("forward-looking statements"). Words such as "believe," "continue," "could," "demonstrate,"
"designed," "develop," "estimate," "expect," "may," "pending,"
"plan," "potential," "progress," "will," "intend" and similar expressions
(as well as other words or expressions referencing future events, conditions, or circumstances) are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Milestone's expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press
release. Each of these forward-looking statements involves risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include statements regarding the timing of upcoming clinical trial
milestones and related data; the company's cash runway; and the company's plans to maintain a dialogue with its shareholders.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not
limited to, whether our future interactions with the FDA will have satisfactory outcomes; whether and when, if at all, our NDA for etripamil
will be approved by the FDA; whether the FDA will require additional trials or data which may significantly delay and put at risk our
efforts to obtain approval and may not be successful, the risks inherent in biopharmaceutical product development and clinical trials,
including the lengthy and uncertain regulatory approval process; uncertainties related to the timing of initiation, enrollment, completion,
evaluation and results of our clinical trials; risks and uncertainty related to the complexity inherent in cleaning, verifying and analyzing
trial data; and whether the clinical trials will validate the safety and efficacy of etripamil for PSVT or other indications, among others,
general economic, political, and market conditions, including deteriorating market conditions due to investor concerns regarding inflation,
Russian hostilities in Ukraine and ongoing disputes in Israel and Gaza and overall fluctuations in
the financial markets in the United States and abroad, risks related to pandemics and public health emergencies, and risks
related the sufficiency of Milestone's capital resources and its ability to raise additional capital in the current economic climate.
These and other risks are set forth in Milestone's filings with SEC and the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, including
in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, under the caption "Risk Factors,"
as such discussion may be updated from time to time by subsequent filings Milestone may make with the SEC and the Canadian securities
regulatory authorities, which is available under Milestone's profile on EDGAR at www.sec.gov and on SEDAR at www.sedarplus.ca. Except
as may be expressly required by applicable law, Milestone assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein
to reflect any change in expectations, even as new information becomes available or based on future events or otherwise.
Participants in the Solicitation
press release is neither a solicitation of a proxy or consent nor a substitute for any proxy statement or other filings that may be made
with the SEC and Canadian securities regulatory authorities. Milestone, its directors, certain of its executive officers, and other members
of management and employees may be deemed under U.S. securities laws and Canadian securities laws to be participants in the solicitation
of proxies with respect to a solicitation by Milestone. Information about Milestone's executive officers and directors and other
participants in the solicitation, including their respective interests, by security holdings or otherwise, is available in the Company's
proxy statement on Schedule 14A for its 2023 annual meeting of shareholders, filed with the SEC on April 28, 2023 (available here).
To the extent holdings of Milestone securities reported in the proxy statement have changed, such changes have been or will be reflected