Bulletin from Annual General Meeting: Diamyd Medical towards new goals
At Diamyd Medical’s Annual General Meeting on December 7, Peter Zerhouni,
President and CEO, commented that the past year had been eventful and turbulent,
but that the Company now stands well-equipped to continue its efforts to develop
innovative pharmaceuticals for diseases for which there are currently no
effective treatment options.
The event that dominated the latter part of Diamyd Medical’s fiscal year was the
results of the Company’s European Phase III study in type 1 diabetes with the
drug candidate Diamyd®, which did not meet expectations. Since the results were
presented in May 2011, the Company’s focus has been strict cost control and
restructuring of the organization.
Diamyd Medical’s main development focus now lies within pain and neuropathy,
areas in which the Company has several promising drug candidates under
development. These are based on the Company’s patented NTDDS technology which
enables delivery of therapeutics directly to the nervous system. The most
advanced project is the drug candidate NP2 Enkephalin for the treatment of pain,
which during the past year has shown positive results in a Phase I study in
cancer pain and is currently being evaluated in a Phase II study with patients
who suffer from severe and chronic cancer pain. Results from this study are
expected during the first half of 2012.
”Despite the turbulence during the past year I am convinced that today, Diamyd
Medical is in a very favorable position,” says Peter Zerhouni, President and CEO
of Diamyd Medical. “We have a project portfolio with several highly interesting
drug candidates under development and an ongoing Phase II study in cancer pain.
In addition, our financing is secured and we have a lean organization with
valuable experience in developing pharmaceutical projects in late clinical phase
and landing significant collaboration agreements with major pharmaceutical
companies. I look forward to the coming year with great excitement and
confidence.”
Parallel with the development of a competitive project portfolio in pain and
neuropathy, efforts continue in the analysis of all available information from
the Phase III program with the antigen based diabetes therapy Diamyd®. The
Company, as well as many experts within the field, are still convinced that
Diamyd®, or the active substance GAD65, can thwart type 1 diabetes albeit with a
different approach to that which has now been tested. One example is prevention,
where a Swedish study is ongoing with Diamyd® with the aim of preventing type 1
diabetes in children at high risk of developing the disease.
The following items were addressed at the Meeting:
Diamyd Medical’s President and CEO Peter Zerhouni gave a retrospective view of
the past year and summarized the most significant events that took place during
the fiscal year and after year-end.
The Company’s income statements and balance sheets were adopted and the Board
members and the Chief Executive Officer were discharged from liability for the
2010/2011 fiscal year. The Annual General Meeting approved the Board’s proposal
that no dividend be paid for the 2010/2011 fiscal year.
Anders Essen-Möller was re-elected as Chairman of the Board and Lars Jonsson,
Maria-Teresa Essen-Möller and Joseph Janes were re-elected to the Board.
Christer Lindberg, M.Sc in Business Administration, MBA, was elected as a new
Board member. Lindberg was born in 1948 and is business consultant with his own
company Tyrlin AB. Previously Lindberg served as President of Almi
Företagspartner Stockholm AB for 12 years, and also as President of Almi
Investeringsfond AB. The former Board members Göran Pettersson, Henrik Bonde and
Sam Lindgren declined re-election.
The Annual General Meeting approved the Board’s proposed guidelines for
remuneration of the CEO and other senior executives. The Meeting also approved
the Nomination Committee’s proposed remuneration to Board members and the
Chairman of the Board.
The Annual General Meeting approved the Nomination Committee’s proposal to
re-elect the auditing company Öhrlings Pricewaterhouse Coopers until the end of
the Annual General Meeting 2012. Principal auditor is the authorized public
accountant Eva Blom.
The Annual General Meeting authorized the Board to, for the period until the
next Annual General Meeting, repurchase series B shares in Diamyd Medical on
Nasdaq OMX Stockholm (“the Exchange”). The maximum number of shares repurchased
shall be such that Diamyd Medical shares held in treasury from time to time do
not exceed five percent of all shares in Diamyd Medical.
The Annual General Meeting resolved to authorize the Board to implement a stock
option plan for employees of the Company, involving issuing a maximum of 600,000
subscription warrants. Each warrant will entitle the holder to subscribe for one
new share of Series B of the Company at a price of SEK 20 during the period
December 15, 2013 to December 15, 2015. Subscription for and payment of the
warrants shall be made no later than January 15, 2012. Warrants are to be issued
at the by the Board estimated market value, calculated using the Black & Scholes
valuation model for options. Oversubscription is not possible. Assuming full
subscription of the issue and full exercise of the warrants to subscribe for new
shares, the Company’s share capital will increase by SEK 300,000 through the
issuance of 600,000 shares of Series B, each share having a par value of SEK
0.50 (without prejudice to the increase that may arise from adjustments under
the conditions of the warrants as a result of new share issues, etc.). The new
shares will in such case, based on current share capital, represent about 2
percent of the share capital. The purpose of the option plan is to reinforce the
employees’ interest in the Group’s business and make tangible the correlation
between employment benefits and the Company’s results.
For more information, please contact:
Peter Zerhouni, President and CEO Diamyd Medical AB
Phone: +46 8 661 00 26
For press material, please contact:
Andreas Ericsson, Diamyd Medical AB
press@diamyd.com
Phone: +46 8 661 00 26
