- Bruce
Cousins is retiring, and former CFO Alex Rothwell will assume the role
VICTORIA, BC, Feb. 18,
2025 /PRNewswire/ - Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals
Inc. ("Eupraxia" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: EPRX) (TSX: EPRX), a
clinical-stage biotechnology company, today announced that it has
appointed Alex Rothwell as the
Company's new Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately.
Bruce Cousins, the Company's
outgoing CFO, is retiring and will remain in a consultant role in
the near-term to ensure an orderly transition of the CFO
responsibilities.
"Having previously served as Eupraxia's CFO, and after that as
our capital markets consultant, we are delighted to have Alex
return and take over from Bruce. I believe his public markets and
deal expertise, and his deep familiarity with Eupraxia and its
shareholders, will make Alex a key contributor to our senior
leadership team as Eupraxia advances its programs in EP-104GI and
EP-104AR," said James Helliwell,
Chief Executive Officer of Eupraxia. "On behalf of our board of
directors, I'd like to thank Bruce for his leadership and many
important contributions to Eupraxia's success including the
Company's recent Nasdaq listing, and his efforts strengthening our
balance sheet, which gives us a solid foundation to build on."
Based in Victoria, B.C., Mr.
Rothwell brings more than 25 years of experience as a business
leader and as a senior executive in the Canadian capital markets
and investment banking. He previously served as the CFO of Eupraxia
from 2018-2021, and most recently has been a Senior Advisor to Fort
Capital Partners, a Canadian boutique investment bank.
In 1995, he began his capital markets career in institutional
equities and merger arbitrage, establishing himself over the next
decade in various leadership roles at leading Canadian investment
banks. He was appointed President and Executive Director of
Macquarie Capital Markets Canada and ran its equities business for
seven years before moving to British
Columbia in late 2015.
Over the course of his career, he has advised public and private
companies on their growth and acquisition strategies and associated
funding requirements and has raised billions of dollars for them in
structures ranging from early-stage investment rounds to large IPOs
and follow-on offerings.
Mr. Rothwell holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from
McGill University (1991) and an MBA
from the Ivey School of Business (1995).
"I believe that Eupraxia is in an excellent position to create
significant value for shareholders, and I'm very focused on helping
drive that process. There is significant unrealized - and
unrecognized - potential in the assets, and I have confidence that
we can deliver on that potential for patients and shareholders,"
said Alex Rothwell, new Chief
Financial Officer of Eupraxia. "EP-104GI has an opportunity to be
the leading treatment for Eosinophilic Esophagitis, and associated
conditions such as strictures. Additionally, we anticipate that
EP-104IAR, for the treatment of pain due to osteoarthritis of the
knee, can become a key therapy to treat this large patient
population, and that its market can be materially expanded by use
in other joint areas."
About Eupraxia
Eupraxia is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on
developing locally delivered, extended-release products that have
the potential to address therapeutic areas with high unmet medical
need. DiffuSphere™, a proprietary, polymer-based micro-sphere
technology, is designed to facilitate targeted drug delivery of
both existing and novel drugs. The technology is designed to
support extended duration of effect and delivery of drugs in a
hyper-localized fashion, targeting only the tissues that physicians
are wanting to treat. We believe the potential for fewer adverse
events may be achieved through the precision targeting and the
stable and flat delivery of the active ingredient when using the
DiffuSphere™ technology, versus the peaks and troughs seen with
more traditional drug delivery methods. The precision of Eupraxia's
DiffuSphere™ technology platform has the potential to augment and
transform existing FDA-approved drugs to improve their safety,
tolerability, efficacy, and duration of effect. The potential uses
in therapeutic areas may go beyond pain and inflammatory
gastrointestinal disease, where Eupraxia currently is developing
advanced treatments, to also be applicable in oncology, infectious
disease, and other critical disease areas.
Eupraxia's EP-104GI is currently in a Phase 1b/2a trial, the RESOLVE trial, for the treatment
of Eosinophilic Esophagitis ("EoE"). EP-104GI is administered as an
injection into the esophageal wall, providing local delivery of
drug. This is a unique treatment approach for EoE. Eupraxia also
recently completed a Phase 2b
clinical trial (SPRINGBOARD) of EP-104IAR for the treatment of pain
due to knee osteoarthritis. The trial met its primary endpoint and
three of the four secondary endpoints. In addition, Eupraxia is
developing a pipeline of later and earlier-stage long-acting
formulations. Potential pipeline indications include candidates for
other inflammatory joint indications and oncology, each designed to
improve on the activity and tolerability of currently approved
drugs. For further details about Eupraxia, please visit the
Company's website at: www.eupraxiapharma.com.
Notice Regarding Forward-looking Statements and
Information
This news release includes forward-looking statements and
forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable
securities laws. Often, but not always, forward-looking information
can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "is
expected", "expects", "aims", "suggests", "scheduled", "intends",
"contemplates", "anticipates", "believes", "proposes", "potential"
or variations (including negative and grammatical variations) of
such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or
results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur
or be achieved. Forward-looking statements in this news release
include statements regarding the Company's CFO succession; the
Company's business strategy and growth potential, including the
ability to create significant shareholder value; the Company's
product candidates, including their expected benefits to patients
with respect to safety, tolerability, efficacy and duration; the
results gathered from studies and trials of Eupraxia's product
candidates; the potential for the Company's technology to impact
the drug delivery process; potential market opportunity for the
Company's products; and potential pipeline indications. Such
statements and information are based on the current expectations of
Eupraxia's management, and are based on assumptions, including but
not limited to: future research and development plans for the
Company proceeding substantially as currently envisioned; industry
growth trends, including with respect to projected and actual
industry sales; the Company's ability to obtain positive results
from the Company's research and development activities, including
clinical trials; and the Company's ability to protect patents and
proprietary rights. Although Eupraxia's management believes that
the assumptions underlying these statements and information are
reasonable, they may prove to be incorrect. The forward-looking
events and circumstances discussed in this news release may not
occur by certain dates or at all and could differ materially as a
result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties
affecting Eupraxia, including, but not limited to: risks and
uncertainties related to the Company's limited operating history;
the Company's novel technology with uncertain market acceptance; if
the Company breaches any of the agreements under which it licenses
rights to its product candidates or technology from third parties,
the Company could lose license rights that are important to its
business; the Company's current license agreement may not provide
an adequate remedy for its breach by the licensor; the Company's
technology may not be successful for its intended use; the
Company's future technology will require regulatory approval, which
is costly and the Company may not be able to obtain it; the Company
may fail to obtain regulatory approvals or only obtain approvals
for limited uses or indications; the Company's clinical trials may
fail to demonstrate adequately the safety and efficacy of its
product candidates at any stage of clinical development; the
Company may be required to suspend or discontinue clinical trials
due to side effects or other safety risks; the Company completely
relies on third parties to provide supplies and inputs required for
its products and services; the Company relies on external contract
research organizations to provide clinical and non-clinical
research services; the Company may not be able to successfully
execute its business strategy; the Company will require additional
financing, which may not be available; any therapeutics the Company
develops will be subject to extensive, lengthy and uncertain
regulatory requirements, which could adversely affect the Company's
ability to obtain regulatory approval in a timely manner, or at
all; the impact of health pandemics or epidemics on the Company's
operations; the Company's restatement of its consolidated financial
statements, which may lead to additional risks and uncertainties,
including loss of investor confidence and negative impacts on the
Company's common share price; and other risks and uncertainties
described in more detail in Eupraxia's public filings on SEDAR+
(sedarplus.ca) and EDGAR (sec.gov). Although Eupraxia has attempted
to identify important factors that could cause actual actions,
events or results to differ materially from those described in
forward-looking statements and information, there may be other
factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those
anticipated, estimated or intended. No forward-looking statement or
information can be guaranteed. Except as required by applicable
securities laws, forward-looking statements and information speak
only as of the date on which they are made and Eupraxia undertakes
no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statement or information, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
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SOURCE Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals Inc.
