Gain Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: GANX) (“Gain”, or the “Company”),
a biotechnology company leading the discovery and development of
allosteric small molecule therapies, today announced the
appointment of C. Evan Ballantyne as the Company’s Chief Financial
Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Ballantyne succeeds Salvatore
Calabrese, who is expected to remain employed by the Company for a
reasonable transition period to enable an orderly transition of
duties.
“I am thrilled to be joining the Gain team at
this exciting time in the Company’s development,” said Mr.
Ballantyne, Chief Financial Officer. “Gain’s lead program with
disease-modifying potential in GBA1 Parkinson’s disease, which will
be entering the clinic this year, as well as its research pipeline
in metabolic disorders and oncology offer substantial opportunities
generate value for patients and other stake holders. I also look
forward to helping Gain maximize the potential of the SEE-Tx® drug
discovery platform, which transforms drug discovery by enabling the
identification of novel allosteric small molecule therapeutics
across the full spectrum of therapeutic areas.”
“We are delighted to welcome Evan Ballantyne as
our new Chief Financial Officer,” said Matthias Alder, Chief
Executive Officer at Gain Therapeutics. “Evan is an experienced CFO
with a strong track record of facilitating the capitalization of
numerous biopharmaceutical companies. His expertise and strategic
counsel in financing, business development and M&A will be
invaluable to ensure the Company’s success going forward as we
transition to a clinical stage company later this year with our
lead program in GBA1 Parkinson’s disease. On behalf of the Company
and our board of directors, I want to thank Sal for his service to
Gain and his contributions to the Company’s progress during his
tenure, including the successful IPO in 2021 and the establishment
of our financial control and reporting processes and
infrastructure, and wish him all the best in his future
endeavors.”
Mr. Ballantyne is an experienced CFO with more
than 20 years of experience managing the financing and corporate
strategy of publicly traded and private companies in the healthcare
industry. Most recently he was Chief Financial Officer of OncXerna
Therapeutics, Inc., where he helped raise $30 million in an equity
financing round. Prior to OncXerna, Mr. Ballantyne served as Chief
Financial Officer of Orchestra Biomed, Inc., where he facilitated
the closing of equity financing rounds with gross proceeds of $57
million and assisted in the development of a global partnership
valued at more than $200 million. Prior to his time at Orchestra
Biomed, Mr. Ballantyne served as Chief Financial Officer of
Cerecin, Inc., a biotechnology company backed by Nestlé Health
Science. Mr. Ballantyne previously served as Executive Vice
President and Chief Financial Officer of Clinical Data, Inc., a
public biotechnology company that was acquired by Forest
Laboratories (now AbbVie) for $1.2 billion, and as Chief Financial
Officer of Agenus, Inc. (NASDAQ: AGEN) and Synthetic Biologics,
Inc. Mr. Ballantyne holds a B.A. in history and political science
from the University of Western Ontario and a post-graduate degree
in business administration from the University of Windsor.
As a material inducement to Mr. Ballantyne to
enter into employment with the Company, the Board of Directors (the
“Board”) approved the grant to Mr. Ballantyne of the following
inducement equity awards (collectively referred to as the
“Inducement Awards”), granted outside of the Company’s
stockholder-approved equity incentive plan pursuant to the
Company’s 2021 Inducement Equity Incentive Plan (the “Inducement
Plan”) with a grant date of April 10, 2023: (i) an option award to
purchase up to 100,000 shares of the Company’s common stock at an
exercise price per share equal to $4.79, vesting over a four year
period from the Transition Date, with 25% vesting on the first
anniversary thereof and the balance vesting in equal monthly
installments over the remainder of the vesting period, in each case
subject to Mr. Ballantyne’s continuous employment with the Company
through the applicable vesting date, and (ii) 100,000 restricted
stock units (the “RSUs”) vesting, subject to Mr. Ballantyne’s
continuous employment with the Company through the applicable
vesting date, upon the Board's certification that one or both of
the following performance conditions have been achieved: (a) 50,000
RSUs vesting in connection with the closing of a transaction
extending the cash runway by twenty-four (24) months, and/or (b)
50,000 RSUs vesting in connection with the Company’s stock price
reaching a price of $10.00 per share based on the 10-day volume
weighted average share price.
The Inducement Awards are subject to the terms
of the Inducement Plan and the applicable award agreements
thereunder and intended to be granted pursuant to and in accordance
with Rule 5635(c)(4) of the Nasdaq Listing Rules. The Inducement
Awards were approved by a majority of the independent directors of
the Board.
About Gain Therapeutics,
Inc.
Gain Therapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology
company leading the discovery and development of allosteric small
molecule therapies. With its proprietary computational discovery
platform SEE-Tx®, Gain Therapeutics is transforming drug discovery
by identifying novel allosteric targets on proteins involved in
diseases across the full spectrum of therapeutic areas. By binding
to allosteric binding sites, the small molecules discovered with
SEE-Tx provide opportunities for a range of drug-protein
interactions, including protein stabilization, protein
destabilization, targeted protein degradation, allosteric
inhibition, and allosteric activation. Gain’s pipeline spans
neurodegenerative diseases, lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs),
metabolic disorders, as well as other diseases that can be targeted
through protein degradation, such as oncology. Gain’s lead program
in Parkinson’s disease has been awarded funding support from The
Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) and The
Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA, as well as from
the Eurostars-2 joint program with co-funding from the European
Union Horizon 2020 research and Innosuisse. For more information,
please visit https://www.gaintherapeutics.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this press release other than
statements of historical facts are “forward-looking statements”. In
some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking
words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "expect," "plan,"
"anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "goal, " "intend,"
"seek, " "potential" or "continue," the negative of these terms and
variations of these words or similar expressions that are intended
to identify forward-looking statements, although not all
forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking
statements in this press release include, but are not limited to,
statements regarding: the development of the Company’s product
candidate for the treatment of GBA1 Parkinson’s disease, including
the commencement of the Phase 1 clinical trial; the Company’s
ability to successfully transition to a clinical-stage company; the
further development of the Company’s pipeline in metabolic
disorders and oncology; and the benefits of SEE-Tx® drug discovery
platform. These forward-looking statements are based on the
Company’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press
release. Each of these forward-looking statements involves risks
and uncertainties that could cause the Company’s preclinical and
future clinical development programs, future results or performance
to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the
forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical
facts but instead represent the Company's belief regarding future
results, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain
and outside the Company's control. Many factors may cause
differences between current expectations and actual results,
including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global and
macroeconomic conditions on the Company’s business; clinical trials
and financial position; unexpected safety or efficacy data observed
during preclinical studies or clinical trials, clinical trial site
activation or enrollment rates that are lower than expected;
changes in expected or existing competition; changes in the
regulatory environment; the uncertainties and timing of the
regulatory approval process; and unexpected litigation or other
disputes. Other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results
to differ from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking
statements in this press release are identified in the section
titled “Risk Factors,” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K,
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 23, 2023
and its other documents subsequently filed with or furnished to the
Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time.. All
forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak
only as of the date on which they were made. The Company undertakes
no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that
occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were
made, except as required by law.
Investor & Media
Contact:
Argot Partners(212)
600-1902Gain@argotpartners.com
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