Opiant Pharmaceuticals Announces Appointment of Matthew Ruth as Chief Commercial Officer
July 12 2021 - 8:00AM
Opiant Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Opiant”) (NASDAQ: OPNT), a
specialty pharmaceutical company developing medicines to treat
addictions and drug overdose, today announced the appointment of
Matthew Ruth as Chief Commercial Officer. Mr. Ruth brings
significant commercial experience to Opiant, including leading the
highly successful launch and commercialization of the first nasal
naloxone spray approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(“FDA”) to treat opioid overdose. Mr. Ruth will begin his
employment with Opiant effective today and report directly to Dr.
Roger Crystal, President and CEO.
“We welcome Matt's highly relevant commercial leadership,
insights and expertise as we continue to progress our lead
candidate OPNT003, nasal nalmefene, through development for the
treatment of opioid overdose," said Dr. Crystal. “I look forward to
working with Matt in his new role as we pursue our mission to
deliver new medicines to treat addictions and drug overdose.”
OPNT003, nasal nalmefene, is in development as a potent,
rapid-onset, long-acting opioid antagonist for the treatment of
opioid overdose. It is designed as a rescue medication that could
be especially useful in treating overdose by high-potency synthetic
opioids, such as fentanyl.
"With its development of the first FDA-approved naloxone nasal
spray, Opiant helped transform the emergency treatment of opioid
overdose, and I believe the company is positioned to make even
further impact at a time when overdoses from potent illicit
synthetic opioids are rampant in America," said Mr. Ruth. "I
look forward to joining the team to build a commercial organization
that will deliver on this promise and advance Opiant’s mission in
addictions and drug overdose."
From 2015 until 2019, Mr. Ruth was responsible for building out
the U.S. Operational, Commercial, Government Affairs and Medical
Affairs team in preparation for the launch and commercialization of
a branded nasal naloxone spray.Prior to his work in the opioid
overdose space, Mr. Ruth was Chief Operating Officer for RightCare
Solutions, a medical technology company, where he built their
commercial infrastructure and was instrumental in building a
revenue stream that enabled their acquisition by NaviHealth in
2015.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Ruth was Vice President of Azur
Pharma (2007-2012), Responsible for the CNS franchise which helped
lead to the acquisition by Jazz Pharmaceuticals. From 2006 to 2007,
he was Vice President for Avanir Pharmaceuticals responsible for
the Commercial operation along with M&A activities including
the acquisition of Alamo Pharma and the sale of FazaClo to Azur.
Prior to that, he held positions of increasing responsibility at
Allergan.
About Opiant Pharmaceuticals,
Inc. Opiant Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the company that
developed NARCAN® Nasal Spray, is building a
leading franchise of new medicines to combat addictions
and drug overdose. For more information
visit: www.opiant.com.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release
contains forward-looking statements, including statements for
OPNT003’s potential as an opioid overdose reversal agent. These
statements relate to future events or our future financial
performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and
other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results,
levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially
different from any future results, levels of activity, performance
or achievements expressed, implied or inferred by these
forward-looking statements, and among other things, our ability to
maintain cash balances and successfully commercialize or partner
our product candidates currently under development. In some cases,
you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as
"may," "will," "should," "could," "would," "expects," "plans,"
"intends," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts,"
"projects," "potential," or "continue" or the negative of such
terms and other comparable terminology. These statements are only
predictions based on our current expectations and projections about
future events. You should not place undue reliance on these
statements. Actual events or results may differ materially. In
evaluating these statements, you should specifically consider
various factors. Additional factors that could materially affect
actual results can be found in our Form 10-K for the year
ended December 31, 2020, filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission on March 4, 2021, including under the
caption titled "Risk Factors." These and other factors may cause
our actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking
statement. We undertake no obligation to update any of the
forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to
conform those statements to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated
events, except as required by applicable law.
For Media and Investor Inquiries:Ben Atkins, Opiant(310)
598-5410batkins@opiant.com
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