The Sonic Fund II, L.P. Reminds Adverum Stockholders to Vote for Its Three Independent Director Nominees at May 12 Annual Mee...
May 10 2021 - 9:41AM
Business Wire
Nominee Jean Bennett Reaffirms Commitment
to Serve on Board if Elected
Adverum Has Failed Miserably in Its Drug
Development Strategy and Has Destroyed Massive Amounts of Value
Stockholders Cannot Accept More of the Same
Company’s Incumbent Directors Have Proven They
Are Not Worthy of Stockholders’ Confidence and Have Instead
Employed Numerous Antics Aimed at Entrenching Themselves
An Improved Board – With Critical Gene Therapy,
Financial Oversight, and Capital Allocation Experience – Is Needed
to Refocus Company on Development of ADVM-022
Sonic Urges Adverum Shareholders to Vote on
GREEN Proxy Card FOR Election of All Three Independent and Highly
Qualified Director Nominees to Board
The Sonic Fund II, L.P. (“Sonic”), which beneficially owns
approximately 6.8% of the outstanding common stock of Adverum
Biotechnologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADVM) (the “Company” or “Adverum”),
today reminded stockholders to make their voices heard at the
Company’s upcoming 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the “2021
Annual Meeting”), which will be held on Wednesday, May 12,
2021.
Additionally, Sonic nominee Jean Bennett today issued the
following statement:
“I am fully committed to serving on the
Adverum Board if elected and am excited to help the Company with
the scientific development and oversight of their cutting-edge
treatment.”
Sonic strongly urges all stockholders to vote on the Green proxy
card FOR the election of its three independent, highly qualified
nominees (the “Nominees”) – Jean Bennett, Jodi Cook and Herbert
Hughes – for election to the Company’s Board of Directors (the
“Board”).
This contest boils down to the following key elements – and the
conclusion is clear:
- Adverum has severely mismanaged the scientific development of
ADVM-022, its gene therapy treatment for wet AMD, and is doing a
grave disservice to stockholders and suffering patients.
- The Company has failed to address the ocular inflammation issue
ADVM-022 has posed, with terribly unfortunate consequences, as
illustrated by the April 28 announcement of a Suspected Unexpected
Serious Adverse Reaction (SUSAR) of hypotony in its INFINITY
clinical trial evaluating ADVM-022 gene therapy for the treatment
of diabetic macular edema (DME). Is a patient’s blindness in one
eye sufficient proof that Adverum should have done better?
- As a result of these missteps and the Board’s complete lack of
oversight, stockholders have endured massive levels of value
destruction, with the latest being a ~60% drop in the stock price
after the SUSAR announcement – coming after two earlier ~50%
drops.
- The incumbent Board has done nothing but attempt to further
entrench itself under the thumb of Chair Patrick Machado and CEO
Laurent Fischer – by employing what Institutional Shareholder
Services Inc. (“ISS”) called “brute force” tactics, including
massively compressing the timeline for this proxy contest, playing
games with the size of the class of directors up for election, and
attempting to disenfranchise stockholders of the ability to vote on
“To Be Determined” director candidates.
- The Board’s absolute commitment to entrenchment is even further
evidenced by the fact that Adverum never substantively responded to
Sonic’s outreach – just hours after the SUSAR announcement –
attempting to initiate constructive discussions aimed at putting an
end to the proxy contest and immediately focusing on the way
forward. Apparently, the incumbent directors remain more interested
in self-preservation at all costs rather than dealing with the
medical, regulatory, financial and governance challenges
threatening the Company’s success and continued existence. This
Board has demonstrated that it would rather lose than
compromise.
- Both leading proxy advisory firms, ISS and Glass, Lewis &
Co., LLC (“Glass Lewis”) agree that change is needed and have
recommended that stockholders vote FOR all three of Sonic’s
nominees – emphasizing that the recent SUSAR announcement “…laid
bare the Company’s shortcomings in addressing the inflammation
issue…” (Glass Lewis) and citing Sonic’s nominees’ “strong
backgrounds in gene therapy and finance…” (ISS).1
- Adverum must immediately refocus its efforts to the scientific
development of ADVM-022 to serve critical patient needs. This is
the best – and the only – path to successfully create value for
stockholders. And this can only happen if Sonic’s nominees are
elected.
- The potential of ADVM-022 far outmatches the abilities of those
entrusted with its development. Adverum desperately needs an
improved and more independent Board with experts who have the exact
gene therapy and financial oversight experience that is essential
to success moving forward. This is exactly what Sonic’s nominees
bring.
The choice is clear, elect three extremely well qualified,
independent nominees, or accept more of the same from a Board that
has failed to deliver on its promises. It is time to Save
Adverum.
For more information, please visit www.SaveAdverum.com.
VOTE ON THE GREEN PROXY CARD TODAY
If you have voted a white card from Adverum,
a later-dated Green card will revoke that vote
If you have any questions or require any assistance with your
vote, please contact Saratoga Proxy Consulting, LLC, which is
assisting us, at its address and toll-free number listed on the
following page. For more information, fellow stockholders can visit
our website at https://www.saveadverum.com/investor-materials.
If you have any questions
regarding your GREEN proxy card
or need assistance in voting your shares, please contact
Saratoga Proxy Consulting,
LLC
520 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10018
Stockholders may call
toll-free: (888) 368-0379
Banks and brokers call: (212)
257-1311
info@saratogaproxy.com
1 Permission to quote from the ISS and Glass Lewis reports was
neither sought nor obtained.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210510005611/en/
Investors: Saratoga Proxy Consulting LLC John Ferguson /
Ann Marie Mellone 212-257-1311 jferguson@saratogaproxy.com /
amellone@saratogaproxy.com Media: Sloane & Company Joe
Germani / Sarah Braunstein jgermani@sloanepr.com /
sbraunstein@sloanepr.com
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