DANBURY, Conn., June 10, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Penwest Pharmaceuticals Co. (Nasdaq:PPCO) today announced the preliminary results of its Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which was held today.
Based on a preliminary vote count, Penwest shareholders voted to elect as directors Joseph Edelman, who had been proposed both by the Company and by Tang Capital Management and Perceptive Life Sciences, as well as Kevin Tang, another dissident nominee.
The Company also reported that, based on the preliminary vote count, the two shareholder bylaw amendment proposals -- for supermajority Board voting and for fixing the annual meeting date at April 30 -- did not receive sufficient votes to be approved. In addition, the advisory proposal to immediately wind down the Company's operations was approved, but only received approximately one-third of the non-Tang-Perceptive shares voting.
The preliminary vote count is subject to the official certification of vote results, which is expected to be provided by IVS Associates within the next week.
About Penwest Pharmaceuticals
Penwest is a drug development company focused on identifying and developing products that address unmet medical needs, primarily for rare disorders of the nervous system. Penwest is currently developing A0001, a coenzyme Q analog drug candidate for inherited mitochondrial respiratory chain diseases. Penwest is also applying its drug delivery technologies and drug formulation expertise to the formulation of product candidates under licensing collaborations with partners.
Penwest Forward-Looking Statements
The matters discussed herein contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, which may cause the actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance suggested herein. For this purpose, any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words, "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "intends," "potential," "appears," "estimates," "projects," "targets," "may," "could," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause results to differ materially include: risks relating to the commercial success of Opana ER, including our reliance on Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. for the commercial success of Opana ER and risks of generic competition; the need for capital; regulatory risks relating to drugs in development, including the timing and outcome of regulatory submissions and regulatory actions; uncertainty of success of collaborations; the timing of clinical trials; whether the results of clinical trials will warrant further clinical trials, warrant submission of an application for regulatory approval of, or warrant the regulatory approval of, the product that is the subject of the trial; whether the patents and patent applications owned by us will protect the Company's products and technology; actual and potential competition; and other risks as set forth under the caption Risk Factors in Penwest's Annual Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 11, 2009, which risk factors are incorporated herein by reference.
The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date of the statements made. Penwest disclaims any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements, and these statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's estimates or views as of any date subsequent to the date of this letter.
TIMERx is a registered trademark of Penwest. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.