Opioid cases create various opportunities for Knight to purchase valuable assets from distressed pharma companies that are defendants in a series of claims regarding abuse and misrepresentation of opioid based treatments
Medison Biotech (1995) Ltd. (“Medison”), which together with its affiliates owns more than 10.4 million shares or 7.5% of Knight Therapeutics, Inc. (TSX:GUD) (“Knight” or the “Company”), today commented on the recent claims brought against various pharma companies in the United States and Canada (including against Joddes and Pharmascience, the Goodman family businesses in which Jonathan Goodman, Knight’s CEO, personally owns at least a 25% interest).
Meir Jakobsohn, Medison’s CEO, said:
“Notwithstanding Jonathan Goodman’s abysmal track record of taking advantage of opportunities, we urge Goodman to aggressively explore possible purchases of revenue generating assets from pharma companies that are under unprecedented legal attack and transform Knight from an ineffective ‘investment’ company into a growth oriented operating business. We believe that the opioid cases create a rare opportunity for Knight, which has been sitting on its almost CAD $800 million in cash for years now.
"We, as the second largest shareholder of Knight, have expressed our strong disagreement with Jonathan Goodman’s ‘waiting for Armageddon’ strategy to date and strongly urge him to take advantage of the current environment to actually do something and create value for Knight’s shareholders.
“We also hope that Jonathan Goodman will not be distracted by the enormous potential loss of his other businesses that are part of related lawsuits and directly compete with Knight and focus on Knight’s potential gain from these recent developments.
“These cases demonstrate how important it is to have a CEO that does not need to worry himself about claims against its direct competitor and can freely operate in the opioid space. We hope, although remain skeptical, that Jonathan Goodman can rise above his personal conflicts of interest and finally deploy Knight’s cash for the benefit of all Knight’s shareholders. We also hope that the non-insider directors – Mr. James Gale, Mr. Robert Lande, Ms. Nancy Harrison and Ms. Sylvie Tendler – will not allow their lack of independence to impact their judgement and instead apply proper oversight over management actions in order to effectively create value.
“I invite all disappointed shareholders to contact us on www.NewDayForKnight.com and even by contacting me on my direct email: Meirj@Medison.co.il.”
Medison has maintained its website, www.NewDayForKnight.com, and encourages shareholders to visit for updates.
About Medison
Medison is one of the world's largest commercial partners of leading global biotech companies. Medison provides the complete spectrum of integrated services for international companies looking to enter or expand their presence in selected ROW markets (Israel, Canada and CEE markets). Medison runs a corporate venture arm with a dedicated research and evaluation team boasting deep scientific and commercial backgrounds. Medison also operates a scouting program to cater its partners and is an active investor in life science projects around drug development and digital health.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190903005815/en/
Copyright Business Wire 2019