Pharmanest completes SEK 30 million rights issue and welcomes new major shareholders

Pharmanest completes SEK 30 million rights issue and welcomes new major shareholders

Stockholm, July 14, 2015. Pharmanest AB today announced that the company has successfully completed a rights issue of approximately SEK 30 million to new and existing owners. Östersjöstiftelsen, Recipharm Venture Fund and Praktikerinvest become new major shareholders through their participation in the rights issue and by simultaneously acquiring all shares from the former majority owner, Karolinska Development. Pharmanest also welcomes Kåre Gilstring as new shareholder. As a result of the ownership changes, Håkan Wallin has been elected new Chairman and Lars Irestedt and Carl-Johan Spak new board members.

Pharmanest develops locally acting pharmaceuticals to reduce the pain many women experience during gynecological procedures. The company's most advanced project - SHACT - has already undergone extensive clinical trials with positive results. The successful completion of the rights issue enables Pharmanest to pursue remaining activities with the objective of obtaining market approval for SHACT.

"SHACT is a pharmaceutical product that can ease the pain of the millions of women undergoing gynecological procedures without anesthesia. With the help of long-term and professional investors, we have now secured the financial resources needed to implement the remaining pre-launch activities," said Gunilla Lundmark, CEO at Pharmanest.

On June 25, 2015, Pharmanest’s Annual General Meeting reelected the board members Per Langö and Gunvor Ekman-Ordeberg. Håkan Wallin (chairman), Lars Irestedt and Carl-Johan Spak were elected as new board members. Alan Raffensperger, Gunilla Ekström and Arne Brodin had declined reelection and were thanked for their valuable contributions to Pharmanest.

Brief descriptions of the newly elected board members are provided below.

Håkan Wallin (b. 1962), B.Sc. Business Economics and Management, CEFA, has a diverse and extensive experience in the life science field at both operational and strategic level. His most recent position was as Executive Vice President Corporate Development at Medivir AB. Previous experience includes, among other things, Partner and Head of life science at ABG Sundal Collier AB's Corporate Finance Department and Director and CEO of Libertas Capital Nordic AB. Mr Wallin currently acts through his own consulting firm HWA Advisory & Capital AB and is a board member of the First North-listed company LightLab Sweden AB.

Lars Irestedt (b. 1941), M.D., Ph.D. is a co-founder of Pharmanest and currently serves as an anesthesiologist and associate professor at Karolinska University Hospital. He has carried out extensive research in anesthesia and is widely seen as one of Europe’s foremost obstetric anesthesiologists. Dr. Irestedt has served on Editorial Boards of a number of journals including Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica, International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia, and Scandinavian Journal of Pain.

Carl-Johan Spak (b.1956), Ph.D. Odontology, is Executive Vice President at Recipharm since 2011. He is responsible for the business area Development and Technology, including the company's development activities and proprietary product rights. Prior to this, Dr. Spak has held various senior positions at Meda and Recip. He serves on the boards of several biotech companies, including Cobra Biologics Holding AB, Kahr Medical Ltd, Prokarium Ltd., and SymCel Sweden AB.

For further information, please contact:

Gunilla Lundmark, CEO, Pharmanest AB

Phone: +46 (0)70-974 90 57, E-mail: gunilla.lundmark@pharmanest.se