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Alpha Cognition Strengthens Its Leadership Team with Appointment of Robert Wills to Board of Directors and Announces Departure of Existing Director John Havens
VANCOUVER & DALLAS, April 10, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alpha Cognition Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOG) ("Alpha Cognition", or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing novel therapies for debilitating neurodegenerative disorders, today announced the appointment of Robert Wills, Ph.D., to its Board of Directors, effective immediately April 7, 2025. Dr. Wills brings decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, with a distinguished career in drug development, corporate strategy, and executive leadership.
"On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, it is a pleasure to welcome Rob, a highly accomplished industry veteran, to our team," said Michael McFadden, Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Cognition, Inc. "His experience across a range of diverse strategic roles will be highly instrumental as we continue to advance our commercial launch of ZUNVEYL and advance our sublingual program for mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s Disease. Our board looks forward to working with Robert and leveraging his unique expertise."
Dr. Wills joins the Board with over four decades of experience as a leader in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Wills serves as Chairman of the Board of Milestone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MIST), and serves as a board member at Parion Sciences, Inc. and Oncternal Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ONCT). Dr. Wills previously served as the Chairman of the Board of CymaBay Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CBAY) prior to the acquisition by Gilead Sciences, Inc. in March 2024, and served as Executive Chairman of GTx, Inc. from 2015-2019. Prior to that he spent over 25 years at Johnson & Johnson. His roles included Vice President, Alliance Management, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson and as Senior Vice President Global Development, where he was responsible for the R&D pipeline and a member of the R&D Board of Directors. Dr. Wills holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and a M.S. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Texas.
Alpha Cognition today also announces that John Havens has notified the Company of his intention to not seek re-election to the Company’s Board of Directors for 2025 forward. Mr. Havens joined the Alpha Cognition Board of Directors in 2018 and served as a member of the Audit and Governance Committees. During his tenure, he has contributed his private and emerging company expertise to provide guidance and valuable insights to drive the company’s advancement to the public markets and to advance its pipeline to an FDA approved product.
The Board of Directors and the Company’s management team would like to thank John for his valuable contributions to Alpha Cognition and wish him well with his current and future business ventures.
The Company will immediately begin a search for a new independent board member to replace Mr. Havens.
About ZUNVEYL
ZUNVEYL (benzgalantamine) is a twice-daily treatment designed to address the cognitive symptoms of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease. By enhancing cholinergic function in the brain, ZUNVEYL supports memory, learning, and overall cognitive function, offering a meaningful improvement for patients and their caregivers.
Targeted for the long-term care market, ZUNVEYL is uniquely positioned to address the needs of a growing patient population in a segment valued at $2 billion annually in the United States. Alpha Cognition is committed to ensuring ZUNVEYL is accessible to patients and caregivers, supported by robust market access strategies and a dedicated commercial team.
About Alpha Cognition Inc.
Alpha Cognition Inc. is a commercial stage, biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing treatments for patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Cognitive Impairment with mild Traumatic Brain Injury ("mTBI"), for which there are currently no approved treatment options.
ZUNVEYL (benzgalantamine) is a cholinesterase inhibitor indicated for the treatment of mild to moderate dementia of the Alzheimer’s type in adults.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION
Contraindications
ZUNVEYL is contraindicated in patients with known hypersensitivity to benzgalantamine, galantamine, or any inactive ingredients in ZUNVEYL.
Warnings and Precautions
Serious Skin Reactions: Serious skin reactions (Stevens-Johnson syndrome and acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis) have been reported in patients receiving galantamine (the active metabolite of (ZUNVEYL) tablets. If signs or symptoms suggest a serious skin reaction, use of this drug should not be resumed and alternative therapy should be considered.
Cardiovascular conditions: Cholinesterase inhibitors, including ZUNVEYL, may have vagotonic effects on the sinoatrial and atrioventricular nodes. These effects may manifest as bradycardia or heart block in patients both with and without known underlying cardiac conduction abnormalities. Syncopal episodes have been reported in association with the use of donepezil.
Peptic ulcer disease and gastrointestinal bleeding: Cholinesterase inhibitors, including ZUNVEYL, may increase gastric acid secretion. Patients should be monitored closely for active or occult gastrointestinal bleeding, especially those with a history of ulcer disease or those receiving concurrent nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
Genitourinary conditions: Although not observed in clinical trials of ZUNVEYL, bladder outflow obstruction may occur.
Pulmonary conditions: Cholinesterase inhibitors, including ZUNVEYL, should be prescribed with care to patients with a history of asthma or obstructive pulmonary disease. Monitor for respiratory adverse effects.
Adverse Reactions
The most common adverse reactions with galantamine tablets (≥5%) were nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, headache, and decreased appetite.
Drug Interactions
Cholinesterase inhibitors, including galantamine, have the potential to interfere with the activity of anticholinergic medications. A synergistic effect may be expected when cholinesterase inhibitors are given concurrently with succinylcholine, similar neuromuscular blocking agents, or cholinergic agonists such as bethanechol.
These are not all of the possible side effects of ZUNVEYL. You can report side effects to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/MedWatch or call 1‑800‑FDA‑1088. Please click here forFull Prescribing Information.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Except for statements of historical fact, any information contained in this news release may be a forward‐looking statement that reflects the Company’s current views about future events and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward‐looking statements by the words "may," "might," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "intend," "plan," "objective," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "project," "potential," "target," "seek," "contemplate," "continue" and "ongoing," or the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology intended to identify statements about the future. Forward‐looking statements may include statements regarding the appointment of Dr. Wills as a member of the Board and Governance Committee, the decision of John Havens not to run for re-election to the Board and Governance Committee, ZUNVEYL efficacy and tolerability, ZUNVEYL long-term benefits, the Company’s timing and planned activities to launch ZUNVEYL, potential timing for the availability of ZUNVEYL, potential future developments of ZUNVEYL, the potential market size for ZUNVEYL, the Company’s business strategy, market size, potential growth opportunities, capital requirements, clinical development activities, the timing and results of clinical trials, regulatory submissions, potential regulatory approval and commercialization of the Company’s products. Although the Company believes to have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our expectations of the future, about which we cannot be certain. The Company cannot assure that the actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks, including risks regarding our ability to raise sufficient capital to implement our plans to commercialize ZUNVEYL , risks regarding the efficacy and tolerability of ZUNVEYL, risks related to ongoing regulatory oversight on the safety of ZUNVEYL, risk related to market adoption of ZUNVEYL , risks related to the Company’s intellectual property in relation to ZUNVEYL , risks related to the commercial manufacturing, distribution, marketing and sale of ZUNVEYL , risks related to product liability and other risks as described in the Company’s filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and available at www.sedar.com and the Company’s filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including those risk factors under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company’s Form S-1/A registration statement as filed with the SEC on January 10, 2025 and available at www.sec.gov. These forward‐looking statements speak only as of the date of this news release and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward‐looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available in the future, except as required by law.
