Aeterna Zentaris Announces 2020 Director Changes

CHARLESTON, S.C., Dec. 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (NASDAQ: AEZS) (TSX: AEZS) is pleased to announce changes to its director composition planned for the first quarter of 2020.

Mr. Gilles Gagnon (M.Sc., MBA, ICD.D) will join the board of directors of the Company on January 1, 2020.

Mr. Gérard Limoges, who has served on the board of directors of the Company since 2004, is planning to retire from the board of directors on March 31, 2020, and upon his retirement Mr. Pierre-Yves Desbiens (CPA, CA, CF, MBA) will join the board and replace Mr. Limoges as Chair of the Audit Committee.  The Company would like to extend its sincere thanks and best wishes to Mr. Limoges for his service as a director of the Company.

Mr. Gagnon is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ceapro Inc. Prior to that, he was President and CEO of Aeterna Zentaris Inc. During the past 35 years, Mr. Gagnon has worked at several management levels within the field of health, especially in the hospital environment and pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Gagnon has participated in several international committees and strategic advisory boards. He served nine years on the board of directors of Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D - now Innovative Medicine Canada) where he represented members from the biopharmaceutical sector and pioneered the Rx&D’s Canadian Bio-partnering initiative. He is currently a member of the CEO Council of Innovative Medicine Canada. He is a certified corporate Director having completed the Directors Education Program at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and he has served on several boards of both private and publicly listed companies in the biopharmaceutical sector.

Mr. Desbiens is currently Venture Partner, NEOMED Innovation Center for adMare Bioinnovations.  He has more than 30 years of professional and managerial experience, primarily in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry. He is also an experienced director and audit committee chair of a variety of public and private biotech companies.  Before joining adMare Bioinnovations, he provided financial consulting and financial structuring services through his own firm, Financium Inc.

“We are extremely pleased that Messrs. Gagnon and Desbiens are planning to join our board of directors in the coming months,” stated Ms. Carolyn Egbert, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Company. “The experience each of them brings to the Company will strengthen the overall skillset of the board, and we are looking forward to their contributions.”