Forward Pharma Announces Board of Directors Expansion with Appointment of Two New Non-Executive Directors

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Forward Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:FWP) (the “Company”) today announced that Dr. Karen Smith and Dr. Duncan Moore have been appointed to its Board of Directors as non-executive directors, expanding the Board to seven members.  Dr. Moore will also serve as a member of the Audit Committee.  The elections took place on May 6, 2016 at the Company’s Annual General Meeting in Copenhagen.

“I am very pleased that Forward Pharma has been able to continue to attract accomplished biotech industry executives to our management team and Board of Directors,” said Florian Schönharting, Chairman of the Board. “We welcome Karen and Duncan to our Board and look forward to benefitting from their wealth of knowledge and experience as the Company approaches important upcoming clinical and intellectual property milestones.”

The Company also announced that Mr. J. Kevin Buchi had left the Board in connection with the Annual Meeting and expressed its sincere appreciation and gratitude for Mr. Buchi’s contributions as a Board and Audit Committee member for the past three years.   

Dr. Smith is currently Global Head of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc. From January 2011 to March 2015, she was Senior Vice President, Global Medical Affairs and Global Therapeutic Area Head (Dermatology) for Allergan, Inc., a multi-specialty healthcare company. From October 2007 to December 2010, Dr. Smith served initially as Vice President, External Medical Relations, then Vice President, Global Development at AstraZeneca LP, a global innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company. From 2002 to 2007, Dr. Smith held a variety of management and medical roles with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, a global biopharmaceutical company, in Australia, Canada, and the United States, most recently as Head of US Clinical Operations. In 2001, Dr. Smith was Chief Executive Officer of Boron Molecular, a specialist chemicals manufacturing company. Dr. Smith holds a B.A.Sc. and a B.Sc. from the Curtin University of Technology, a M.D. from the University of Warwick, a Ph.D. in oncology molecular genetics from the University of Western Australia, a M.B.A. from the University of New England (Australia) and a LL.M. in medical law from the University of Salford.

Dr. Moore is a partner at East West Capital Partners since May 2008. Previously, Dr Moore was a top ranked pharmaceutical analyst at Morgan Stanley from 1991 to 2008 and was a Managing Director from 1997 to 2008 leading the firm’s global healthcare equity research team. Whilst at the University of Cambridge he co-founded a medical diagnostics company called Ultra Clone with two colleagues which led to the beginnings of a 20 year career in healthcare capital markets analysis. In 1986 he was involved in setting up the Bank Invest biotechnology funds and was on the scientific advisory board. Duncan was educated in Edinburgh and went to the University of Leeds where he studied Biochemistry and Microbiology. He has an M.Phil and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge where he was also a post doctoral research fellow. Currently he is an active investor in biomedical companies as Chairman of Lamellar Biomedical, Oncology Ventures and StepJockey. In addition he has board positions at Cycle Pharma and Braidlock.

About Forward Pharma:
Forward Pharma A/S is a Danish biopharmaceutical company developing FP187, a proprietary formulation of DMF (dimethyl fumarate) for the treatment of inflammatory and neurological indications. Since our founding in 2005, we have worked to advance unique formulations of DMF, which is an immune modulator, as a therapeutic agent to improve the health and well-being of patients with immune disorders including multiple sclerosis.  FP187, our clinical candidate, is a DMF formulation in a delayed and slow release oral dose.

Our principal executive offices are located at Østergade 24A, 1st Floor, 1100 Copenhagen K, Denmark, and our American Depositary Shares are publicly traded on NASDAQ Stock Market (FWP). For more information about the Company’s products and developments, please visit our web site at http://www.forward-pharma.com

Forward Pharma A/S Media Contact:
Sharon Klahre, Director, Investor Relations
Forward Pharma USA, LLC
7 Skyline Drive
Hawthorne, NY 10532
SK@forward-pharma.com
+1 914-752-3542 

The Ruth Group
Lee Roth
lroth@theruthgroup.com
+1 646-536-7014

Forward Looking Statements:
Certain statements in this press release may constitute “forward-looking statements” of the Company within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements which contain language such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “hope,” “would” and “potential.” Forward-looking statements are predictions only which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed in such statements. Many such risks, uncertainties and other factors are taken into account as part of our assumptions underlying these forward-looking statements and include, among others, the following: the Company’s ability to obtain, maintain and defend issued patents with protective claims; the issuance and term of patents; the Company’s ability to prevail in or obtain a favorable decision in any patent interference or infringement action; the Company’s ability to recover damages in any patent infringement action; uncertainties relating to our development plans and activities, including the commencement of any clinical trial and the results, timing, cost and location thereof; risks and uncertainties related to the scope, validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights in general and the impact on us of patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties; our ability to commercialize and generate revenue from our sole clinical candidate, FP187; clinical development, and clinical trials of FP187 may not be successful; completion of required clinical trials may take longer than we anticipate, which could result in increased costs, limit our access to funding and delay or limit our ability to obtain regulatory approval for FP187. These and other factors are identified and described in detail in certain of our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2015.

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