PVG Sends Open Letter to Anavex Stockholders Detailing the Need for Change at the Company
CENTENNIAL, Colo., Sept. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PVG Asset Management Corp. (“PVG”), a stockholder of Anavex Life Sciences Corp. (“Anavex” or the “Company”), today sent an open letter to the stockholders of Anavex.
In its letter, PVG details why it is calling for change at Anavex. PVG notes that the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) has demonstrated a pattern of operational and corporate governance failures, a lack of accountability, and a failure to deliver meaningful shareholder value, resulting in diminished market confidence.
PVG believes that Anavex is at a critical inflection point and that meaningful Board refreshment is necessary to ensure that the Company is governed in the best interests of all shareholders.
Through its nomination of highly qualified director candidates, PVG seeks to bring greater independence, capital markets expertise, strategic oversight, and accountability to the Board. PVG believes its nominees would help restore shareholder confidence, improve corporate governance, and ensure that all strategic alternatives for maximizing shareholder value are objectively evaluated.
The firm has sought constructive engagement with the Company regarding governance, strategic direction, capital allocation, and shareholder communications, but believes the Board has been unwilling to adequately address investor concerns. PVG remains committed to working constructively toward an operating and corporate governance framework of Anavex that promotes transparency, accountability, and long-term value creation.
The full text of the letter follows:
VOTE “FOR” ALL 6 NOMINEES ON THE GOLD PROXY CARD
To Our Fellow Anavex Shareholders,
This letter explains why the PVG Group believes change at Anavex’s Board is necessary, and why we are asking you to vote the GOLD proxy card for the September 24, 2026, annual meeting.
We’ll discuss why we believe the Board must be reconstituted and summarize our engagement with the company to date, detail our views of why the current Board has destroyed shareholder value, lay out our plan to address AVXL’s most pressing problems and position its pipeline for success, and explain why the incumbent Anavex nominees are not the right stewards of your investment. Lastly, we’ll lay out the six qualified professionals we’ve nominated to replace them.
Goal of the PVG Group
The PVG Group believes that the Board of Directors of Anavex must be reconstituted in order to ensure that Anavex takes the necessary steps to protect and maximize the value of the Company for all of its shareholders. The PVG Group has nominated six (6) highly qualified director nominees who have strong and relevant backgrounds, including experience in critical stage biopharmaceutical development, review and finance. They are committed to moving the Company forward in its product development pipeline while ensuring that it meets its SEC reporting obligations.
The PVG Group is not trying to acquire the assets of Anavex at a depressed price, but we are frustrated investors that have the skills to oversee the actions and plans of experienced management to the Company’s full potential for all shareholders. The Anavex Board has no skin in the game. The four existing Anavex board nominees own just 5,000 shares bought in the open market. These shares are owned by only one nominee, the remaining three own no shares. The other two nominees own no shares.
Publicly available director compensation tells a disconnected story i: Anavex nominees Ma, van der Velden, and Donhauser were paid a combined $1,076,180 in FY2025, and not one dollar was ever converted into shares they hold today. PVG Asset Management, in contrast, beneficially owns 327,344 shares, which is over 65 times the 5,000 shares owned by all four incumbent directors combined.
PVG, a knowledgeable and experienced investor, believes the Anavex stock has tremendous potential despite significant historical operating losses and cash drains and believes the stock is too cheap to just sell and walk away. PVG simply has no confidence in the decision making and oversight of Anavex’s existing Board of Directors.
Before bringing this contest to you, PVG attempted to resolve concerns directly with the Board. In the third quarter of 2024, PVG began accumulating its position in AVXL stock after identifying potential in the CNS drug pipeline. On July 8, 2026, PVG submitted nomination papers for six director candidates, ahead of the Company’s nomination deadline. On July 15, Board Chair Dr. Jiong Ma and Patrick Adams held an initial video conference. On July 24, with still with no resolution reached, PVG filed a preliminary proxy statement with the SEC, followed by Anavex’s one week later, on July 31.
Value Destruction by the Existing Board
PVG believes the poor decisions made by the existing Board reflect limited knowledge of Anavex’s subject matters as none are active in the biotechnology industry space. How do you ask management questions if you don't know what to ask?
The big picture is that Anavex has underperformed its peers significantly. For example, the PVG Group compares Anavex most closely with Axsome Therapeutics, a central nervous system (“CNS”) company like Anavex Life Sciences. At the end of 2018 Axsome had a stock price of $2.82 with cash on the balance sheet of $14 million (Axsome 10-K year ended 12/31/18). Anavex had a stock price on 12/31/18 of $1.56 and cash of $21 million (10-Q for the quarter ended 12/31/18). On 8/19/26 Axsome had a stock price of $218.20 from appreciation of the shares and the Anavex share price, after roughly 7.5 years, was $3.39.
PVG believes both companies are similar, but Anavex may actually have a better pipeline of larger potential products. PVG views the massive difference in performance as relating to Anavex Board deficient oversight. We believe this Board seems to have neglected the importance of timely pushing clinical trials forward.
As an example, the Anavex blarcamesine phase 2b/3 for early onset Alzheimer's data was released in December of 2023, and we believe nothing of any significance has been accomplished since. The Company has reported net losses of approximately $47.5M in FY2023, $43.0M in FY2024, and $46.4M in FY2025 ii; this is nearly $137 million in losses over three fiscal years, while blarcamesine has sat with a muddled regulatory path forward since December 2023 iii. These losses are significant, but we believe they pale in comparison to having this potentially significant drug approved and marketed. We don't understand why the Board did not direct the management to move forward with the blarcamesine phase 3 trial that would have been required even despite any feedback from the European Medicines Agency. iv
We believe that the Board actions since early April 2026 have caused a loss of market trust and resulted in destroying significant shareholder value. On May 6th when the new interim CEO Terrie Kellmeyer was hired by the Board of Anavex there were a series of operational and governance missteps that we believe were a primary factor in poor stock performance v. From May 5th, 2026, to July 23rd, 2026, Anavex stock fell from $3.45 to $2.48 (-28.1%), while the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) rose from $133.79 to $152.23 (+13.8%) and the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index grew from 5,910.23 to 6,526.29 (+10.4%). Anavex heavily lagged the broader biotech sector. We view this as tangible value destruction. (July 24, 2026, was the date of the filing of our preliminary proxy statement with the SEC.)
Precision medicine has been a significant part of Anavex's scientific strategy and its explanation of how it intended to identify patients most likely to respond to its therapies. Given how prominently this approach has previously featured in the Company's communications, its absence from the current strategic narrative is disturbing. We believe Precision medicine is a very important path for biotechnology. Note the recent announcement of Moderna (MRNA). vii
We believe that replacing two board members with two nominees does not solve the Anavex Board lack of competence. One of the two Board members being replaced for nomination to the Board is Steffen Thomas, PhD, who has 25 years of experience as a European patent attorney and has significant stock ownership. Extending the patent life of blarcamesine is a major objective as the patent expires in 2039.
On April 30, 2026, the Board terminated previous CEO Christopher Missling. Weeks later, Missling filed a personal arbitration demand against AVXL seeking severance damages related to his own termination, and on July 6, he filed suit against four sitting directors (Ma, van der Velden, Donhauser, and Paeger), both individually and “derivatively on behalf of the Company,” alleging breach of fiduciary duty. viii
The Company in the June 30, 2026 10-Q ix indicates additional risks to it include possible:
The Company also disclosed that these issues could negatively affect the Company’s operations, financial condition, stock price, and future prospects!
Also disclosed in an amended 10-K for the fiscal year ended 2025, the Company’s management identified a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting that existed at:
The Company admits in its recent SEC filings that it has begun remediation efforts, but:
Further, the disclosure in the June 30, 2026 10-Q indicates that if the weakness continues, the Company could face:
Our Plan
We believe there are five important focuses of the Company that need to work: We believe the existing Board and the CEO at Anavex have none of these skill sets:
Anavex has valuable assets, but in our view current leadership has underperformed. Shareholders need experienced leadership and a credible actionable plan. PVG is committed to driving this change.
The Anavex Board Nominees
The Anavex Board believes they have six qualified Board nominees of which four were in service during the destruction in price of the stock and the delays of starting clinical trials. We believe the actions or lack thereof by this Board are rooted in their limited knowledge of the subject matter as none are active in the biotechnology industry space. Factual information below was taken from the Anavex Proxy Statement dated August 10, 2026.
The Anavex nominees have experience, but not in biotechnology or CNS specifically. They are involved in other areas such as telecommunications, hospital management and a practicing medical doctor, all with no or little investing experience in biotechnology or Anavex specifically.
The PVG Group Nominees
The PVG nominees all bring one thing in common, They All Have Very Significant Experience in Biotechnology.
Anavex has valuable assets. What it lacks is a Board with the experience, the accountability, and the personal stake to unlock them. The choice on your ballot is between a slate that owns almost nothing and answers to no one, and a slate of biotechnology investors, physicians, and capital markets professionals who are prepared to put in the work shareholders deserve.
Vote the GOLD proxy card FOR the PVG Group nominees. Do not sign or return any WHITE proxy card sent to you by Anavex, even as a protest vote.
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i Anavex Life Sciences Corp., Definitive Proxy Statement (DEFC14A), filed with the SEC on August 10, 2026, “Compensation of Directors,” available at: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1314052/000173112226001038/e7840_defc14a.htm
ii Anavex Life Sciences Corp., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025, filed with the SEC on November 25, 2025, available at: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1314052/000173112225001596/e7052_10-k.htm , Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024, filed with the SEC on December 23, 2025, available at: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1314052/000173112224002041/e6219_10-k.htm and Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, filed with the SEC on November 27, 2023, available at: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1314052/000173112223002197/e5240_10k.htm
iii Anavex Life Sciences Corp., Definitive Proxy Statement (DEFC14A), filed with the SEC on August 10, 2026, “Pay Versus Performance” table, available at: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1314052/000173112226001038/e7840_defc14a.htm
iv Anavex Life Sciences Corp., Press Release dated March 25, 2026, available at: https://anavex.com/news/anavex-blarcamesine-eu-regulatory-update-alzheimers/
v Anavex Life Sciences Corp., Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on May 6, 2026, available at: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1314052/000173112226000678/e7613_8-k.htm
vi Aardvark Therapeutics, Inc., Press Release dated February 27, 2026, available at: https://ir.aardvarktherapeutics.com/news-releases/news-release-details/aardvark-therapeutics-announces-voluntary-pause-phase-3-hero
vii Merck and Moderna, Inc., Press Release dated August 19, 2026, available at: https://www.merck.com/news/merck-and-moderna-announce-phase-3-interpath-001-trial-of-intismeran-autogene-plus-keytruda-met-endpoints-of-recurrence-free-survival-rfs-and-distant-metastasis-free-survival-dmfs-in-patient/
viii Anavex Life Sciences Corp., Definitive Proxy Statement (DEFC14A), filed with the SEC on August 10, 2026, “Certain Proceedings,” available at: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1314052/000173112226001038/e7840_defc14a.htm
ix Anavex Life Sciences Corp., Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2026, filed with the SEC on August 28, 2026, available at: https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001314052/000173112226001167/e7886_10-q.htm
Participants in the Solicitation
The participants in PVG’s solicitation of proxies are PVG Asset Management Corporation, Patrick S. Adams, Jason Kolbert, Ralf von Ziegesar, Rene Mora, John Boris and Curtis Hogue (collectively, the “Participants”). Information concerning the identity of the Participants and a description of their direct or indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, is included in PVG’s Definitive Proxy Statement and related SEC filings.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release and any related communications contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements that are not historical facts, including statements regarding PVG’s plans, objectives, beliefs, strategies and expectations relating to the 2026 Annual Meeting, the proxy solicitation, the Company, the Company Board of Directors, the PVG nominees, stockholder value and the potential outcome of PVG’s solicitation.
These statements may be identified by words such as “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “intends,” “estimates,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should” and similar expressions, or the negative thereof. Actual results may differ materially from those projected or contemplated by these forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties, including those described in applicable filings made by the Company and PVG with the SEC.
Stockholders are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. PVG and the Participants do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law.
Important Additional Information and Where to Find It
PVG, together with the other Participants, has filed a definitive proxy statement on Schedule 14A and accompanying GOLD Universal Proxy Card with the SEC in connection with the solicitation of proxies from stockholders of the Company relating to the 2026 Annual Meeting.
STOCKHOLDERS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO READ THE DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT, THE ACCOMPANYING GOLD UNIVERSAL PROXY CARD, ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS THERETO, AND ANY OTHER DOCUMENTS FILED BY PVG WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING DECISION BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION.
The Definitive Proxy Statement, GOLD Universal Proxy Card and other relevant materials filed by PVG with the SEC are available at no charge at the SEC’s website at https://www.sec.gov/.
Contact:
Patrick S. Adams
PVG Asset Management Corporation
Padams@pvgasset.com
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