JACKSON, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Richmond Brothers, Inc., a Michigan-based SEC registered investment advisor and wealth management firm that is the largest beneficial owner of Rockwell Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ: RMTI) (“Rockwell” or the “Company”), which together with its affiliates beneficially owns nearly 5.6 million shares, or 10.8% of the Company’s outstanding common stock, today issued the following statement in response to Rockwell’s appointment of John G. Cooper to its Board of Directors.

“We are cautiously optimistic that Mr. Cooper can bring sorely-needed additional independent perspective to Rockwell’s Board. We hope that Mr. Cooper takes his fiduciary duty seriously and acts in the best interests of all shareholders. To that end, we will be monitoring Mr. Cooper’s performance on the Board and that of the Company as a whole to determine if he will exert adequate oversight of management and act as an independent check to Chairman and CEO Rob Chioini. Ideally, Mr. Cooper’s addition, following the addition of Mark H. Ravich and the earlier appointment of Dr. Robin Smith, can help move the Rockwell Board in a more independent direction.

As we have consistently stated, we believe that Rockwell needs swift change to improve its woeful corporate governance and ensure it is executing against a strategy to drive value for shareholders. From what we have seen, we are extremely skeptical of Mr. Chioini’s willingness to keep his Board members informed about management’s activities and allow them to successfully fulfill their fiduciary duty to push for such improvements. We believe all the independent Directors of Rockwell, hopefully including Mr. Cooper and Dr. Robin Smith, in addition to Mark H. Ravich, should demand that Mr. Chioini grant all Directors appropriate access to Rockwell’s books and records and key personnel – access which has not been provided to Mr. Ravich to date.

We also call on the independent members of Rockwell’s Board to take a fresh look at the Company’s strategy to achieve transitional add-on (TAO) reimbursement for Triferic. In our view, the Board, and Rockwell shareholders, would be mistaken in thinking that achieving TAO pricing for Triferic is an indication of anything other than luck on Mr. Chioini’s part. We believe that Mr. Chioini lacks the skills and ability needed to drive a successful strategy at the Company, and would be equally ill equipped to manage Rockwell’s assets and potential should Triferic achieve TAO pricing. Given this, and given Mr. Chioini’s pointed unresponsiveness to shareholder concerns, we again call for him to resign or be removed.”

About Richmond Brothers, Inc.

Richmond Brothers, Inc. is an SEC registered investment advisor and wealth management firm founded in 1994.

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