Antares Pharma Appoints Patrick Shea Senior Vice President of Commercial

EWING, N.J., July 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Antares Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATRS) (“the Company”), a pharmaceutical technology company, today announced the appointment of Patrick Shea to the position of Senior Vice President of Commercial.  Mr. Shea will be responsible for leading all commercial activities including sales, sales operations, marketing, trade and market access for the Company and will report to Robert F. Apple, Antares Pharma’s President and Chief Executive Officer.   In his role, Mr. Shea’s primary responsibilities will be to accelerate the positive growth trajectory of the Company’s flagship product XYOSTED^® as well as strategic assessment of future potential product opportunities for the commercial organization.  He will be replacing Edward Kessig, Senior Vice President of Commercial, who has recently announced his retirement.

Mr. Shea has over three decades of sales, marketing, market access and commercial operations experience. Most recently Mr. Shea served as Chief Commercial Officer of Egalet Corporation, a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing, manufacturing, and commercializing innovative treatments for pain where he led a commercial organization of approximately 100 employees.  Prior to Egalet, he served as Chief Commercial Officer at Clarus Therapeutics, Inc., a men's health specialty pharmaceutical company.  Preceding Clarus he served as vice president of sales and marketing for the U.S. commercial operations of CSL Behring, where he oversaw strategic efforts for sales, marketing and managed care for a specialty biotherapeutics business.  Before that he served as senior vice president of sales and marketing for the U.S. pharmaceutical operations at Astellas Pharmaceuticals leading a commercial team of approximately 1,000, supporting a diverse specialty and critical care portfolio which included significant work in urology. Additional commercial leadership roles were also held at Ligand Pharmaceuticals (pain management and oncology) and Boehringer Ingelheim (urology).

Robert F. Apple, President and Chief Executive Officer of Antares Pharma, stated, “We are very pleased to have someone with Pat’s extensive sales and marketing background join the Antares senior leadership team.  With a proven track record of leading successful commercial organizations of varying sizes and diverse portfolios in the pharmaceutical industry, we believe Pat will be an extremely valuable asset to Antares as we enter the next phase of growth for XYOSTED.”   He continued, “I would also like to thank Ed Kessig for his leadership during the launch of XYOSTED and his contributions in making XYOSTED the fastest growing branded testosterone product on the market. Additionally, we believe the commercial team’s decision to strategically shift to virtual detailing earlier this year due to the COVID-19 crisis resulted in double digit percentage prescription growth in the second quarter of 2020 despite the challenging physician and patient access conditions that exist today.” 

Mr. Shea commented, “This is a terrific opportunity to join Antares at this time and be a part of the excitement that physicians and patients have shown toward XYOSTED, a novel at-home, self-administered painless injection to treat testosterone deficiency.  I’m looking forward to leading the commercial team as we enter the next phase of growth for the Company and this unique product.”

About Antares Pharma

Antares Pharma, Inc. is a pharmaceutical technology company focused primarily on the development and commercialization of self-administered injectable pharmaceutical products using advanced drug delivery auto injector technology.  The Company has a portfolio of proprietary and partnered commercial products with several product candidates in various stages of development, as well as significant strategic alliances with industry leading pharmaceutical companies including Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. (Teva), AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMAG), Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer) and Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Idorsia).  Antares Pharma’s FDA approved products include XYOSTED^® (testosterone enanthate) injection, OTREXUP^® (methotrexate) injection for subcutaneous use and Sumatriptan Injection USP, which is distributed by Teva.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those described.  Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: the uncertainty regarding the duration, scope and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the mitigation measures and other restrictions implemented in response to the same and the impact on demand for our products, new patients and prescriptions, future revenue, product supply, and our overall business, operating results and financial condition; market acceptance, adequate reimbursement coverage and commercial success of XYOSTED^® and future revenue from the same; successful development including the timing and results of the clinical bridging and Phase 3 clinical trial of the drug device combination product for Selatogrel with Idorsia Pharmaceuticals and FDA and global regulatory approvals and future revenue from the same; market acceptance of Teva’s generic epinephrine auto-injector product and future revenue from the same; our expectations regarding whether the FDA will pursue withdrawal of approval for AMAG Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Makena^® subcutaneous auto injector following the recent FDA advisory committee meeting and future prescriptions, market acceptance and revenue from Makena^® subcutaneous auto injector; Teva’s ability to successfully commercialize VIBEX^® Sumatriptan Injection USP and the amount of revenue from the same; continued growth of prescriptions and sales of OTREXUP^®;  the timing and results of the Company’s or its partners’ research projects or clinical trials of product candidates in development;  actions by the FDA or other regulatory agencies with respect to the Company’s products or product candidates of its partners; continued growth in product, development, licensing and royalty revenue; the Company’s ability to meet loan extension and interest only payment milestones and the ability to repay the debt obligation to Hercules Capital;  the Company’s ability to obtain financial and other resources for its research, development, clinical, and commercial activities and other statements regarding matters that are not historical facts, and involve predictions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, achievements or prospects to be materially different from any future results, performance, achievements or prospects expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. In some cases you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as ''may'', ''will'', ''should'', ''would'', ''expect'', ''intend'', ''plan'', ''anticipate'', ''believe'', ''estimate'', ''predict'', ''potential'', ''seem'', ''seek'', ''future'', ''continue'', or ''appear'' or the negative of these terms or similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements is contained in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, and in the Company's other periodic reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The Company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. All forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to the Company on the date hereof, and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release, except as required by law.

Contact:

Jack Howarth

Vice President, Corporate Affairs

609-359-3016