Former Pappas Portfolio Company CEO Retracts Anonymous Allegations

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Jul 17, 2018, 10:00 ET

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., July 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pappas Capital announced today that Kenneth Ian Moch has retracted allegations of financial malfeasance that he made, anonymously, against two of the firm's senior executives. In the retraction letter, Mr. Moch acknowledged that "the statements that I made in the emails were false and it was wrong for me to send them." He also retracted all other disparaging statements that he made about Pappas Capital over the course of litigation that extended over more than two years.

During a seven-month period beginning in October 2014, Mr. Moch sent a series of anonymous emails to several of the firm's largest investors and to the news media. More than a year after the initial email, Pappas Capital identified Mr. Moch as the sender and named him in a defamation lawsuit. The two parties have entered into a settlement agreement and Pappas Capital has dismissed its defamation case against Mr. Moch. Mr. Moch was previously the CEO of Chimerix, a Durham, NC company in which venture capital funds managed by Pappas had invested.

Terms of the overall settlement agreement are confidential. A summary of notable publicly available events leading to the settlement is posted along with this press release on our website at www.pappas-capital.com.

About Pappas Capital
Founded in 1994, Pappas Capital invests exclusively in the life sciences sector – biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals, drug delivery, medical devices and related ventures – across the United States and Canada. Pappas Capital has raised more than $500 million in capital and has guided the launch or development of more than 70 companies.

Since 2014, three companies founded or co-founded by Pappas have been sold to large pharmaceutical companies: CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Eli Lilly & Co. in 2017 for nearly $1 billion; Afferent Pharmaceuticals, bought by Merck in 2016 for $500 million upfront and $750 million in milestones; and Lumena Pharmaceuticals, bought by Shire in 2014 for more than $300 million. Over the past five years a dozen Pappas portfolio companies have been acquired or have completed an IPO – among them, Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, TESARO, Rotation Medical and TYRX. Most recently, in June 2018 Kezar Life Sciences (Nasdaq: KZR) raised $86.3 million in its initial public offering. For more information about Pappas Capital, please visit www.pappas-capital.com.

CONTACT:
Ford S. Worthy
[email protected]
919-998-3330

SOURCE Pappas Capital