Background
pSivida Corp. first turned to Danforth Advisors in the summer of 2017 for support with an ambitious plan. Under the leadership of new CEO Nancy Lurker, the company sought to fast-track its evolution from an R&D-centric, small cap play to a commercial-ready entity with products approaching market and money in the bank. With a Chief Accounting Officer on staff but no CFO and little time to find one, we provided an interim Chief Financial Advisor who quickly became a partner to Nancy at the highest strategic level.
To complete this kind of transformation with an aggressive timeline, the company needed three things in short order: money, product and visibility with Wall Street. The Danforth team hit the ground running on all three fronts – advising and executing on the key events that ultimately formed an entirely new company, all while managing its functional finance needs along the way.
Danforth Role
Our team pursued and accomplished several critical goals in parallel, including:
- The close of approximately $80 million in equity and debt financing from EW Healthcare Partners and SWK Holdings Company, respectively
- Evaluation and execution of an agreement to acquire Icon Bioscience – thus accelerating the company’s timeline to market with an FDA-approved product
- De-listing the company’s stock from trading on the Australian Securities Exchange
Results
This work culminated in the company’s re-launch as EyePoint Pharmaceuticals in 2018 – just seven months after the initial engagement with Danforth. The company subsequently doubled its market cap from approximately $50 million to $112 million and advanced its product launch plans. To ensure its commercial readiness, EyePoint’s finance needs evolved as well, including putting new systems in place and planning for manufacturing and sales. Rather than search for a candidate to fill this new role, EyePoint leveraged our bench strength to immediately bring in another senior-level consultant to get the work underway.