Virios Therapeutics Issues Shareholder Letter Highlighting Corporate Progress and Key Upcoming Milestones

ATLANTA, Ga., Feb. 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Virios Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: VIRI) (the “Company”), a development-stage biotechnology company focused on advancing novel antiviral therapies to treat debilitating chronic diseases, including fibromyalgia (“FM”) and Long-COVID (“LC”), today issued a Shareholder Letter highlighting the Company’s progress and key milestones in 2024.

Dear Virios (VIRI) Shareholders,

On behalf of the Virios directors and the executive team, we would like to provide a corporate progress report on several key topics as we proceed through the first quarter of 2024.

Special Shareholder Meeting: On March 1, 2024, we will hold a special shareholder meeting, whereby we are requesting your approval to execute a reverse stock split some time over the course of the next 12 months. In our outreach to shareholders in connection with the meeting, we heard concerns about whether and when the reverse stock split would be implemented, if approved, and we want to address those concerns here. Approval of this proposal does not commit the Company to the execution of a reverse stock split. It does provide maximum strategic optionality moving forward, including the ability to execute strategic transactions and to enable future fund raising.

Indeed, the Board’s unanimous view is that the implementation of the reverse stock split should be deferred until after the Company has clarity on the results of the current Long-COVID (“LC”) study being independently run via an unrestricted grant to the Bateman Horne Center. Results from this study are currently projected to be reported in the second half of 2024.

Director Fee and Management Team 10% Salary Cut: We work diligently to minimize operational expenses and deploy our cash to fund value creating research as evidenced by the fact that we operate VIRI as a public company with four full-time employees. In order to underscore the management team’s alignment as fellow shareholders and to emphasize our commitment to long-term success and value creation, all of Virios’ employees have agreed to a 10% salary compensation reduction in exchange for future vesting stock options. In addition, our directors have also agreed to a 10% reduction in cash director fees.