Steven Lo was named Chief Executive Officer, President, and Principal Executive Officer of Vaxart, Inc. by the Board of Directors on March 4, 2024. He also became a member of the Board with effect from March 18, 2024. Michael J. Finney, Ph.D. will resign on the Start Date as the Company’s Interim President and Chief Executive Officer and Principal Executive Officer in connection with Mr. Lo’s appointment; Dr. Finney will nevertheless hold the position of Chair of the Board.
The 56-year-old Mr. Lo has over 25 years of expertise in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and healthcare sectors. He has held C-level positions at publicly traded biotech businesses for more than 12 of those years. Before coming to work for the company, Mr. Lo was the CEO and a director of the private biotech company Valitor, Inc. from August 2022 to March 2024. Mr. Lo served as the president, chief executive officer, and director of the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical business Zosano Pharma Corporation from October 2019 to August 2022. He served as Chief Commercial Officer of Puma Biotechnology, Inc., a biopharmaceutical firm that developed and marketed novel treatments to improve cancer therapy, from September 2015 until October 2019. He developed and oversaw business development as well as the company’s first product’s global commercialization at that company. He founded the commercial organization to introduce the company’s first product while serving as Chief Commercial Officer of Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated. Earlier in his career, he worked for 13 years in a range of leadership positions with increasing responsibility in drug research and sales at Genentech, Inc., a member of the Roche Group. He worked in a variety of speciality therapeutics fields, such as endocrinology, oncology, and others. After working for Kaiser Permanente in operations and finance, Mr. Lo began his career in the pharmaceutical sector at AstraZeneca. Mr. Lo graduated with a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of California, Davis and a Masters in Health Administration from the University of Southern California.
Mr. Lo entered into a letter agreement with the company in conjunction with his appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer, wherein he will be entitled to participate in the company’s annual bonus program and receive an annual base salary of $600,000. Prorated for the fiscal year 2024, his “target” bonus potential will be up to 50% of his base income annually. There won’t be any further payment to Mr. Lo for his directorship.
Mr. Lo intends to partake in the Severance Benefit Plan offered by the Company. The Severance Plan specifies that his Non-CiC Severance Period would last for 12 months, and his CiC Severance Period will also last for 12 months. All eligible employees will be able to enroll in the other basic benefit programs, which will also be offered to Mr. Lo.
Furthermore, in accordance with the Vaxart, Inc. 2024 Inducement issue Plan, the Board instructed the Compensation Committee to issue Mr. Lo the following equity awards on or around his Start Date: (i) a restricted stock unit award covering 250,000 shares of the Company’s common stock, which shall vest as to 25% of the shares underlying the award on each anniversary of his Start Date; (ii) an option to purchase 1,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock, which shall vest over 48 months, with 25% vesting on the first anniversary of his Start Date and 1/48th vesting monthly thereafter.
Mr. Lo will sign the standard indemnity agreement form provided by the company, which is included as Exhibit 10.3 to the company’s February 20, 2018, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing of its Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-35285).
