VANCOUVER, BC, March 28, 2024 /CNW/ - Filament Health Corp. (OTCQB: FLHLF) (Cboe CA: FH) (FSE: 7QS) ("Filament" or the "Company"), a clinical‐stage natural psychedelic drug development company, today announced the appointment of Michael Messinger, CPA, to its Board of Directors (the "Board"). Mr. Messinger will also serve as the Chair of the Company's Audit Committee.

"I am pleased to welcome Mr. Messinger to our Board of Directors," said Filament Chief Executive Officer, Benjamin Lightburn. "We welcome his many decades of experience in both finance and biotechnology, and look forward to leveraging his expertise as we work to advance Filament's drug development platform."

Mr. Messinger has more than 20 years of experience leading finance as well as other support functions for drug discovery and development organizations. He has extensive understanding of clinical development across a variety of therapeutic areas including neurology, metabolic disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, immunology, ophthalmology and infectious diseases. Prior to joining Filament's Board, Mr. Messinger held executive and financial reporting roles with publicly traded, Nasdaq-listed companies ContraFect Corporation ("ContraFect") and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Lexicon").

As Chief Financial Officer of ContraFect, Mr. Messinger raised over $275 million USD of funding in multiple financings, including ContraFect's initial public offering in 2014. Mr. Messinger served as Director of Research and Development Finance at Lexicon before joining ContraFect. While at Lexicon, Mr. Messinger was responsible for the financial management of Lexicon's partnership with Symphony Capital, LLC, in addition to coordinating fiscal and program management concerning Lexicon's development programs. Prior to working at Lexicon, he served as Controller of Coelacanth Corporation ("Coelacanth") for two years, leading the effort for the sale of Coelacanth to Lexicon. Mr. Messinger received his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan. He began his career as an auditor at Ernst & Young LLP.

"From the first meeting with the team at Filament, I was excited by the opportunity to work together," stated Mr. Messinger. "It is inspiring to find a group so committed to using psychedelics as a new therapeutic modality to treat some of our greatest mental health needs. The data the Company has amassed to date demonstrates the potential of PEX010 to dramatically improve patient outcomes across a number of mental health conditions. I am eager to help support the advancement of our drug candidates into later stage clinical trials."  

Filament also announced the appointment of Steven Nguyen, CPA, as Interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Mr. Nguyen is an experienced accounting professional with expertise in audit, accounting, tax, and financial reporting in multiple industries including consumer products, research and development, and resource exploration. He is the President of Nuyun Consulting Corp., a company which provides financial reporting consulting services to publicly listed companies, and acts as an officer for both Cboe Canada and Canadian Securities Exchange listed companies. Previously, Mr. Nguyen spent four years on the public company audit team at Crowe MacKay and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University.

Mr. Nguyen succeeds Filament's previous CFO, Warren Duncan, who has taken a medical leave of absence.

Filament Health is a clinical-stage natural psychedelic drug development company. We believe that safe, standardized, naturally-derived psychedelic medicines can improve the lives of many, and our mission is to see them in the hands of everyone who needs them as soon as possible. Filament's platform of proprietary intellectual property enables the discovery, development, and delivery of natural psychedelic medicines for clinical development. We are paving the way with what we believe to be the first-ever natural psychedelic drug candidates.

Learn more at www.filament.healthand on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Certain statements and information contained herein may constitute "forward‐looking statements" and "forward‐looking information," respectively, under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward‐looking information can be identified by the use of forward‐looking terminology such as, "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "may", "will", "should", "believe", "intends", "forecast", "plans", "guidance" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward‐looking statements or information. The forward‐looking statements are not historical facts, but reflect the current expectations of management of Filament regarding future results or events and are based on information currently available to them. Certain material factors and assumptions were applied in providing these forward‐looking statements. Forward‐looking statements regarding the Company are based on the Company's estimates and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements of Filament to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward‐looking statements or forward‐looking information, including status of patent applications and the ability to secure patents. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward‐ looking statements and forward‐looking information. Filament will not update any forward‐ looking statements or forward‐looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.