(September 30, 2022) – Vivera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Vivera”) announces that it has responded to a recent Wells Notice from the Los Angeles Staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) that threatens a civil lawsuit against the Company.  Vivera notified the SEC in advance that any such lawsuit by the SEC- a civil agency - would be without merit, and sees the SEC’s filing of litigation as being politically motivated. Vivera believes the frivolous and malicious lawsuit may have been instigated by parties related to not only the Company’s current litigation with USA Today but also Boston law firm Markham Read Zerner LLC and attorney John Markham, who – along with its clients – have a demonstrable history of attempting to defame Vivera principals. Regardless of the sources SEC believes it may rely upon, Vivera maintains that the facts speak for themselves and that distortion of these facts are not in the best interest of any party.

In further response to the SEC’s recent Well’s Notice, Vivera has retained SEC defense experts, John A. Sten and Ivan Knauer of the law firm, Armstrong Teasdale.  These former SEC lawyers have a long history of aggressively defending companies wrongfully accused of securities laws violations and have obtained outright dismissal of SEC cases by the judge on numerous occasions; as well as successfully obtaining jury verdicts against the SEC where necessary—in some cases with as little as 45 minutes of post-trial jury deliberations. 

The SEC staff does not maintain any specific factual allegations against the Company.  But in speaking with the SEC, Vivera’s lawyers have learned that the SEC claims that it believes Vivera’s investors were misled about the nature of Vivera’s license to its TABMELT® technology and about Vivera’s public litigation proceedings against Alternate Health, Inc. – a now-defunct company - regarding the scope of the TABMELT® license. Vivera vehemently denies these meritless allegations and disagrees with the SEC’s purported claims. 

Based on the SEC’s conduct in investigating this matter and its staff’s harassing and abusive conduct towards Vivera, its officers, and its investors, the Company seriously questions the SEC’s motives behind this matter. In short, Vivera believes that the SEC has been misled by third parties involved in ongoing disputes with Vivera.  Based on its review of the matter, Vivera believes that these third parties have induced the SEC to target Vivera unfairly.  This overreach by the SEC’s staff members threatens to suffocate Vivera, an innovative, non-public, revenue-generating company making socially impactful advances in areas such as addressing the opioid epidemic.

Despite the injurious actions being undertaken by the SEC, Vivera remains open to reaching a resolution of this matter before any action is filed but cannot guarantee that it will be successful. To this end, Vivera will continue to cooperate with the SEC in an attempt to educate its staff as to what Vivera sees as the true facts of this matter. Should negotiations with the SEC fail, however, Vivera is prepared to vigorously defend itself through trial.