Cara Therapeutics, Inc. (CARA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

So, good afternoon, everybody. I am Derek Chalmers, and I'm the Chief Executive Officer of Cara Therapeutics, and I'm very happy to welcome you to the Cara Therapeutics' 2021 Stockholders Meeting. Before I call the meeting to order, I'd like to introduce to you, the other members of the Board and the business team, who are with us today on the call. The other members of the Board here in person are Dr. Jeffrey Ives, Harrison Bains, Jr., Christopher Posner, Dr. Susan Shiff, and Martin Vogelbaum, who also serves as the company's lead independent Director. The other officers of the company here today are Thomas Reilly, our Chief Financial Officer; and Scott Terrillion, our General Counsel, Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer; and Mr. Terrillion will act as Secretary for the stockholders meeting. I'd also like to introduce Sean Riegler and Jason Robinson of Ernst & Young LLP, the company's auditors, who are available to respond to appropriate questions. And finally, I would like to introduce Darren DeStefano of Cooley LLP, the company's outside Corporate Counsel. So the meeting will now officially come to order. We will proceed with the formal business of the meeting. The agenda and rules of conduct for the meeting are posted on the annual meeting portal. We ask that you please follow these rules to help the meeting run smoothly. We will address questions during the Q&A portion of the meeting. If you have a question, please submit it in the Q&A section on your web console. Will the secretary of this meeting please report at this time with respect to the mailing of the notice of the meeting and the stockholders list?

I have at this meeting a complete list of the stockholders of record of the company's common stock at the close of business on April 12, 2021, the record date for this meeting, which is available on the annual meeting portal, if any stockholder wishes to examine it. I also have an affidavit certifying that on April 23, 2021, a notice of annual meeting of stockholders of the company was deposited in the United States Mail to all stockholders of record at the close of business on April 12, 2021.

Thank you. And at this time, I'd like to introduce [ John Holowa ] of Broadridge Financial Solutions, I'm appointing Mr. Holowa to act as Inspector of Election at this meeting. Mr. Holowa has taken and subscribed the customary oath of office to execute his duties with strict impartiality. We will file this oath with the records of the meeting. His function is to decide upon the qualifications of voters, accept their votes and when balloting on all matters is completed, to tally the final votes. Will the Secretary of this meeting please report at this time with respect to the existence of a quorum?

I have been informed by the Inspector of Elections that proxies have been received for 41,281,642 of the 50,041,626 shares of common stock outstanding on the record date, which represents approximately 82.5% of the total number of outstanding shares. This constitutes a quorum for the meeting today, and we may now carry out the official business of the meeting.

Thank you. There are 3 proposals to be considered by the stockholders at this meeting.

The time is now 12:04 on Thursday, June 3, 2021, and the polls are now open for voting on all matters to be presented. The polls will be closed to voting after we go through the matters to be voted upon.