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Item 5.02
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Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers;
Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
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Appointment of
Director
Effective July 25,
2019, on the recommendation of the Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Avid Bioservices,
Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Company”), the Board appointed Catherine Mackey, Ph.D. to serve on the Board until
the next annual meeting of stockholders in 2019 and until her successor is elected and qualified. Dr. Mackey will serve on the
Board as a non-employee, independent director, and has been appointed to the Board’s audit committee and corporate governance
committee. The appointment of Dr. Mackey fills a vacancy on the Board created by the resignation of Mr. Joel McComb who resigned
on July 22, 2019.
Dr. Mackey, 63,
is an experienced leader, director and advisor with more than 30 years of research and development and operations experience in
the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agricultural industries. She is chairman of the board of Cour Pharmaceutical Development,
a privately held, clinical stage company focused on immunomodulation. She is also a member of the board of directors and audit
committee of GW Pharmaceuticals PLC (NASDAQ: GWPH), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing
novel therapeutics from its proprietary cannabinoid product platform in a broad range of disease areas, and a member of the board
of directors of Poseida Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held, clinical stage company developing next generation cell therapies
for cancer. Dr. Mackey served as a member of the board of directors and the compensation committee of YM Biosciences Inc.,
a Canadian drug development company, from 2011 to 2013. She also served as a member of the board of directors, the audit committee,
and nominating and corporate governance committee of Sequenom Inc., a life sciences company, from 2015 to 2016. In addition, she
serves on the board of directors of Rady Children’s Hospital and as an advisor to several companies. Dr. Mackey previously
served as senior vice president of Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development and director of Pfizer’s La Jolla Laboratories,
where she built Pfizer La Jolla into one of Pfizer’s main pharmaceutical research and development sites with over 1,000 employees
and a robust drug pipeline. Prior to that role, she served as head of Strategic Alliances and Genomic and Proteomic Sciences for
Pfizer. Dr. Mackey spent the first part of her career in agricultural biotechnology, including as vice president of DEKALB
Genetics, Inc., an international researcher, producer, and marketer of seed. Dr. Mackey received her B.S. and Ph.D. degrees
in microbiology from Cornell University.
The Board has determined
that Dr. Mackey is “independent” as contemplated by the Nasdaq Stock Market and other governing laws and applicable
regulations, including Rule 10A-3 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. There are no arrangements or understandings
between Dr. Mackey and any other persons pursuant to which she was selected as a director. Dr. Mackey does not have any family
relationships with any of the Company’s directors or executive officers. There are no transactions and no proposed transactions
between Dr. Mackey and the Company that would be required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K. Dr. Mackey
will enter into the Company’s standard form of indemnification agreement. In addition, Dr. Mackey will receive compensation
for her service as a non-employee director and for committee service in accordance with the Company’s director compensation
program, comprised of annual board and committee retainers of $55,000 and $15,000, respectively, and a one-time non-qualified stock
option grant to purchase 32,100 shares of the Company’s common stock with an exercise price equal to $6.38, the closing
price of the Company’s common stock on July 25, 2019. The stock option will vest in equal monthly installments over a three-year
period.
On July 26, 2019, the
Company issued a press release announcing the appointment of Dr. Mackey to the Board, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit
99.1.
Director Resignation
On July 22, 2019, Mr.
Joel McComb resigned as a member of the Company’s Board upon mutual agreement with the Company. Mr. McComb’s resignation
was not the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.
Mr. McComb was a member of the Board’s audit committee and corporate governance committee at the time of his resignation.