Exhibit 1
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July 17 Press Release
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Pierre Legault – Contrary to your letter, Mr. Legault was not the cause of the conditions that led to the management shakeup at Jean Coutu. He was part of the solution. As clearly set forth in the Reuters’ article that you cite in support of your unfounded assertions, Mr. Legault was made EVP at Jean Coutu in November as a result of poor results for the quarter ending that month – he arrived after the problem! In addition, as clearly set forth in the Wall Street Journal article you cite, Mr. Legault was not dismissed from Rite-Aid. Your liberal use of misleading citations makes me wonder whether you’ve read the articles you refer to at all or if you’ve read them and hope no one else does. YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY RETRACT THESE COMMENTS AND ISSUE A PUBLIC APOLOGY TO MR. LEGAULT.
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Daniel Ninivaggi – Daniel Ninivaggi is the president of a multi-billion dollar Nasdaq listed company and more importantly, he is an officer of your second largest shareholder. In that capacity and as a board member of various companies, including Motorola Mobility and CIT, Mr. Ninivaggi has enacted significant cost reductions focused on operating improvements and G&A spending, areas that we believe need significant improvement at Forest. Moreover, Mr. Ninivaggi has monitored and overseen capital spending to safeguard against misuse and inefficient allocation – particularly significant at Forest given its $3.2 billion of cash and the exigencies created by the Lexapro/Namenda revenue gap. Accordingly, he is highly qualified to be a Forest Labs board member and his interests are well-aligned with all other shareholders. Nonetheless, you say that Mr. Ninivaggi has no relevant experience. Interestingly, when you tout the credentials of your existing board, you mention being an “attorney” as the credentials of one of the current board members. I assume you are referring to Dan Goldwasser, as I see no other discernible qualifications that he possesses. Note that, among his many qualifications, Mr. Ninivaggi was a partner at a major law firm for several years. I suppose being an attorney only makes one qualified to serve on the Forest board if that attorney is also an incumbent director – how convenient.
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Andrew Fromkin – Andrew Fromkin would be, in my opinion, a perfect fit for the Forest Labs board. He holds relevant qualifications far beyond his recent experience at Clinical Data that would benefit any pharmaceutical company. Most recently, Mr. Fromkin led Clinical Data, Inc., a public company, through a successful transformation into a pharmaceutical company where he demonstrated his experience in drug licensing and M&A transactions, efficient drug development and gained first-pass FDA drug approval of Viibryd, a drug that the company is relying on significantly to make up the Lexapro/Namenda revenue gap. Further, he not only brings a strong understanding of pharmaceutical business operations but from his extensive business experience in the healthcare industry, he has developed a deep understanding of other healthcare sectors and relevant strategies that are vital to achieving commercial drug adoption. I just ask that you honestly compare his qualifications to those of some of the incumbent directors. To say that he is not qualified is absurd in my opinion.
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Eric Ende – Your criticisms of Mr. Ende are baffling to me. I expend personal resources to compensate and incentivize a highly qualified individual to serve on the Forest board and you claim this makes him conflicted. But in fact, like Mr. Ninivaggi, Mr. Ende’s interests are tied to the success of Forest for all of its stockholders. He only makes money if Forest’s stock price goes up during the next 2 ½ years which is good for all stockholders.
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