Advertisement
I am writing to suggest a live, face-to-face debate between the two of useither Wednesday or Thursday of this week.
Biovail shareholders have an important decision to make in this upcomingproxy contest. It is a choice between you and your current board and theboard slate proposed by the Concerned Shareholders and it revolves around twocentral issues:
Advertisement
I propose that we allow shareholders to hear from the company's currentCEO and the proposed CEO (me) and decide for themselves.
Howard Green of ROBTV has agreed to moderate the debate. If for somereason, he is unacceptable to you, we would agree to have it moderated by arespected financial journalist who is mutually acceptable to both of us. I amalso willing to have it held at any location of your choosing should that benecessary. It would also be broadcast live over the Internet, unedited and inreal time.
The Concerned Shareholders will pay for all production and related costs.The debate would be broadcast real-time as streaming video on our web site,and we would provide streaming video for you to broadcast simultaneously atwww.biovail.com. Both parties would be free to provide archived re-broadcastof the debate, with the understanding that neither party would edit the debatevideo for archived rebroadcast.
I propose that the debate last for 60 minutes, and that we adopt a formatsimilar to one used in many political debates, but slightly modified due tothe technical nature of the pharmaceutical Industry: the journalist/moderatorwould prepare three questions, to be asked of both of us and each of us wouldask three questions of the other. We would be given three minutes maximum toanswer each question; the other person would have three minutes to respond andthen each party would have one minute for rebuttal to the other party'sresponses. We would alternate "first answers" so that both parties would haveequal opportunity. Each party would also be given 3 minutes for a finalclosing statement. We could use coin flips to determine which party would bethe "first-answerer" of the first question, and to determine which party hasthe right to decide whether to be the first or second person to deliver theclosing statement.
I believe having this information is critical to our shareholders decidingwhich slate they should vote for at the upcoming Annual General Meeting onJune 25, 2008.
As mentioned previously, given the limited time available, I propose thatthe debate be conducted on June 18 or June 19. I am willing to modify myschedule to meet whatever time restrictions you might face.
I hope that you will accept this invitation to debate. I believe theshareholders of Biovail deserve no less than to hear directly from the two ofus -- unfiltered by lawyers, consultants, and spin doctors, to help themdecide who is better qualified to lead the company forward after the June 25AGM. Given the time required to make arrangements, I request that you respondto this invitation no later than 12:00 noon EDT on Tuesday, June 17.June 16, 2008 William Wells Chief Executive Officer Biovail Corporation 7150 Mississauga Road Mississauga, Ontario l5N 8M5 Dear Mr. Wells:
SOURCE Bruce Brydon
