Hello, and welcome to the annual meeting of shareholders of Cipher Pharmaceuticals Inc. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. During the meeting, we will have a question-and-answer session. You may submit a written question at any time by clicking on the message icon at the top of your screen. Please note that your registered name will be announced along with your question during the Q&A session following the formal portion of the meeting. Guests will not be able to submit questions. Please also note that all participants are in a listen-only mode. If you experience technical difficulties during the meeting, please click on the support link on the broadcast screen. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Mr. Craig Mull. Mr. Mull, the floor is yours.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Cipher's annual and special meeting of shareholders. My name is Craig Mull, and I'm the Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer of Cipher Pharmaceuticals, and I will act as Chairman of the meeting. As the meeting is being held virtually by way of live webcast, we think it is necessary to set out a few rules for the orderly conduct of the meeting. Questions in respect of a motion can be submitted by any registered shareholder or duly appointed proxy holder using the instant messaging service of the virtual interface. When asking a question, please indicate your name, which entity you represent, if any, and confirm that you are a registered shareholder or a duly appointed proxy holder.
General questions would be addressed at the end of the meeting, provided that questions regarding procedural matters or directly related to the motions before the meeting may be addressed during the meeting. For the purposes of the meeting today, voting on all matters will be conducted by electronic ballot. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders will be asked to vote on each item of business after the presentation of all items of business. Each shareholder of the company is entitled to one vote for each share held by him or her as of the record date. When you ask a question, sorry, when you are asked to vote, you will receive a message on the virtual interface requesting you to register your votes. You will only have a certain amount of time to do so when the polls are open.
Only registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders are able to ask questions and vote. Beneficial shareholders and guests will not be able to ask questions or vote. Prior to proceeding with the formal business of the meeting, I would like to take a moment to introduce our directors. Our board consists of Dr. John Mull, Cathy Steiner, Harold Wolkin, Christian Godin, and Arthur Deboeck, and myself. With that, and without further delay, I would like to officially begin this meeting by addressing the formal business of the day. The annual meeting of shareholders of Cipher will now come to order. Scott Langille, Cipher's Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, will act as secretary of the meeting. Computershare Investor Services, through its representatives, will act as scrutineer of the meeting. To expedite matters, I will move and second all motions.
The preliminary scrutineer's report on attendance at the meeting is as follows. Based on the scrutineer's report, I declare that the requisite quorum of shareholders is present and that the meeting is properly constituted for the transaction of business. I direct the scrutineer's report on attendance to be annexed to the minutes of this meeting. With respect to the mailing of materials to shareholders, I have a statutory declaration attesting to the due service of the notice of the meeting, the accompanying management information circular, and the form of proxy, and I direct that this statutory declaration be annexed to the minutes of this meeting. The agenda for motions will be submitted for shareholders' action with respect to the matters that are to be dealt with at this meeting and are contained in the notice of meeting that shareholders receive prior to this meeting.
As noted earlier, voting will take place at the end of all motions. The first item of business concerns the consolidated financial statements of Cipher for the year ended December 31st, 2020. On behalf of the directors, I now place before the meeting the consolidated financial statements and report of auditors thereon for the year ended December 31st, 2020. We will now proceed with the election of directors. The board of directors has fixed the number of directors to be elected at the meeting at six. The management information circular, prepared in connection with the meeting, sets out the six individuals who have been nominated by the company for election as directors. The nominees are Dr. John Mull, Harold Wolkin, Cathy Steiner, Christian Godin, Arthur Deboeck, and myself.
On behalf of the company, I would like to thank the directors for agreeing to stand for election and to serve as directors of Cipher. As the company did not receive notice of any director nominations in connection with the meeting in accordance with its bylaws, the only persons eligible to be nominated for election to the board are the management nominees. Since there can be no other nominations, I will move and second a motion to elect the six named directors. Unless there are any questions, I will move to the next item of business. We will now proceed with the appointment of the auditor. Ernst & Young has served as the auditors of Cipher since their appointment effective March 20th, 2019. The board has approved, subject to shareholder confirmation, the appointment of Ernst & Young as auditors of the company.
I move and second that Ernst & Young be appointed as auditors of the company until the next annual meeting of shareholders and that the board be authorized to fix their remuneration. Unless there are any questions, I will move to the next item of business. We will now proceed with the approval of the unallocated options, rights, and other entitlements under Cipher's stock option plan in accordance with the rules of the TSX. In accordance with the rules of the TSX, all unallocated options, rights, or other entitlements under a security-based compensation arrangement that does not have a fixed maximum aggregate number of securities issuable under such arrangement must be approved by shareholders every three years. As set out in the circular, the stock option plan, together with Cipher's performance and restricted share unit plan, collectively authorize the issuance of up to 10% of the company's issued and outstanding shares.
It has been three years since shareholders last approved all unallocated options under the stock option plan. I move and second a motion that shareholders approve the resolution set out in the circular regarding the approval of all unallocated options, rights, and other entitlements under the stock option plan. Unless there are any questions, I move to the next item of business. We will now proceed with the approval of the unallocated awards, rights, and other entitlements under Cipher's performance and restricted share unit plan in accordance with the rules of the TSX. For the same reasons noted earlier, with respect to the stock option plan, all unallocated awards, rights, and other entitlements under the performance and restricted share unit plan must be approved by shareholders every three years, and the last approval from shareholders was obtained in 2018.
Accordingly, I move and second a motion that shareholders approve the resolution set out in the circular regarding the approval of all unallocated awards, rights, and other entitlements under the performance and restricted share plan. Unless there are any questions, I will move to the voting portion of the meeting. As we mentioned, voting today will be conducted by electronic ballot. I will now take a moment to ask that the balloting be opened to registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders. The polls are now open, and at this point, all registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders who have properly logged in their control numbers or username and wish to vote will be able to see on the screen all motions before the meeting. Please register your votes by accessing the voting page.
We will provide registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders approximately one minute to complete the electronic ballots. Once the electronic balloting closes, the voting page will disappear, and your votes will automatically be submitted. I would now ask the scrutineer to compile the report regarding the results of the voting on all business matters. I have been advised by the scrutineers that the ballots and proxies deposited for the meeting have been voted in favor of each of the matters considered today at this meeting. The formal results will be published on SEDAR. I direct that the results be included with the minutes of this meeting. The formal items of business as settled in the notice of meeting have now been dealt with. I move and second a motion that this meeting now terminate.
As there is no further business to come before the meeting, I declare the formal part of the meeting to be concluded. We will now accept questions from shareholders and proxy holders. I ask that all registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders who would like to ask a question use the instant messaging feature of the virtual interface to do so. We will answer as many appropriate questions as time permits. When asking your question, please state your name, the entity you represent, if any, and confirm if you are a registered shareholder or a duly appointed proxy holder. Please limit your questions to topics relating to today's subject matter. We will now give attendees a moment to type any questions. As there are no questions, we will now conclude today's meeting. Thank you for joining us today, and we thank you for your continued support.
Please conclude the meeting. You may now disconnect and have a pleasant day.