Michel Hermans, MD Joins TissueTech as Chief Medical Officer

Former Medical Director, Global Medical Marketing, ConvaTec

Life Science Partner recruited Michel Hermans, MD, a surgically trained medical affairs executive to become Chief Medical Officer for TissueTech.

Hermans joins TissueTech after serving as a biopharma consultant for his own firm and Medical Director, Global Medical Marketing for ConvaTech.   Previously, Hermans served served as Medical Director for Ortec where he successfully led the new clinical trials for the commercialization of OrCel globally.

TissueTech, Inc. is a leader in regenerative amniotic tissue-based products for use in the ophthalmology, optometry, orthopedic reconstructive surgeries and wound care markets.

TissueTech offers its portfolio products through its commercial entities: BioTissue, Inc., the industry leader in regenerative tissue therapies for ocular surface diseases and disorders, and Amniox Medical, a leading technology provider to the orthopedic and wound care markets.

“Hermans has the direct clinical trials management experience that leads to the approval of biologics in the BLA regulatory pathway – and brings that background to TissueTech’s clinical and regulatory strategy,” states Tom Callaway, MD, Founder and President of Life Science Partner.  “In addition, as a specialist in treating burn patients, he brings real-life clinical experience to the company.”

Hermans earned his Medical Degree from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and completed his training in general surgery, burn and trauma care from the Rode Kruis Ziekenhuis and Burn Center in Beverwijk, Netherlands.

 

Abiomed to Appoint Seth Bilazarian, M.D., New Vice President of Interventional Cardiology Programs

DANVERS, Mass., Oct. 08, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Abiomed, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD), a leading provider of breakthrough heart support technologies, today announced that Seth Bilazarian, M.D. will be appointed as Vice President of Interventional Cardiology Programs, effective October 8, 2015.

“We are excited to welcome Dr. Seth Bilazarian to Abiomed, where he will add a specialized interventional cardiology perspective to the executive team that will further strengthen our mission to recover hearts and save lives. Seth has over 20 years of experience practicing interventional cardiology in the cath lab and has developed an expertise in hemodynamic support. His insight and knowledge will richly enhance our ongoing training and education initiatives for the new standard of care,” said Michael R. Minogue, President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Abiomed.

“I am thrilled to become part of the Abiomed team. As a user, I am very familiar with the benefits of Impella and know it is transforming the standard of care in treating complex patients. I am eager to collaborate with expert and experienced physician users in interventional cardiology and heart failure to develop best practices for use of the Impella platform in Protected PCI,” said Seth Bilazarian, M.D.  “Educating physicians more broadly on the safe, effective and appropriate use of this technology will also be a focus. I am equally enthusiastic about the opportunity to begin working with industry colleagues to bring new devices within the Impella platform to market and continue the collaborative mission of recovering hearts.”

Dr. Bilazarian is a clinical and interventional cardiologist and has performed coronary and peripheral interventions at Lahey Clinic, Boston University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital and was Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory (Cath Lab) and Chief of the Cardiovascular Steering Committee at Lawrence General. Most recently, he was the Director of Clinical Cardiology Research Program and Clinical Cardiologist at Pentucket Medical Associates, LLC. He also serves on the faculty as an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he has taught since 1995 and is the founder and director of the largest community based cardiac research program in the Partner’s network.

Dr. Bilazarian is board certified in cardiovascular medicine, nuclear cardiology, vascular ultrasound, interventional cardiology, and vascular and endovascular medicine. Dr. Bilazarian is an active participant in outpatient clinical trials in congestive heart failure, hypertension, heart disease prevention, diabetes, anemia, atrial fibrillation, anti-inflammatory strategies for vascular prevention and anticoagulation and anti-platelet therapies. In 2008, he was appointed as physician advisor to the cardiac device panel of the Food & Drug Administration.

In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Bilazarian is an active blogger in the physician community. His blog, “Practitioner’s Corner with Dr. Seth Bilazarian” was established in 2009 and is hosted on theheart.org and MedScape (http://goo.gl/k5lZqA). He has written over 100 blog posts that cover various topics across the wide spectrum of interventional cardiology.

Dr. Bilazarian received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University and MD from University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed his internship and residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and cardiology and interventional cardiology fellowship at Boston University Hospital and Boston City Hospital.

ABOUT ABIOMED
Based in Danvers, Massachusetts, Abiomed, Inc., is a leading provider of medical devices that provide circulatory support.  Our products are designed to enable the heart to rest by improving blood flow and/or performing the pumping of the heart.  For additional information please visit: www.abiomed.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our expectation of a smooth transition to a new Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, the Company’s expectations of continued commercial growth, and future opportunities, including the opportunity to become the standard of care. The Company’s actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements based upon a number of factors, including uncertainties associated with development, testing and related regulatory approvals, including the potential for future losses, complex manufacturing, high quality requirements, dependence on limited sources of supply, competition, technological change, government regulation, litigation matters, future capital needs and uncertainty of additional financing, and other risks and challenges detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

 

For more information, please contact:

Aimee Genzler
Director, Corporate Communications
978-646-1553
agenzler@abiomed.com

Ingrid Goldberg
Director, Investor Relations
igoldberg@abiomed.com

Osiris Therapeutics Announces Expansion of the Leadership Team

COLUMBIA, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSIR), the leading cellular regenerative medicine company focused on developing and marketing products to treat conditions in wound care, orthopaedics and sports medicine, is pleased to announce the expansion of the management team with the appointment of Adrian Mollo as General Counsel and Dr. Jon Hopper as Chief Medical Officer, both reporting to Lode Debrabandere, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. Gregory Law also recently joined the Osiris management team as Vice President of Finance and Principal Accounting Officer, reporting to Philip Jacoby, Chief Financial Officer.

“We’re very pleased Adrian, Jon and Gregory are joining the leadership team,” said Dr. Debrabandere. “In 2014, Osiris successfully transitioned from a research focused company to a fully integrated research and commercial enterprise. Specifically, Osiris expanded its core competencies in sales and marketing operations, health policy & reimbursement, customer service, medical affairs and IP. This significant expansion and strengthening of the leadership team optimally positions the company to execute our strategy of long term revenue growth in wound care, orthopaedics and sports medicine.”

Mr. Mollo joins Osiris after fifteen years with the Washington, D.C. office of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, where he served as the lead partner for intellectual property licensing and transactions and as Vice Chair of the Intellectual Property Department. Mr. Mollo’s background spans a broad spectrum of legal areas and he has extensive experience working with both established and emerging growth companies. Mr. Mollo holds a J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law where he graduated magna cum laude and a B.A. from Winthrop University.

Dr. Hopper most recently worked at Stryker Corp., serving as Vice President, Global Medical Director where he coordinated clinical evaluation and trials, and provided guidance on clinical aspects of risk management, design control and product development. Prior to joining Stryker, Dr. Hopperspent almost five years in wound care with ConvaTec Inc., serving as Vice President of Medical Affairs, North America and Asia Pacific. Prior to joining ConvaTec, he was Senior Medical Officer at the Devices Clinical Team of MHRA (the UK Regulatory Agency for medicines and medical devices) and practiced medicine as a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon. Dr. Hopper graduated with a M.B. Ch.B. from Birmingham University Medical School UK, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and attained an M.B.A. at Keele University UK.

Mr. Law has over 25 years of finance and accounting experience in a variety of industries including biotechnology, telecommunications, energy, private equity, and consulting. Prior to his appointment at Osiris Therapeutics, Mr. Law was a Principal with Garland Group, where he provided consulting services to public and private companies in the areas of interim CFO and Controllership, financial reporting, mergers & acquisitions, valuation and compliance. Previously, Mr. Law held various finance positions at leading companies, such as XO Communications, MCI and General Electric. He graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Accounting and earned his M.B.A. from George Washington University.

About Osiris Therapeutics

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. is the leading cellular regenerative medicine company, having developed the world’s first approved stem cell drug, remestemcel-L for graft versus host disease. Osiris’ products include Grafix® for acute and chronic wounds, Cartiform®, a viable chondral allograft for cartilage repair and the latest addition to Osiris’ line of products, OvationOS®, a viable bone matrix. Osiris is a fully integrated company with capabilities in research, development, manufacturing and distribution. Osiris has developed an extensive intellectual property portfolio to protect the company’s technology and commercial interests.

Osiris, Grafix, Cartiform, and OvationOS are registered trademarks of Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. More information can be found on the company’s website, www.Osiris.com. (OSIR-G)

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements about our expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, intentions, assumptions and other statements that are not historical facts. Words or phrases such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “ongoing,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project” or similar words or phrases, or the negatives of those words or phrases, may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not necessarily mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Examples of forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements regarding any of the following: our product development efforts; our clinical trials and anticipated regulatory requirements, and our ability to successfully navigate these requirements; the success of our product candidates in development; status of the regulatory process for our product and product candidates; implementation of our corporate strategy; our financial performance; our product research and development activities and projected expenditures, including our anticipated timeline and clinical strategy for marketed Biosurgery products (including Grafix, OvationOS and Cartiform) and Biosurgery products under development; our cash needs; patents, trademarks and other proprietary rights; the safety and ability of our products and potential products to address medical needs; our ability to supply a sufficient amount of our marketed products or product candidates and, if approved or otherwise commercially available products, to meet demand; our costs to comply with governmental regulations; our plans for sales and marketing; our plans regarding facilities; types of regulatory frameworks we expect will be applicable to our products and potential products; and results of our scientific research. Additional risks and uncertainties related to the sale of our ceMSC assets and the related transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement with Mesoblast include typical business transactional risks, the risk of changing relationships with customers, suppliers or employees, the risk associated with the disposition of our ceMSC assets and the increased relative dependence on and importance of our other business including our Biosurgery business, the risk that we may not be able to fully benefit from the transactions through milestone payments or royalties, payment risks, including the risk associated with receipt of equity as consideration, in lieu of cash, and the risk of dependence on others to achieve results upon which milestone or royalty payments to us are conditioned. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements for many reasons, including the factors described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and other Periodic Reports filed on Form 10-Q, with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, you should not unduly rely on these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statement to reflect circumstances or events after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc.
Amanda Badillo, 443-545-1834
OsirisPR@Osiris.com

Source: Osiris Therapeutics, Inc.