Tag Archive for: Osiris Therapeutics

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.

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

Source: Osiris Therapeutics, Inc.

Former Vice President, Global Medical Director, Stryker

Life Science Partner recruited Jon Hopper, MBChB, an accomplished physician executive to become Chief Medical Officer for Osiris Therapeutics. Osiris is the leading stem cell company focused on developing products to treat conditions in wound care, orthopedic and sports medicine markets.

Hopper joins Osiris after serving as the Vice President, Global Medical Director at Stryker. In his new role, Hopper will report directly to CEO Lode Debrabandere and oversee medical affairs, clinical development and regulatory affairs globally. He will be responsible for providing high-level market strategy for Osiris’ leadership within regenerative medicine.

“Hopper has a worldview of developing and marketing both orthopedic and wound healing products in the US, Asia and Europe,” notes Tom Callaway, MD, President of Life Science Partner. “He has helped developing clinical and post-marketing plans for complex biologic products including living cells.”

Hopper earned both his Bachelor of Science Degree in Anatomical Studies and his MB ChB from the University of Birmingham, UK.

Learn More About Life Science Partner

Click button below to learn more about how we recruit Chief Executives:

Life Science Partner recruits former General Manager of PBM Nutritionals, LLC (formerly Wyeth Nutritionals)

Life Science Partner announces the recruitment of Bill Wright, a senior manufacturing executive, to Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. as the Senior Director,  Osteocel and Mesenchymal Stem Cell (MSC) Operations.   

Osiris Therapeutics develops innovative technology for isolating and expanding mesenchymal stem cells derived from donated bone marrow for therapeutic drug products. The Company uses cells from adult donors that are grown in culture to very high numbers, allowing a single donor’s cells to treat thousands of patients. 

These cells can be used in patients unrelated to the donor, without rejection, eliminating the need for donor matching and recipient immune suppression.

In Wright’s most recent role at PBM, a manufacturer of infant formula and other nutritional foods, he was responsible for the strategic direction and operational results for all aspects of this high growth entrepreneurial business including managing the functions of quality, commercial operations, engineering, HR, finance, IT, R&D and manufacturing. 

In his previous position at CryoLife, Inc., he served as Director of Operations for Bioprosthetic Devices and Allograft Processing.

“Bill has strong operations skills, understands how to scale up biological sites and is well-versed in broad device operations making him an excellent fit for this critical role as Osiris readies for its upcoming Phase III trials in both GVHD and Crohn’s Disease indications,” noted Tom Callaway, MD, founder and president of Life Science Partner.

Wright will lead all aspects of manufacturing operations with the responsibility for developing, approving and implementing the strategic and operational plans of the organization, for championing quality improvement initiatives, and sponsoring business excellence efforts.

Wright received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina.

Learn More About Life Science Partner

Click button below to learn more about how we recruit Chief Executives:

Life Science Partner brings clinical development and marketing talent to help launch first stem-cell therapy

Life Science Partner announces today the recruitment of Lode Debrabandere, PhD, former vice president, Neuroscience Business Unit of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company to Osiris Therapeutics to become general manager of Osiris Therapeutics’ Autoimmune Diseases business unit. 

Osiris is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company developing innovative technology for isolating and expanding messchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from donated bone marrow for therapeutic drug products.

In the past few years, Osiris has transformed from an early-stage, research-focused organization to a commercially-focused enterprise – as it prepares to complete trials and launch Prochymal in autoimmune -related disorders including the treatment of acute graft-versus-host-disease in patients receiving bone marrow transplantation, Crohn’s Disease, and other related diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

“Osiris fits Debrabandere like a glove,” noted Tom Callaway, MD, founder and president of Life Science Partner.  “He has significant global regulatory and clinical development experience – and demonstrated global marketing strategy expertise that will accelerate the successful launch of Prochymal to help these patients.”

At Bristol-Myers Squibb, Debrabandere led an interdisciplinary team to evaluate the company’s portfolio of products and programs – and then implemented a market-driven realignment of resources to expand into infectious diseases and CNS.  Earlier he led U.S. marketing and global clinical development for UCB Pharma where he led the co-promotional agreements with Pfizer and Alza to rapidly grow sales of Zyrtec and Ditropan, respectively.  He began his career as a trainee to the CEO of UCB Pharma before joining the global company in clinical development, rising to director of global clinical operations.

A native of Belgium, Debrabandere  earned his Pharm.D and PhD (Pharmaceutical Sciences) and his MBA at University of Leuven.