MENLO PARK, Calif.,
Aug. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. (OTCBB: ASTY), a leading
biotechnology company in the emerging field of regenerative
medicine, announced today the appointments of Andrew ("Andy") Arno
and Natale ("Nat") Ricciardi to the Company's newly expanded Board
of Directors. With these additions, the Asterias Board of Directors
now comprises eight directors, three of whom are independent.
Andy Arno, 55, has 30 years of
experience working with emerging growth companies. He is currently
Managing Director of Emerging Growth Equities, an investment bank,
and Vice President of Sabr, Inc., a family investment group. He was
previously President of LOMUSA Limited, an investment banking firm.
From 2009 to 2012, Andy served as Vice Chairman and Chief Marketing
Officer of Unterberg Capital, LLC, an investment advisory firm that
he co-founded. He was also Vice Chairman and Head of Equity Capital
Markets of Merriman Capital LLC, an investment banking firm, and
served on the board of the parent company, Merriman Holdings,
Inc.
Nat Ricciardi, 65, spent his
entire 39-year biopharmaceutical career at Pfizer Inc., retiring in
2011 as a member of the Pfizer Executive Leadership Team after
holding the positions of President, Pfizer Global Manufacturing,
and Senior Vice President of Pfizer Inc. In addition to his
corporate leadership role, he was directly responsible for all of
Pfizer's internal and external supply organization, a global
enterprise that grew to more than 100 manufacturing facilities
supplying small and large molecule pharmaceuticals, vaccines,
consumer, nutrition and animal health products. Mr. Ricciardi
maintained responsibility for global manufacturing activities from
2004 through 2011. Previously, from 1999 to 2004, he had oversight
for Pfizer's US manufacturing operations and from 1995 to 1999 was
Vice President of Manufacturing for Pfizer's Animal Health
Group.
"We are very pleased to welcome Andy
Arno and Nat Ricciardi to our
board and look forward to working with them to build shareholder
value," said Alfred D. Kingsley,
Chairman of Asterias' Board of Directors. "Andy brings a wealth of
knowledge and experience in business and financial services that is
invaluable. Nat is an experienced leader in the pharmaceutical
industry, and during his career at Pfizer he helped create the
premier quality-focused manufacturing operation. We look forward to
Nat's and Andy's valuable insights and contributions to
Asterias."
"We are also pleased to welcome to Asterias our new shareholders
who received our Series A common stock from Geron Corporation. As a
global leader in the emerging field of regenerative medicine,
Asterias is proud to be continuing the more than 12 years of
significant progress and important contributions that Geron and its
dedicated employees made in advancing the field of regenerative
medicine," Mr. Kingsley continued. "Asterias is uniquely
positioned to advance the clinical development of stem cell-based
therapies. We look forward to building on the strong
foundation that was developed at Geron and to leveraging the
capabilities of the BioTime family of companies to further the
clinical development of our potential therapeutic products that
address markets for which there are significant unmet medical
needs. We encourage our new shareholders to visit our website,
http://asteriasbiotherapeutics.com, where they can find information
about Asterias, its core stem cell technologies, and its key
product development areas."
About Asterias Biotherapeutics
Asterias' core technologies center on stem cells capable of
becoming all of the cell types in the human body, a property called
pluripotency. Asterias plans to develop therapies based on
pluripotent stem cells to treat diseases or injuries in a variety
of medical fields having major unmet needs and without adequate
therapies available. Asterias initial focus is on two clinical
stage programs including oligodendrocyte progenitor cells
(AST-OPC1) for spinal cord injuries and antigen-presenting
allogeneic dendritic cells (AST-VAC2) for lung cancer.
In October of 2013, Asterias acquired the cell therapy assets of
Geron Corporation. These assets included INDs for the clinical
stage AST-OPC1 and AST-VAC1 programs, banks of cGMP-manufactured
AST-OPC1 drug product, cGMP master and working cell banks of human
embryonic stem cells, over 400 patents and patent applications
filed worldwide including broad issued claims to fundamental
platform technologies for the scalable growth of pluripotent stem
cells and compositions of matter for several hESC-derived
therapeutic cell types, research cell banks, customized reagents
and equipment, and various assets relating to the AST-VAC2 program
and preclinical programs in cardiology, and orthopedics.
Asterias is a member of the BioTime (NYSE MKT: BTX) family of
companies. Asterias Series A Common Stock is traded on the OTC
Bulletin Board under the symbol ASTY.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Statements pertaining to future financial and/or operating
results, future growth in research, technology, clinical
development, and potential opportunities for Asterias, along with
other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals,
plans, or prospects expressed by management constitute
forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not historical
fact (including, but not limited to statements that contain words
such as "will," "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "expects,"
"estimates") should also be considered to be forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and
uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks inherent in the
development and/or commercialization of potential products,
uncertainty in the results of clinical trials or regulatory
approvals, need and ability to obtain future capital, and
maintenance of intellectual property rights. Actual results may
differ materially from the results anticipated in these
forward-looking statements and as such should be evaluated together
with the many uncertainties that affect the businesses of Asterias,
particularly those mentioned in the cautionary statements found in
Asterias' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Asterias disclaims any intent or obligation to update these
forward-looking statements.
SOURCE Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc.