Akari Therapeutics Announces Appointment of Chief Financial Officer
July 01 2020 - 9:15AM
Akari Therapeutics, Plc (“Akari” or the “Company”)
(NASDAQ:AKTX), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the
development and commercialization of innovative therapeutics to
treat orphan autoimmune and inflammatory diseases where complement
and/or leukotriene systems are implicated, today announced the
appointment of Torsten Hombeck, Ph.D., as Chief Financial Officer
and member of the Company’s executive team.
Dr. Hombeck has over two decades of biopharmaceutical industry
experience in financial management and strategic planning,
including several senior executive positions where he was
responsible for finance, strategy, business and corporate
development, and commercialization primarily in the U.S. Dr.
Hombeck will be based out of Akari’s New York City office and will
also be responsible for investor relations and business
development.
“Torsten brings a deep understanding of financial strategy, the
capital markets and business development to Akari. We are delighted
to have him as a permanent member of Akari’s executive leadership
team. His appointment comes at a time of significant company
opportunity and growth. His business and financial expertise will
be instrumental in helping us to further develop the Company,” said
Clive Richardson, Chief Executive Officer of Akari
Therapeutics.
“I am very pleased to be joining Akari at this exciting stage of
its development. Akari is developing promising therapies with the
potential to change the lives of patients in a number of orphan
inflammatory diseases with significant unmet need,” said Dr.
Hombeck. “I look forward to maximizing the Company’s strategic and
financial objectives.”
Dr. Hombeck has extensive experience in the biotechnology
industry, finance, capital markets and M&A transactions as well
as clinical and commercial drug development and regulatory filings.
His previous positions include Chief Commercial and Strategy
Officer and Managing Director at Promethera Biosciences, a private
biopharmaceutical company, and Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief
Business Officer at Cytonet where he played an integral role in its
acquisition by Promethera in 2016. Dr. Hombeck also served as Chief
Financial Officer at both Agennix and GPC Biotech. He holds a
Masters in Business Administration and a Ph.D. in Finance.
About Akari Therapeutics Akari is a
biopharmaceutical company focused on developing inhibitors of acute
and chronic inflammation, specifically for the treatment of rare
and orphan diseases, in particular those where the complement (C5)
or leukotriene (LTB4) systems, or both complement and leukotrienes
together, play a primary role in disease progression. Akari's lead
drug candidate, nomacopan (formerly known as Coversin), is a C5
complement inhibitor that also independently and specifically
inhibits leukotriene B4 (LTB4) activity.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements Certain statements in this press release
constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You should not
place undue reliance upon the Company’s forward looking statements.
Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to
revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect
any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this
press release. These forward-looking statements reflect our current
views about our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and
prospects, which are based on the information currently available
to us and on assumptions we have made. Although we believe that our
plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects as
reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements are
reasonable, we can give no assurance that the plans, intentions,
expectations or strategies will be attained or achieved.
Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those
described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by
a variety of risks and factors that are beyond our control. Such
risks and uncertainties for our company include, but are not
limited to: needs for additional capital to fund our operations,
our ability to continue as a going concern; uncertainties of cash
flows and inability to meet working capital needs; an inability or
delay in obtaining required regulatory approvals for nomacopan and
any other product candidates, which may result in unexpected cost
expenditures; our ability to obtain orphan drug designation in
additional indications; risks inherent in drug development in
general; uncertainties in obtaining successful clinical results for
nomacopan and any other product candidates and unexpected costs
that may result therefrom; difficulties enrolling patients in our
clinical trials; our ability to enter into collaborative,
licensing, and other commercial relationships and on terms
commercially reasonable to us; failure to realize any value of
nomacopan and any other product candidates developed and being
developed in light of inherent risks and difficulties involved in
successfully bringing product candidates to market; inability to
develop new product candidates and support existing product
candidates; the approval by the FDA and EMA and any other similar
foreign regulatory authorities of other competing or superior
products brought to market; risks resulting from unforeseen side
effects; risk that the market for nomacopan may not be as large as
expected; risks associated with the impact of the outbreak of
coronavirus; risks associated with the SEC investigation; inability
to obtain, maintain and enforce patents and other intellectual
property rights or the unexpected costs associated with such
enforcement or litigation; inability to obtain and maintain
commercial manufacturing arrangements with third party
manufacturers or establish commercial scale manufacturing
capabilities; the inability to timely source adequate supply of our
active pharmaceutical ingredients from third party manufacturers on
whom the company depends; unexpected cost increases and pricing
pressures and risks and other risk factors detailed in our public
filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including
our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the
SEC. Except as otherwise noted, these forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date of this press release and we undertake no
obligation to update or revise any of these statements to reflect
events or circumstances occurring after this press release. We
caution investors not to place considerable reliance on the
forward-looking statements contained in this press release.
Investor Contact:
Peter VozzoWestwicke+1 (443)
213-0505peter.vozzo@westwicke.com
Media Contact:
Sukaina Virji / Lizzie SeeleyConsilium Strategic
Communications+44 (0)20 3709
5700Akari@consilium-comms.com
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