ROCKVILLE, Md., April
2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
(Nasdaq: CASI), a U.S. pharmaceutical company with a platform to
develop and accelerate the launch of pharmaceutical products and
innovative therapeutics in China,
the U.S., and throughout the world, announced that
Wei-Wu He, Ph.D., Executive Chairman
of CASI, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. Dr. He
will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Dr. He succeeds Ken K. Ren,
Ph.D. who for personal reasons is stepping down from his role as
Chief Executive Officer but will remain on the Company's Board of
Directors.
Prior to joining CASI as CEO, Dr. He had a very successful
career building companies from early to revenue and profit
stages. Most recent from his track record was serving as CEO
of OriGene Technologies, Inc., which he co-founded and built into a
profitable life science company that later merged with a publicly
traded Chinese company, VICANBIO Cell & Gene Engineering Corp.,
Ltd. (SHA: 600645). Dr. He will continue in his role as
Chairman of the Board of OriGene, and is also the founder and
general partner of Emerging Technology Partners, LLC, a life
sciences focused venture fund, and has been involved in funding
over 60 biotech companies. In the earlier part of his
career, Dr. He was one of the first few scientists at Human Genome
Sciences, and prior to that, was a research fellow at Massachusetts
General Hospital and Mayo Clinic. Dr. He is an author to 30
research publications and holder of over 32 issued patents.
"We are grateful for Ken's dedication to CASI during the
Company's transition period and his role in the Company's growth in
China, the advancement of our
pipeline and our fundraising initiatives," said Dr. He.
Dr. He continued, "This is an exciting inflection point in
CASI's history and I look forward to working with our management
team to build a revenue-driven commercial company, with
EVOMELA® as the first product in our pipeline to launch
this year. I am particularly excited to pursue additional
products to complement our pipeline and therapeutic areas, while we
concurrently advance our existing products to the market and serve
our patients."
About CASI Pharmaceuticals
CASI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CASI) is a U.S.
pharmaceutical company with a platform to develop and accelerate
the launch of pharmaceutical products and innovative therapeutics
in China, U.S., and throughout the
world. CASI's product pipeline features three U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs in-licensed from Spectrum
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (and recently transferred to Acrotech
Biopharma LLC) for China regional
rights. EVOMELA® was approved by the China
National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for
commercialization in China. The NMPA also approved
ZEVALIN® and MARQIBO®'s
Clinical Trial Applications (CTAs) to conduct registration trials
in China. The Company also acquired a portfolio of 25
FDA-approved abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs), and four
pipeline ANDAs that are pending FDA approval from Sandoz, and an
HBV ANDA from Laurus Labs. CASI has offices in Rockville, Maryland and has a wholly owned
subsidiary in Beijing, China
through which substantially all of our operations are conducted.
More information on CASI is available at
www.casipharmaceuticals.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act with
respect to the outlook for expectations for future financial or
business performance, strategies, expectations and goals.
Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions,
risks and uncertainties, which change over time. Forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date they are made, and no duty to
update forward-looking statements is assumed. Actual results
could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a
number of factors, including: risks relating to interests
of our largest stockholders that differ from our other
stockholders; the difficulty of executing our business strategy in
China; the risk that we will not
be able to effectively select, register and commercialize products
from our recently acquired portfolio of abbreviated new drug
applications (ANDAs); our lack of experience in manufacturing
products and uncertainty about our resources and capabilities to do
so on a clinical or commercial scale; risks relating to the
commercialization, if any, of our products and proposed products
(such as marketing, safety, regulatory, patent, product liability,
supply, competition and other risks); our inability to predict when
or if our product candidates will be approved for marketing by
the National Medical Products
Administration authorities; our inability to enter into
strategic partnerships for the development, commercialization,
manufacturing and distribution of our proposed product candidates
or future candidates; the volatility in the market price of our
common stock; risks relating to the need for additional capital and
the uncertainty of securing additional funding on favorable terms;
risks associated with our product candidates; risks associated with
any early-stage products under development; risk that results
in preclinical and early clinical models are not necessarily
indicative of later clinical results; uncertainties relating to
preclinical and clinical trials, including delays to the
commencement of such trials; the lack of success in the clinical
development of any of our products; and our dependence on third
parties. Such factors, among others, could have a
material adverse effect upon our business, results of operations
and financial condition. We caution readers not to place
undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which only speak
as of the date made. Additional information about the factors and
risks that could affect our business, financial condition and
results of operations, are contained in our filings with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at
www.sec.gov.
EVOMELA®, Marqibo®
and Zevalin® are
proprietary to Acrotech Biopharma LLC and its
affiliates.
COMPANY
CONTACT:
CASI
Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
240.864.2643
ir@casipharmaceuticals.com
|
INVESTOR
CONTACT:
Solebury
Trout
Jennifer
Porcelli
646.378.2962
jporcelli@troutgroup.com
Brennan
Doyle
617.221.9005
BDoyle@troutgroup.com
|
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SOURCE CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc.