Camardo to lead Company’s transition to a
commercial-stage company
Athersys, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATHX), an international, late-stage,
regenerative medicine company, announced today the appointment of
Daniel A. Camardo as the Company's Chief Executive Officer,
effective February 14, 2022. Mr. Camardo is a senior pharmaceutical
and biotech executive with more than 25 years of commercial
leadership experience. As Chief Executive Officer, he will lead
Athersys forward to complete the development, approval, launch, and
commercialization of the Company’s MultiStem® (invimestrocel) cell
therapy for the treatment of serious conditions, including ischemic
stroke. Mr. Camardo will also join the Athersys Board of Directors.
Mr. William (B.J.) Lehmann, who has served most recently as interim
CEO, will continue to serve as the Company’s President and Chief
Operating Officer, the position he held prior to his interim
appointment.
“It’s with great excitement today that the Board announces
Daniel Camardo as the new CEO of Athersys,” commented Dr. Ismail
Kola, Chairman of the Board. “We are confident that Dan is the
right person to lead Athersys as the Company moves forward towards
the commercialization of Multistem. He brings a wealth of knowledge
and a proven track record of product development,
commercialization, and overall business strategy. Dan’s extensive
industry experience includes transforming single product start-ups
into high-functioning multi-franchise organizations, business
development and alliance management. His breadth of skills and
experience combined with his respected leadership and team-building
style will be invaluable to Athersys as the Company enters the next
exciting phase of its evolution,” concluded Dr. Kola.
Mr. Camardo currently serves as Executive Vice President and
Head of the Rare Disease and Inflammation Business Units and
President, U.S. at Horizon Therapeutics (Horizon), where he has led
a broad commercial transformation and built out new capabilities to
support a portfolio of products in the rare disease and specialty
medicines space. Prior to this, he led commercial operations for
Horizon and helped transform the small specialty products company
into a global biotechnology company focused on rare, autoimmune,
and severe inflammatory diseases. He has worked in commercial
leadership roles for other biotechnology and pharmaceutical
companies, including Astellas, where he helped build a commercial
business from U.S. market entry to more than $3.5 billion in annual
net sales driven by a portfolio of specialty and rare disease
medicines. Mr. Camardo has been involved in more than 10 medicine
launches across various therapeutic areas, including small
molecules and biologics. Mr. Camardo is recognized for creating
innovative solutions to overcome marketplace challenges and
fostering cross-functional collaboration to drive results. Mr.
Camardo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and
Mathematics from the University of Rochester and a Master of
Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg
School of Management.
“I am thrilled to be joining Athersys at this pivotal time,”
commented Daniel Camardo, new Chief Executive Officer of Athersys.
“The Company and its MultiStem product have tremendous potential to
help patients in a number of serious diseases with significant
unmet need. I look forward to working closely with the Board,
executive leadership and Athersys employees to commercialize
MultiStem and build the Company into a global leader in cell
therapy and regenerative medicine,” said Mr. Camardo.
“We are very happy to have Dan joining us to lead the Company as
we move to complete development and prepare for commercialization,”
stated Mr. William (B.J.) Lehmann, President and Chief Operating
Officer of Athersys. “He brings proven leadership in the
preparation, launch and marketing of high impact therapies and
cross-functional leadership, and is well-suited to lead the
important efforts ahead of us. I look forward to working with
him.”
About Athersys
Athersys is a biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and
development of therapeutic product candidates designed to extend
and enhance the quality of human life. The Company is developing
its MultiStem® cell therapy product, a patented, adult-derived
"off-the-shelf" stem cell product, initially for disease
indications in the neurological, inflammatory and immune,
cardiovascular and other critical care indications and has several
ongoing clinical trials evaluating this potential regenerative
medicine product. Athersys has forged strategic partnerships and a
broad network of collaborations to further advance the MultiStem
cell therapy toward commercialization. More information is
available at www.athersys.com. Follow Athersys on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/athersys.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
that involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking
statements relate to, among other things, the expected timetable
for development of our product candidates, our growth strategy, and
our future financial performance, including our operations,
economic performance, financial condition, prospects, and other
future events. We have attempted to identify forward-looking
statements by using such words as “anticipates,” “believes,” “can,”
“continue,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,”
“plans,” “potential,” “should,” “suggest,” “will,” or other similar
expressions. These forward-looking statements are only predictions
and are largely based on our current expectations. A number of
known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors could
affect the accuracy of these statements. Some of the more
significant known risks that we face are the risks and
uncertainties inherent in the process of discovering, developing,
and commercializing products that are safe and effective for use as
therapeutics, including the uncertainty regarding market acceptance
of our product candidates and our ability to generate revenues. The
following risks and uncertainties may cause our actual results,
levels of activity, performance, or achievements to differ
materially from any future results, levels of activity,
performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these
forward-looking statements: our ability to raise capital to fund
our operations, including but not limited to, the timing and nature
of results from MultiStem clinical trials, including the MASTERS-2
Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the administration of MultiStem
for the treatment of ischemic stroke, and the Healios TREASURE and
ONE-BRIDGE clinical trials in Japan evaluating the treatment in
stroke and ARDS patients, respectively, including the timing of the
release of data by Healios from its clinical trials, which could be
delayed by, among other things, the regulatory process with the
PMDA; the success of our MACOVIA clinical trial evaluating the
administration of MultiStem for the treatment of COVID-19 induced
ARDS, and the MATRICS-1 clinical trial being conducted with The
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston evaluating the
treatment of patients with serious traumatic injuries; the impact
of the COVID-19 pandemic on our ability to complete planned or
ongoing clinical trials; the possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic
could delay clinical site initiation, clinical trial enrollment,
regulatory review and the potential receipt of regulatory
approvals, payment of milestones under our license agreements and
commercialization of one or more of our product candidates, if
approved; the availability of product sufficient to meet commercial
demand shortly following any approval, such as in the case of
accelerated approval for the treatment of COVID-19 induced ARDS;
the impact on our business, results of operations and financial
condition from the ongoing and global COVID-19 pandemic, or any
other pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of infectious disease in the
United States; the possibility of delays in, adverse results of,
and excessive costs of the development process; our ability to
successfully initiate and complete clinical trials of our product
candidates; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the production
capabilities of our contract manufacturing partners and our
MultiStem trial supply chain; the possibility of delays, work
stoppages or interruptions in manufacturing by third parties or us,
such as due to material supply constraints, contamination,
operational restrictions due to COVID-19 or other public health
emergencies, labor constraints, regulatory issues or other factors
which could negatively impact our trials and the trials of our
collaborators; uncertainty regarding market acceptance of our
product candidates and our ability to generate revenues, including
MultiStem cell therapy for neurological, inflammatory and immune,
cardiovascular and other critical care indications; changes in
external market factors; changes in our industry’s overall
performance; changes in our business strategy; our ability to
protect and defend our intellectual property and related business
operations, including the successful prosecution of our patent
applications and enforcement of our patent rights, and operate our
business in an environment of rapid technology and intellectual
property development; our possible inability to realize
commercially valuable discoveries in our collaborations with
pharmaceutical and other biotechnology companies; our ability to
meet milestones and earn royalties under our collaboration
agreements, including the success of our collaboration with
Healios; our collaborators’ ability to continue to fulfill their
obligations under the terms of our collaboration agreements and
generate sales related to our technologies; the success of our
efforts to enter into new strategic partnerships and advance our
programs, including, without limitation, in North America, Europe
and Japan; our possible inability to execute our strategy due to
changes in our industry or the economy generally; changes in
productivity and reliability of suppliers; the success of our
competitors and the emergence of new competitors; and the risks
mentioned elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year
ended December 31, 2020 under Item 1A, “Risk Factors” and our other
filings with the SEC. You should not place undue reliance on
forward-looking statements contained on our website and/or on our
accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media
platforms, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220120005874/en/
William (B.J.) Lehmann Interim CEO, President and Chief
Operating Officer Tel: (216) 431-9900 bjlehmann@athersys.com
Karen Hunady Director of Corporate Communications & Investor
Relations Tel: (216) 431-9900 khunady@athersys.com
David Schull Russo Partners, LLC Tel: (212) 845-4271 or (858)
717-2310 David.schull@russopartnersllc.com
Peter Vozzo ICR Westwicke, LLC Tel: (443) 213-0505
peter.vozzo@westwicke.com
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