LGVN - Longeveron Announces Key Additions To Its Leadership Team and Board As It Gears Up For Phase 2 Trials For Its Lead Drug Candidate For Several Conditions
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By David Willey, Benzinga
Longeveron, Inc. (NASDAQ: LGVN) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusedon therapies for age-related and life-threatening diseases.Longeveron’s primary drug is Lomecel-B™, which is being developedas a potential therapy for Alzheimer's disease, Aging-Frailty, anda rare pediatric disease, hypoplastic left heart syndrome(HLHS).
Afteralmost a decade of research and development (R&D) and collectingsafety and efficacy data, the Company is initiating additional phase 2trials for Lomecel-B™ as a potential treatment for these indications .To help the Company with its continued growth and development, theCompany has brought on additional experienced leaders to its board andleadership team. These leaders bring a wealth of expertise in drugdevelopment, regulatory filing and product commercialization.
Longeveron believes that its recentappointments should inspire even greater confidence in its investorsas the Company advances its trials for Lomecel-B™.
CEO AndBoard Member Appointments
In March 2023, Longeveron appointed Wa’el Hashadas itsnew Chief Executive Officer (CEO) . Hashad brings over threedecades of experience in global pharmaceutical and biotechnologycompanies like Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) and Eli Lilly andCompany (NYSE: LLY), and he has been involved in drug development,mergers and acquisitions and product commercialization. Before joiningLongeveron, Hashad spent six years as CEO of AvanirPharmaceuticals , where he oversaw the company’s integration with Otsuka .
“I am honored to join Longeveron as CEO,” saidHashad . “With its robust clinical pipeline, Longeveron iswell-positioned as a leader in regenerative medicines. I look forwardto working with the Board, management, and the broader Longeveron teamto continue the impressive progress to date and advance Lomecel-B™as a potential therapy across multiple disease areas.”
Hashad was recently appointed to Longeveron’sBoard of Directors , along with prominent biotechnology andcorporate management experts Khoso Baluch and Jeffrey Pfeffer. Baluchhas 36 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and hasheld positions at multiple companies including Eli Lilly and CorMedix Inc. and is currently chairman of the board for Poxel SA . Pfeffer also brings extensive management experienceto Longeveron as a current and previous board member of more than 10companies. He is also a respected organizational expert, authoring orco-authoring more than 16 books and serving as a professor at StanfordUniversity Graduate School of Business since the late1970s.
Other Team Appointments
The Company also announced two other majoradditions to its leadership team in the past month. On July 11, 2023,Longeveron appointed Nataliya Agafonova, M.D., as theCompany’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO) . Agafonova has spenttime at a range of high-profile companies and her cross-therapeuticexpertise has contributed to multiple drugs being brought to market.She is heading up Longeveron’s global clinical development andspearheading its regulatory strategy for its investigationalproducts.
Mostrecently, the company appointed Lisa Locklear as Longeveron’sExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective as ofJuly 31, 2023. Locklear has held a broad array of seniorfinancial roles across the healthcare and other industry sectors andcurrently serves as a board member for several institutions and is apart of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).
The Company believesthese appointments put Longeveron in an even stronger position as itfocuses on advancing its pipeline for Lomecel-B™. Lomecel-B™ isdeveloped from the bone marrow of young and healthy adult donors intoan allogeneic medicinal signaling cell (MSC) therapy product toaddress multiple diseases.
Follow thelatest developments from Longeveron by visiting itswebsite.
We are a clinical-stage biotechnologycompany developing cellular therapies for aging-related andlife-threatening conditions.Our lead investigational product isLomecel-B™, which is derived from culture-expanded medicinalsignaling cells (MSCs) that are sourced from bone marrow of younghealthy adult donors. We believe that by using the same cells thatpromote tissue repair, organ maintenance, and immune system function,we can develop safe and effective therapies for some of the mostdifficult diseases and conditions associated withaging.
Forward-Looking StatementsCertain statements inthis press release that are not historical facts are forward-lookingstatements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the PrivateSecurities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which reflectmanagement's current expectations, assumptions, and estimates offuture operations, performance and economic conditions, and involverisks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differmaterially from those anticipated by the statements made herein.Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use offorward-looking terminology such as "believe,""expects," "may," "looks to," "will,""should," "plan," "intend," "oncondition," "target," "see," "potential,""estimates," "preliminary," or "anticipates"or the negative thereof or comparable terminology, or by discussion ofstrategy or goals or other future events, circumstances, or effects.Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially fromthose expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements in thisrelease include, but are not limited to, statements regarding theoffer and sale of securities, the terms of the offering, about theability of Longeveron’s clinical trials to demonstrate safety andefficacy of the Company’s product candidates, and other positiveresults; the timing and focus of the Company’s ongoing and futurepreclinical studies and clinical trials and the reporting of data fromthose studies and trials; the size of the market opportunity for theCompany’s product candidates, including its estimates of the numberof patients who suffer from the diseases being targeted; the successof competing therapies that are or may become available; thebeneficial characteristics, safety, efficacy and therapeutic effectsof the Company’s product candidates; the Company’s ability toobtain and maintain regulatory approval of its product candidates inthe U.S., Japan and other jurisdictions; the Company’s plansrelating to the further development of its product candidates,including additional disease states or indications it may pursue; theCompany’s plans and ability to obtain or protect intellectualproperty rights, including extensions of existing patent terms whereavailable and its ability to avoid infringing the intellectualproperty rights of others; the need to hire additional personnel andthe Company’s ability to attract and retain such personnel; theCompany’s estimates regarding expenses, future revenue, capitalrequirements and needs for additional financing; the Company’s needto raise additional capital, and the difficulties it may face inobtaining access to capital, and the dilutive impact it may have onits investors; the Company’s financial performance, and the periodover which it estimates its existing cash and cash equivalents will besufficient to fund its future operating expenses and capitalexpenditure requirements. Additionally, Longeveron makes no assurancethat any public offering of its securities as described herein willoccur at all, or that any such transaction will occur on thetimelines, in the manner or on the terms anticipated due to numerousfactors. Further information relating to factors that may impact theCompany's results and forward-looking statements are disclosed inthe Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,including Longeveron’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year endedDecember 31, 2022, filed with the SEC on March 14, 2023. Theforward-looking statements contained in this press release are made asof the date of this press release, and the Company disclaims anyintention or obligation, other than imposed by law, to update orrevise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of newinformation, future events, or otherwise.
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