Svelte Medical Systems, Inc. Taps Jack Darby as New President and CEO

NEW PROVIDENCE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Svelte® Medical Systems today announced the appointment of Jack Darby to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer. Mark Pomeranz will continue to play a key leadership role at Svelte, serving as Chief Operating Officer.

“We are delighted to have Jack join us as we begin preparations for the commercialization of our drug-eluting stent technologies,” said Dr. Bob Fischell, Chairman of Svelte’s Board of Directors. “Jack’s professional background, which covers many years in interventional cardiology and includes commercializing drug-eluting stents globally, makes him a wonderful compliment to Mark who has been masterful in developing Svelte’s technology and bringing the company this far so quickly and efficiently.”

Mr. Darby has 20 years of experience in the medical device industry, with most of those in the interventional cardiovascular space. Prior to joining Svelte, Mr. Darby was the business unit head of Bayer Interventional. Prior to Bayer, Mr. Darby was Global VP of Sales and Marketing at AGA Medical, where his contributions helped lead to a successful IPO and subsequent acquisition by St. Jude Medical. Prior to AGA he held a series of roles with increasing responsibility at Cordis Cardiology, including VP of Commercial Operations and Global Stent Marketing, Executive Director of U.S. Sales, Director of Cordis Marketing Japan (based in Tokyo), and Product Manager of Coronary Stents. Prior to Mr. Darby’s business career he was a Captain in the United States Marine Corps and received a BA from the University of Michigan.

“I am excited about what Svelte has accomplished and what lies ahead of us,” Mr. Darby said. “Our Integrated Delivery System (IDS), coupled with a truly unique bioabsorbale drug coated stent, will provide a highly differentiated technology which addresses all segments of the global stent market and provides important new benefits to patients, physicians and payers alike.”

The Svelte IDS combines a wire, balloon and stent into a single ‘All-In-One’ system. The low profile and highly flexible IDS navigates through the vasculature similar to a traditional guidewire to allow physicians to ‘direct-stent’ coronary artery lesions and eliminate several steps from conventional stenting procedures – thereby reducing procedure time and cost. Data presented at medical symposia suggest the Svelte IDS significantly reduces radiation exposure, contrast use, adjunctive interventional product use and overall procedure time when compared with conventional stent systems.

“We welcome Jack to the Svelte team and look forward to bringing our development and clinical work to commercial fruition,” said Bob Croce, a member of Svelte’s Board of Directors and the former Company Group Chairman of Johnson and Johnson. “Jack and Mark’s combined and complementary strengths build out an extremely powerful executive team that will propel Svelte forward on achieving our next set of strategic goals and position the company for significant growth.”

The Svelte IDS utilizing a bare metal stent received CE Mark certification in 2010 and is commercially available in select European and Latin American markets. The company completed enrollment in the DIRECT study, a First-in-Man evaluation of its drug-eluting stent (DES) utilizing a bioabsorbable drug carrier, and expects to initiate a European-based clinical study in support of CE Mark certification of the system later this year. This DES will be offered on both IDS and conventional rapid-exchange platforms incorporating the company’s proprietary Balloon Control Band (BCB) technology upon commercial release.

Headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey, Svelte Medical Systems (www.sveltemedical.com) is a privately-held company engaged in the development of highly deliverable balloon expandable stents. The Svelte IDS represents the first material advance in stent delivery systems in the last fifteen years and is designed to realize the clinical, time and cost-savings benefits of direct stenting in a single platform.

Statements made in this press release that look forward in time or that express beliefs, expectations or hopes regarding future occurrences or anticipated outcomes or benefits, are forward-looking statements. A number of risks and uncertainties, such as risks associated with product development and commercialization efforts, results of clinical trials, ultimate clinical outcomes and benefit of the company’s products to patients, market and physician acceptance of the products, intellectual property protection and competitive product offerings, could cause actual events to adversely differ from the expectations indicated in these forward looking statements.

For additional information please contact Mark Pomeranz, Chief Operating Officer, Svelte Medical Systems, Inc., via e-mail mpomeranz@sveltemedical.com or phone 908-264-2195.

Contacts

Svelte Medical Systems, Inc.

Mark Pomeranz, 908-264-2195

Chief Operating Officer

mpomeranz@sveltemedical.com

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