Avita Medical Appoints A COO And A VP Of Sales And Marketing

NORTHRIDGE, CA and PERTH, AUSTRALIA and CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwired - June 20, 2016) - Avita Medical Limited (ASX: AVH) (OTCQX: AVMXY)

Highlights

• New COO is Troy Barring, with strong operational experience from Baxter, J&J and other medical device companies
• New VP Sales and Marketing is Ross Saunders, with 19 years experience in J&J
• Former COO/CFO Tim Rooney is now exclusively CFO, and Andy Quick promoted to Senior VP Clinical Development

Avita Medical Limited (ASX: AVH) (OTCQX: AVMXY) has strengthened its operational and commercialisation activities with the appointment of a Chief Operating Officer, and a Vice President of Sales and Marketing, the Company said today.

The regenerative medicine company, which specializes in new treatments for wounds and skin defects, said the two new positions would bolster the company's plans as it commercialises its medical devices in various international markets, and works towards an FDA approval and launch in the US.

Troy Barring is Avita's new COO, and will be based at the Company's Northridge, CA office. Barring has a particular brief to support the implementation of Avita's $53.9m contract with BARDA, a US federal agency that prepares for potential disasters. The contract supports various company activities in advance of a US launch, and Barring will oversee the plan to strengthen regulatory, quality, and supply chain functions. He will also manage other key operational aspects of the Company, to support its global commercialisation activities in territories where it is already in-market.

A West Point military graduate, Barring has a record of accelerating and sustaining sales growth year-over-year to drive top-line revenues by cost containment and effective human capital management. Avita's new COO has held senior positions within medical device businesses of Baxter, Johnson & Johnson and North American Scientific Medical. Barring has also worked in smaller medical device companies, where he has also shown an ability to achieve an upward revenue trajectory, and implement systems to enable the seamless production of complicated products.

"I thrive in environments that require improved P&L results through operational excellence," Barring said. "Avita is clearly on the cusp of becoming a lot bigger in a very short space of time, and I am very excited to be able to take part in managing that transition."

Barring assumes the COO position from Tim Rooney, who held both COO and CFO roles. Rooney will now be fully focused on his CFO duties. In one other internal management move, Andy Quick has been promoted to Senior Vice President Clinical Development, in recognition of his success in managing relations with BARDA and running Avita's clinical programme.

Avita's new Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Ross Saunders, has a 19-year track record with Johnson & Johnson in the international sales, marketing and general management of medical devices for wound treatment. Saunders will be based in the UK for Avita, and will bring to the company his expertise in the development and marketing of disruptive technologies across multiple surgical specialties. His strong commercial background and proven ability to create productive distributor partnerships will further assist Avita to drive global sales expansion.

"We are very excited to have these two gentlemen aboard for the journey," said Avita CEO Adam Kelliher. "Troy and Ross bring strong experience in the medical device and wound care areas, most notably the disciplines and systems that have proven to succeed with similarly transformative breakthrough products as ours."

ABOUT AVITA MEDICAL LTD
Avita Medical develops and distributes regenerative products for the treatment of a broad range of wounds, scars and skin defects. Avita's patented and proprietary collection and application technology provides innovative treatment solutions derived from a patient's own skin. The company's lead product, ReCell®, is used in the treatment of a wide variety of burns, plastic, reconstructive and cosmetic procedures. ReCell® is patented, CE-marked for Europe, TGA-registered in Australia, and CFDA-cleared in China. In the United States, ReCell® is an investigational device limited by federal law to investigational use. To learn more, visit www.avitamedical.com.