SAN DIEGO, Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cardium Therapeutics, Inc. today announced the formation of a 6-member Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The SAB, which includes physicians, clinicians, and biotechnology industry professionals, will provide counsel on a broad range of scientific and product development issues.
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“We are extremely pleased to have this distinguished group of leading scientists and physicians join Cardium’s inaugural Scientific Advisory Board,” stated Christopher J. Reinhard, Cardium’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Their deep knowledge and experience will be important as we look to advance our product candidates currently in development toward commercialization.”
Scientific Advisory Board
Gabor M. Rubanyi, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman: Dr. Rubanyi is the Chief Scientific Officer of Cardium. Before joining Cardium in June 2006, Dr. Rubanyi was Vice President of Gene Therapy at Berlex Biosciences (a subsidiary of Berlex Laboratories, the U.S. pharmaceutical affiliate of the Schering AG Group, Germany), in Richmond, California and Adjunct Professor at the University of California at Davis. He initiated and played a leading role in the Angiogenic Gene Therapy for Coronary Artery Disease project at Schering/Berlex. Formerly, he was Director of Vascular and Endothelial Research at Berlex, Director of the Institute of Pharmacology at Schering AG, Research Center, Berlin, Germany, Director of Pharmacology at Berlex Laboratories, Cedar Knolls, New Jersey, and Associate Professor at the Mayo Clinic Medical School, Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Rubanyi is the author or co-author of 22 books and over 325 research articles, serves as an editorial board member for several biomedical journals and is the founder of the biomedical journal Endothelium. He is also a member of numerous American and international scientific societies. His pioneering work on the nature and characterization of endothelium-derived relaxing factors (nitric oxide) and contracting factors (endothelin) contributed substantially to our present knowledge about endothelial control of vascular function in health and disease, including angiogenesis.
Wolfgang Schaper, M.D., Ph.D.: Dr. Schaper is Director Emeritus of the Max-Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research at Bad Neuheim, Germany and Professor of Physiology at the Justus-Liebig University of Giessen, Germany. Dr. Schaper has led pioneering studies on arteriogenesis and collateral development in ischemic heart disease and peripheral vascular disease and currently heads the Arteriogenesis Research Group in Bad Neuheim. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious science awards including the Order of Merit, Germany, 2005; the Carl-Ludwig Medal of the German Cardiac Society, 2000; and the Humboldt Prize, Belgium, 1998 and is a member of several international professional societies.
Seppo Yla-Herttuala, M.D., Ph.D.: Dr. Yla-Herttuala is Professor of Molecular Medicine at A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences and Department of Medicine, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland. Dr. Yla-Herttuala is an internationally recognized leader in cardiovascular gene therapy. His team was among the first to use adenovirus-mediated gene transfer in human arteries and since then, he has conducted several clinical trials in cardiovascular gene therapy. His group is also widely recognized for basic and applied biology research related to vascular endothelial growth factors, especially with newer members of the growth factor family. Dr. Yla-Herttuala serves on the editorial boards of several major US and European cardiovascular and gene therapy journals. He has published over 250 scientific papers and articles related to cardiovascular diseases, VEGFs, atherosclerosis, restenosis and gene therapy.
Claudio Basilico, M.D.: Dr. Basilico is the Jan Vilcek Professor of Molecular Pathogenesis and Chairman of the Department of Microbiology at New York University School of Medicine. After training in virology in Italy and the U.S., he dedicated the earlier part of his scientific career to the study of oncogenic viruses and of how these viruses interact with the host cell machinery to induce malignant transformation of cells in culture and in vivo. He also carried out pioneering studies on the mechanisms by which somatic cell mutations influence cell cycle progression and the genes and gene functions regulating cell division. In more recent years, Dr. Basilico’s work has focused on mechanisms through which signaling by growth factors of the FGF family regulates cell proliferation and differentiation. During the course of this work, he discovered and cloned the gene for human fibroblast growth factor 4 (FGF4), whose angiogenic activity mediates the therapeutic effects of Generx, Cardium’s lead product candidate. Dr. Basilico has published widely in numerous scientific journals, holds a number of patents for inventions in the FGF field and has acted as a consultant to several biotechnology companies.
William Sessa, Ph.D.: Dr. Sessa is Vice Chairman and Professor of the Department of Pharmacology at the Yale School of Medicine. He is the incoming Director of the Vascular Biology and Transplantation Program at Yale. Dr. Sessa has achieved national and international recognition for the development and application of basic cellular and molecular biological techniques to physiologically important questions in the cardiovascular system. The primary emphasis of his work focuses on the synthesis and functions of nitric oxide production in the vascular endothelium as it pertains to endothelial dysfunction, vascular remodeling and angiogenesis. Dr. Sessa received a Bachelors Degree in Pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Sciences, an MS at the University of Rhode Island and Ph.D. at New York Medical College. He then conducted post-doctoral work at the William Harvey Research Institute in London and the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Dr. Sessa has been recognized by a number of honors including the John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology from the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the Robert Berne Distinguished Lectureship from the American Physiological Society.
H. Daniel Perez, M.D.: Dr. Perez is a Professor of Medicine at University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and served as President and CEO of Berlex Biosciences (a subsidiary of Berlex Laboratories, the U.S. pharmaceutical affiliate of the Schering AG Group, Germany) from 2001 until May 2006. Dr. Perez is an author of over 110 research articles and is a member of a number of biomedical societies. After completing an internship and residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel-Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, Dr. Perez was a Fellow in Rheumatology at New York University-Bellevue Medical Center. He served on the NYU faculty until he was recruited by UCSF to start the Rosalind Russell Arthritis Center at San Francisco General Hospital under the direction of Dr. Ira Goldstein.
About Cardium
Cardium Therapeutics, Inc. and its subsidiaries, InnerCool Therapies and the Tissue Repair Company, are medical technology companies primarily focused on the development, manufacture and sale of innovative therapeutic products and devices for cardiovascular, ischemic and related indications. In October 2005, Cardium acquired a portfolio of growth factor therapeutics from the Schering AG Group, Germany, including the later-stage product candidate, Generx(TM), and completed a $30 million financing. Generx (alferminogene tadenovec) is a DNA-based growth factor therapeutic being developed for potential use by interventional cardiologists as a one-time treatment to promote and stimulate the growth of collateral circulation in the hearts of patients with ischemic conditions such as recurrent angina. For more information about Cardium and its businesses, products and therapeutic candidates, please visit www.cardiumthx.com.
In March 2006, Cardium acquired the technologies and products of InnerCool Therapies, Inc., a San Diego-based medical technology company in the emerging field of therapeutic hypothermia, which is designed to rapidly and controllably cool the body in order to reduce cell death and damage following acute ischemic events such as cardiac arrest or stroke, and to potentially lessen or prevent associated injuries such as adverse neurological outcomes. For more information about Cardium’s InnerCool subsidiary and therapeutic hypothermia, including its Celsius Control System(TM), which has now received regulatory clearance in the U.S., Europe and Australia, please visit www.innercool.com.
In August 2006, Cardium obtained rights to various technologies and products now part of the Tissue Repair Company (TRC), a San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of growth factor therapeutics for the potential treatment of severe chronic diabetic wounds. TRC’s lead product candidate, Excellarate, is a DNA-activated collagen gel for topical treatment formulated with an adenovector delivery carrier encoding human platelet-derived growth factor-B (PDGF-B). Excellarate is initially being developed as a single administration for the treatment of non-healing diabetic foot ulcers. Other potential applications for TRC’s Gene Activated Matrix(TM) (GAM) technology include therapeutic angiogenesis (cardiovascular ischemia, peripheral arterial disease) and orthopedic products, including hard tissue (bone), soft tissue (ligament, tendon) and cartilage. For more information about Cardium’s Tissue Repair Company subsidiary, please visit www.t-r-co.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Except for statements of historical fact, the matters discussed in this press release are forward looking and reflect numerous assumptions and involve a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control and may cause actual results to differ materially from stated expectations. Actual results may also differ substantially from those described in or contemplated by this press release due to risks and uncertainties that exist in our operations and business environment, including, without limitation, our ability to retain key advisors and uncertainties related to their contributions to our business, our limited experience in the development, testing and marketing of products for wound healing and cardiovascular disease and therapeutic hypothermia devices, risks and uncertainties that are inherent in the conduct of human clinical trials, our dependence upon novel and proprietary technologies, our history of operating losses and accumulated deficits, our reliance on collaborative relationships and critical personnel, and current and future competition, as well as other risks described from time to time in filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to release publicly the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date hereof.
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CONTACT: Bonnie Ortega, Director, Investor/Public Relations of CardiumTherapeutics, Inc., +1-858-436-1018, InvestorRelations@cardiumthx.com
