Columbia, MD, USA, September 10, 2009 – Cylex, Inc., a venture-backed global life sciences company that develops and manufactures research and in vitro diagnostic products intended to illuminate immunity, announced today the appointment of the company’s president, Brad L. Stewart, to chief executive officer and chairman of the board. Since joining Cylex as president in December 2007, Mr. Stewart has successfully led the development of the company’s commercial infrastructure, expansion internationally to 18 countries and substantial revenue growth.
“The expanded commercialization of Cylex’s technology presents an exciting opportunity for the company to develop cellular diagnostics for diseases and treatments where the immune system is affected,” said President, CEO and Chairman Brad L. Stewart. “We have already seen significantly growing demand for our lead product, ImmuKnow®, and are very excited to explore new and better ways Cylex will be able to positively contribute to patient care in the future.”
“Brad has shown his flair for commercial strategy and execution. As a result, the Cylex Board of Directors voted unanimously to appoint Brad to his new role”, said Stephen Bloch, MD, a Cylex director and general partner with Canaan Partners.
“Brad has demonstrated strong leadership since joining Cylex and has built an impressive management team. We are confident in his ability to continue to drive commercial growth as a global leader in cellular diagnostics and to deliver substantial shareholder value,” said Greg Shearer, founder and principal of Channel Medical Partners.
ImmuKnow is increasingly being adopted at organ transplant centers throughout the United States and abroad. The company’s patented technology provides an innovative platform allowing clinical researchers to simply and reproducibly measure cell-mediated immunity (CMI) for the development of new diagnostics, biomarkers and companion assays.
About Brad L. Stewart
An experienced senior executive in the life science industry, Mr. Stewart maintains a record of success in many specialty areas including: biotechnology; pharmaceuticals; orphan drugs; and diagnostics. Prior to joining Cylex, Mr. Stewart held the position of client partner and senior strategy expert at CSC Consulting, Inc., where he provided executive oversight and expertise to a diverse cross-section of life science companies. Mr. Stewart has also served in leadership roles at BearingPoint, Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Wyeth.
Mr. Stewart’s past experience includes the establishment and leadership of a successful U.S. business for a European pharmaceutical company, growth and diversification of an orphan drug company; strategic restructuring of the North American business unit of a global pharmaceutical company; development and management of joint ventures, including a multi-million dollar global pharmaceutical venture; creating an operational improvement business within a major global diagnostics company; and extensive management consulting and corporate strategy assignments.
About ImmuKnow
ImmuKnow is a noninvasive biomarker of immune function that assesses cellular immune status by detecting cell-mediated immunity (CMI) in adult immunosuppressed patients. It measures the concentration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) released from CD4 cells following cell stimulation. The ImmuKnow test is a qualitative assay and does not directly quantify the level of immunosuppression. Results of the ImmuKnow assay should be used in conjunction with clinical presentation, medical history, and other clinical indicators when assessing the immune status of any individual patient.
About Cylex, Inc.
Cylex is a privately held global life science company that is the leader in the development and manufacture of in vitro diagnostic products that are intended to illuminate immunity. ImmuKnow is the in vitro diagnostic utilized to detect cell-mediated immunity (CMI) in an immunosuppressed population, and is increasingly being adopted at organ transplant centers throughout the United States and abroad. The company’s patented technology provides an innovative platform allowing clinical researchers to simply and reproducibly measure CMI for the development of new diagnostics, biomarkers and companion assays. The company is based in Columbia, MD USA.
About Canaan Partners Canaan Partners invests in visionary entrepreneurs and provides them the networks, insights and operational guidance required to build high-performance technology and healthcare companies. Founded in 1987, the firm has raised eight funds and completed more than 77 acquisitions and 52 IPOs. With $3 billion under management and a worldwide footprint, the firm’s healthcare team is committed to catalyzing the growth of biopharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics companies that are revolutionizing the practice of medicine. Among its successes are BiPar Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company pioneering novel tumor-selective therapies to address urgent unmet needs of cancer patients; Cerexa Inc., one of the largest biotech acquisitions of 2007; DexCom Inc., the largest diagnostic IPO of 2005; and Amicus Therapeutics, a pioneer of next-generation oral therapies for the management of human genetic diseases. Other Canaan healthcare investments include AdvancedBioHealing, Calibra Medical, Chimerix, Inc., Liquidia Technologies, Transcend Medical and VaxInnate. Canaan has offices in California, Connecticut, India and Israel. For more information visit www.canaan.com. About Channel Medical Partners
Channel Medical Partners is a leading emerging growth investor in medical technology companies. This stage of financing has historically represented a narrow channel or bottleneck for emerging growth companies – the point in their development between the substantial capital provided by earlier stage venture capital investors and that provided by institutions focused primarily on public companies. The firm has a demonstrated record of success in not only providing capital, but in enabling and ensuring the commercial success of its portfolio companies. The principals at Channel believe that the commercialization process has emerged as a critical activity at venture-backed companies and that their success has, in part, been driven by this trend.
