InVivo Therapeutics, which specializes in spinal cord injuries, named Richard Toselli, M.D., as its president and chief executive. Toselli, who has been acting CEO since December, was also appointed to the company’s board.
The move comes just a week after the company announced a stock purchase deal to sell as much as $15 million worth of stock to Lincoln Park Capital Fund over the next two years.
Toselli will continue to serve as chief medical officer for InVivo, the company said.
“Our priority is to focus on our core competencies, advance our breakthrough Neuro-Spinal Scaffold clinical program, and achieve this progress in an expedited, cost-efficient manner,” Toselli said in a statement. “We continue to evaluate our strategic and financing options, regarding which we believe we have gained additional flexibility by entering into the recently announced stock purchase agreement with Lincoln Park.”
Before joining InVivo in July, Toselli was chief medical officer at Cochlear Limited. Prior to that, he worked at Sanofi, Covidien Surgical, DePuy Spine and Johnson & Johnson in various roles.
In early January, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company released updated results from the Inspire study of its neuro-spinal scaffold. In conjunction with that release, InVivo said it would not be reopening enrollment, which it put on hold in July. The company said it is looking to a new randomized controlled trial to supplement the results.