CALGARY, AB--(Marketwired - June 16, 2015) - Hemostemix Inc. (the "Corporation") (TSX VENTURE: HEM), a clinical-stage autologous cell-therapy company, announced today the appointment of Rahul Sarugaser, PhD, to the position of vice president of business and corporate development.
"Dr. Sarugaser has significant experience with partnering and executing deals in the biotechnology arena and can leverage a broad network of industry and investor contacts," said Dr. Elmar Burchardt, Hemostemix president and CEO. "Those strengths combined with his scientific expertise are tremendous assets to Hemostemix as we continue our clinical development program, creating value for our shareholders."
Prior to joining Hemostemix, Dr. Sarugaser was director of business development at the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), which brings together visionary business leadership and unique technology development platforms to commercialize promising discoveries in stem cell science through a capital-efficient, collaborative model. He expanded CCRM's industry consortium from 13 to 45 companies and secured co-development partnerships with several multinational industry partners and small companies. Before joining CCRM, he was an investment manager with the Toronto-based MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, evaluating life-science companies for financing from seed stage through Series B. Prior to that, he worked in strategic marketing at GE Healthcare's headquarters in the UK, identifying investment opportunities for GE's cell technologies portfolio.
Dr. Sarugaser holds a PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Toronto, where he received the Poul B. Madsen award for excellence in applied biomedical engineering. He subsequently earned an MBA from the University of Oxford. Dr. Sarugaser has published and presented in the stem-cell field and co-invented two patents that were licensed to Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics in Toronto.
"I look forward to contributing to the company's strategic vision and to both establishing new partnerships and financing deals that consistently add value to the company and its core assets," said Dr. Sarugaser. "I'm particularly enthusiastic about collaborating with the Hemostemix management team, whose extensive experience in designing and executing clinical trials is positioning Hemostemix as an industry leader."
About Hemostemix
Hemostemix is a public clinical-stage biotechnology company that develops and commercializes innovative blood-derived cell therapies for medical conditions not adequately addressed by current treatments. It is the first clinical-stage biotech company to test a potential breakthrough stem-cell therapy in an international, multicenter, phase-2 clinical trial for patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI), a severe form of peripheral artery disease (PAD) caused by reduced blood flow to the legs. The phase-2 trial targets a participant's diseased tissue with proprietary cells that are grown from his or her blood and capable of supporting the formation of new blood vessels. Hemostemix currently enrolls participants in the phase-2 trial at four sites in South Africa and two sites in Canada.
Hemostemix Inc. is traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol HEM. For more information, visit hemostemix.com or email [email protected].
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Forward-Looking Statements
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