Vancouver, Canada. May 30, 2019 – NervGen Pharma Corp. (TSX-V: NGEN) (OTCQB: NGENF) (“NervGen” or the “Company”), a regenerative medicine company dedicated to creating innovative solutions for the treatment of nerve damage, including spinal cord and peripheral nerve injury, today announced that it has appointed Denis Bosc, PhD, as the Company’s Vice President, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC). In addition, Paul Brennan has joined the NervGen team to advise on strategy and business development.
“With over 15 years of drug substance and drug product manufacturing experience, a strong operational foundation working with various Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs), and a deep understanding of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements, we are very excited Denis has joined us to implement and manage the CMC element of our NVG-291 commercialization program,” said Dr. Ernest Wong, President & CEO of NervGen. “We are also delighted to have Paul, a veteran pharmaceutical licensing and product planning professional with over 30 years global experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, join us as a strategy and business advisor.”
About Dr. Denis Bosc
Having directly managed drug supply chain for both small molecule and antibody-based drugs, Dr. Bosc has a demonstrated history of working with a variety of drug substance and drug product CDMOs for programs at different stages of pharmaceutical development, including preclinical to commercial products. He joins NervGen from the Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization (“CPDC”), a Canadian center of excellence for commercialization and research, where he was Director, Radiopharmaceutical Development and Supply. Prior to CPDC, Dr. Bosc was VP, R&D at Impopharma, a company specializing in the development of nasal spray and pulmonary inhalation drug products. Dr. Bosc’s CMC experience also includes positions at Apotex Inc. and SteriMax, both commercial stage companies, YM BioSciences, a small molecule pharmaceutical company acquired by Gilead Sciences for $580 million, and Viventia Biotech, an antibody therapeutic development company. Dr. Bosc received a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and a Bachelor of Science, Biotechnology, from the University of Manitoba.
About Paul Brennan
Mr. Brennan began his pharmaceutical business development career as the Director of Global Licensing at Astra (now part of AstraZeneca), where he was responsible for product licensing, technology evaluation and acquisitions in the respiratory and inflammatory diseases area. Subsequently, he served as the VP of Business Development at AnorMED which was acquired by Genzyme in 2006 for $580 million, and for Aspreva which was acquired by Galenica in 2007 for $915 million. Notably, Mr. Brennan has also served as VP of Business Development at Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, and as Senior VP of Business Development at Tekmira Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Brennan has a comprehensive list of business development and licensing transactions for which he played a lead role, including mergers & acquisitions, in-licensing, out-licensing, regional transactions, corporate restructuring and dispute resolutions. Mr. Brennan holds an MSc in Physiology as well as a BSc (Hons) in Life Sciences from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
About NervGen
NervGen is restoring life’s potential by creating innovative solutions for the treatment of nerve damage, including spinal cord injuries and peripheral nerve injuries. The Company also continues to research secondary applications such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, acute myocardial infarction induced arrhythmia (“AMI”, commonly known as a heart attack) and other neurodegenerative diseases.
NervGen plans to initiate a Phase 1 human clinical trial for its lead compound, NVG-291, in early 2020 under an Investigational New Drug application with the US Food and Drug Administration. NervGen is advancing NVG-291 for the treatment of spinal cord injury as the Company believes this indication is a significant opportunity due to the current lack of non-surgical solutions in the market, the dramatic impact on quality of life and the high cost burden to the healthcare system. The Company believes NVG-291 as a therapy could alleviate or improve upon the symptoms and conditions associated with spinal cord injury and empower these patients to live more active and productive lives.
For further information, please contact:
Bill Radvak, Executive Chairman
bradvak@nervgen.com
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Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain “forward-looking information” and “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements and information herein include, but are not limited to, the Company’s current and future plans, expectations and intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements or any other future events or developments constitute forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding advancement of NVG-291 toward clinical development and commercialization, the timing of human trials and regulatory approval, the potential efficacy of the Company’s products and technology, and the potential to identify, evaluate and develop other drug candidates. The words “may”, “will”, “would”, “should”, “could”, “expect”, “plan”, “intend”, “trend”, “indication”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “predict”, “likely” or “potential”, or the negative or other variations of these words or other comparable words or phrases, are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
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