Full Press Release Details
Inc. Announces Board Membership Changes and Management and Board Changes
at Its Subsidiary Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc.
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 14, 2014--BioTime, Inc. (NYSE
MKT: BTX) announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Deborah
Andrews and David Schlachet to the Board of Directors.
David Schlachet serves as a director of several public and private
companies. Mr. Schlachet is the former Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of Syneron Medical Ltd., an Israeli aesthetic medical device
company, and he has served as a director of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Mr. Schlachet's career also includes other senior executive management
positions in the food industry, in venture capital, and in science and
research, including serving as Vice President of Finance and
Administration of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel's premier
post-graduate scientific research institute, and as Chief Executive
Officer of its technology transfer company Yeda Research and Development
Company, Ltd. Mr. Schlachet also serves as Chairman of the Board of
BioTime's subsidiary Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd.
Deborah Andrews, who will join the BioTime Audit Committee, is Vice
President-Chief Accounting Officer of STAAR Surgical Company, a leading
ophthalmic device company. Ms. Andrews joined STAAR in 1995 and served
in positions of increasing responsibility over the next eighteen years,
first as Assistant Controller, then as Vice President-International
Finance, then as Global Controller and then as Vice President-Chief
Financial Officer from 2005 until 2013. Following her appointment as CFO
in 2005, Ms. Andrews was a member of the senior executive team that
successfully led the transformation of STAAR into a rapidly growing,
profitable, and financially strong industry leader. Early in her career,
Ms. Andrews served as a senior accountant and auditor for KPMG Peat
Marwick, a major public accounting firm.
The appointment of David Schlachet and Deborah Andrews to the BioTime
Board of Directors fills two vacancies created by the resignations of
Henry L. Nordhoff and Andrew von Eschenbach last week. Mr. Nordhoff and
Dr. von Eschenbach subsequently resigned from the Board of Directors of
BioTime's subsidiary Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. ("Asterias").
In addition, Michael D. West, who is BioTime's Chief Executive Officer
and a member of its Board of Directors, has replaced Thomas Okarma as
President and Chief Executive Officer of Asterias. Dr. West will work
with Asterias management and its Board of Directors to better align the
company's expenditures with available capital resources, and will
continue to explore synergistic opportunities at Asterias and BioTime
that may advance product development in a cost effective manner.
Dr. West had been Asterias' Vice President of Technology Integration, in
which position he focused on opportunities to improve efficiencies in
Asterias and BioTime product development programs through coordination
of the companies' respective technologies. The first steps in this
approach were taken in the original contribution of assets to Asterias,
in which BioTime provided Asterias with quantities of certain human
embryonic stem cells developed by BioTime's subsidiary ES Cell
International Pte Ltd ("ESI") under current good manufacturing practices
(cGMP), and nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use certain
ESI patents pertaining to stem cell differentiation technology. Asterias
scientists are already considering ways to integrate the use of the ESI
cell lines into Asterias' product development programs.
BioTime subsequently entered into a material transfer agreement with
Asterias under which BioTime provided Asterias with the right to use
BioTime's HyStem hydrogel formulations
which Asterias is using in some of its research and development
programs. Asterias was also given an option to negotiate a non-exclusive
sub-license to use those hydrogels in neurological, cardiovascular and
orthopedic human cell therapy applications. Insight that BioTime has
gained from its leading PureStem technology
might help Asterias improve the purity and efficiency of production of
the hES derived progenitor cells that it may use in some of its product
development programs.
As industry leaders in regenerative medicine, BioTime and its
subsidiaries have assembled a broad array of strategically important
stem cell technologies and assets for the development of therapeutic and
diagnostic products. With over 400 patents and patent applications owned
or licensed worldwide, Asterias is an intellectual property leader with
numerous foundational patents, and in total, the BioTime family of
companies owns or has licensed over 600 key patents and patent
"We remain committed to Asterias and to building shareholder value with
its industry leading technologies and with prudent financial
management," said Michael D. West, Asterias' new Chief Executive
Officer. "We also welcome our new shareholders who will receive Asterias
Series A common stock when Geron Corporation completes its distribution
of those shares to its stockholders. Asterias' management is continuing
to evaluate the opportunities for Asterias' stem cell assets in order to
select the best paths for the advancement of its key product programs,
including paths that can be followed with Asterias' current financial
assets and those that would be open to us if Asterias were to obtain the
funding it is seeking in the form of research grants, cooperative
development arrangements, and new equity capital," Dr. West concluded.
In other changes at Asterias, BioTime elected Richard LeBuhn, Robert W.
Peabody, and Judith Segall to join the Asterias Board of Directors.
Richard LeBuhn is Senior Vice President of Broadwood Capital, Inc., the
investment manager of Broadwood Partners, L.P., a private investment
fund. Mr. LeBuhn previously was Principal of Broadfield Capital
Management, LLC, a private investment firm, and has held senior
management positions with other private investment and financial
Mr. Peabody is Asterias' Chief Financial Officer and is Senior Vice
President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of
BioTime. Judith Segall is Vice President of Administration and Secretary
of BioTime and is a long-standing member of its Board of Directors.
BioTime is a biotechnology company engaged in research and product
development in the field of regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine
refers to therapies based on stem cell technology that are designed to
rebuild cell and tissue function lost due to degenerative disease or
injury. BioTime's focus is on pluripotent stem cell technology based on
human embryonic stem ("hES") cells and induced pluripotent stem ("iPS")