Full Press Release Details
Subsidiary Asterias Biotherapeutics Appoints Former Pfizer Senior
Executive Pedro Lichtinger as President and Chief Executive Officer
and Biotechnology Industry Professional with 35 Years of Experience
Track Record of Successful Drug Development and Commercialization
on Advancing Lead Product Candidates in Neurology and Cancer
ALAMEDA, Calif. & MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 12,
2014--BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: BTX) today announced that Pedro
Lichtinger has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of
its subsidiary Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. ("Asterias"), effective
Asterias was created by BioTime to acquire Geron Corporation's
clinical-stage stem cell therapeutic assets. The company's work centers
on the development of therapeutics derived from stem cells capable of
becoming all of the cell types in the human body to fight disease, a
process known as pluripotency. Together, Asterias and BioTime have the
largest intellectual property portfolio of any company in the
pluripotent stem cell field with over 600 patents and patent
applications worldwide covering key therapeutic targets derived from
each of the three primary germ layers that give rise to all cells in the
human body. Asterias' lead clinical programs are its AST-OPC1 cell
therapeutic for spinal cord injury, which recently received clinical
trial funding support through an award of $14.3 million by the
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine ("CIRM"), and its
AST-VAC2 allogeneic dendritic cell cancer immunotherapy platform.
"Pedro has the ideal mix of skills to lead Asterias in the next stage of
its growth," said Michael D. West, Ph.D., BioTime's CEO. "His experience
in shepherding medicines through clinical and regulatory processes to
commercialization will be invaluable as Asterias moves forward with its
plans to bring two of its product candidates into clinical trials. Pedro
is also a seasoned business leader and manager whose long track record
in building businesses and business alliances speaks for itself. "
"I am excited to be working with Asterias' talented employees, whose
hard work and incredible talent have been responsible for the rapid
advancement of a number of promising treatments," said Mr. Lichtinger.
"The pluripotent stem cell technology platform is rapidly emerging into
the clinic with a focus on major unmet medical needs that have limited
or no cures available. Asterias' two most advanced clinical programs
have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes and I am
delighted to be a part of this effort."
Mr. Lichtinger has served as a director of BioTime since August 2009,
during which time he has helped to guide its development as a leader in
the field of regenerative medicine. Reflecting his new role at Asterias,
Mr. Lichtinger has been nominated for election to the Asterias Board of
Directors at the company's upcoming annual meeting, and will not stand
for reelection to the BioTime Board of Directors at BioTime's upcoming
Since April, Dr. West, BioTime's longtime CEO, has also served as
President and CEO of Asterias. With the appointment of Mr. Lichtinger as
CEO, Dr. West will continue to be a member of the Board of Asterias and
will resume his position as Vice President - Technology Integration at
Asterias, while continuing as BioTime's CEO.
Mr. Lichtinger has some 35 years of executive leadership experience in
the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, he was president and CEO of
Optimer Pharmaceuticals, a role that he held from May 2010 to February
2013. There, he led the successful registration and commercialization of
DIFICID (fidaxomicin). Before joining Optimer, Mr. Lichtinger held a
series of top management positions at Pfizer over a 25-year career,
including serving as president of Pfizer's Global Primary Care Unit,
where he oversaw $23 billion in revenue and was responsible for a
development budget in excess of $800 million including a portfolio of 66
projects. He also led Pfizer's European operations as president of that
group encompassing 27 countries and all Pfizer medicines, and previously
headed Pfizer's Global Animal Health business. In these roles, Mr.
Lichtinger oversaw the successful development, commercialization, and
alliances of numerous drugs.
Before joining Pfizer, Mr. Lichtinger was an executive at Smith Kline
Beecham, where he was senior vice president of the company's European
animal health unit and previously held multiple other executive roles.
Mr. Lichtinger serves on the Board of Directors of Laboratorios Sanfer,
SA de CV, the largest Mexican pharmaceutical company, which is partly
owned by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity investment
firm. Mr. Lichtinger, an American born in Mexico, speaks four languages.
He holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and an engineering
degree from the National University of Mexico. He and his wife,
Iracilda, passionately support the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and
the Brazil Foundation.
Asterias Biotherapeutics ("Asterias") is a biotechnology company focused
on the emerging field of regenerative medicine. Asterias core
technologies center on stem cells capable of becoming all of the cell
types in the human body, a property called pluripotency. Asterias plans
to develop therapies based on pluripotent stem cells to treat diseases
or injuries in a variety of medical fields, with an initial focus on the
therapeutic applications of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (AST-OPC1)
and antigen-presenting dendritic cells (AST-VAC1 and AST-VAC2) for the
fields of neurology and oncology respectively. AST-OPC1 was tested for
treatment of spinal cord injury in the world's first Phase 1 clinical
trial using human embryonic stem cell-derived cells. Asterias plans to
seek FDA clearance to reinitiate clinical testing of AST-OPC1 in spinal
cord injury this year, and is also evaluating its function in
nonclinical models of multiple sclerosis and stroke. AST-VAC1 and
AST-VAC2 are dendritic cell-based vaccines designed to immunize cancer
patients against telomerase, a protein abnormally expressed in over 95%
of human cancer types. AST-VAC2 differs from AST-VAC1 in that the
dendritic cells presenting telomerase to the immune system are produced
from human embryonic stem cells instead of being derived from human
In October of 2013, Asterias acquired the cell therapy assets of Geron
Corporation. These assets included INDs for the clinical stage AST-OPC1
and AST-VAC1 programs, banks of cGMP-manufactured AST-OPC1 drug product,
cGMP master and working cell banks of human embryonic stem cells, over
400 patents and patent applications filed worldwide including broad
issued claims to fundamental platform technologies for the scalable
growth of pluripotent stem cells and compositions of matter for several