NORTHVALE, N.J., March 27, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Elite" or the "Company") (OTCBB:ELTP) today announced that it has created the position of Vice President, Quality Operations & Regulatory Affairs and has hired industry veteran, Barbara Ellison, to fill that role. Ms. Ellison has extensive experience in quality assurance, regulatory compliance, validation, performance optimization and quality control. Ms. Ellison will have overall responsibility for Elite's quality and regulatory functions including the Company's Quality Assurance and Compliance group and the Analytics and Quality Control group. Ms. Ellison will serve as a member of Elite's senior leadership team, reporting directly to Nasrat Hakim, Elite's President and Chief Executive Officer.
"Barbara is a thirty six year quality and regulatory professional with exceptional global leadership and pharmaceutical industry experience. Barbara will oversee the regulatory and quality functions for Elite and will play a key role for the Company as it expands the product development and commercialization of the Company's opioid abuse deterrent products," said Nasrat Hakim. "Barbara's role was created to support the abuse deterrent product filings, the first of which is planned for this year. Barbara will also be an important contributor as Elite files additional products and launches our first abuse deterrent product, all planned for next year. As an industry veteran, we expect that her national and international expertise in quality management and regulatory affairs will richly support our company's compliance and quality goals. We welcome her to our team."
Prior to joining Elite, Ellison served as Director of Global Quality for the Cell Systems Division of Life Technologies, overseeing the quality and regulatory compliance at ten manufacturing sites worldwide and overseeing 135 people. Before then, Ms. Ellison was Vice President of Quality for West Pharmaceutical Services and Site Head of Quality Operations for Alpharma (now Actavis). She also served in senior level positions with Novartis as Head of Compliance, Warner Lambert as Director of Quality Operations and Regulatory Compliance/Quality Assessment. Ms. Ellison holds a B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT.
About Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc. develops oral sustained and controlled release products. Elite's strategy includes assisting partner companies in the life cycle management of products to improve off-patent drug products and developing generic versions of controlled release drug products with high barriers to entry. Elite has seven commercial products currently being sold, twelve additional approved products pending manufacturing site transfer and two additional products under review pending approval by the FDA. Elite's lead pipeline products include abuse resistant opioids utilizing the Company's patented proprietary technology, and a once-daily opioid. They are sustained release oral formulations of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain, which address two of the limitations of existing oral opioids: the provision of consistent relief of baseline pain levels and deterrence of potential abuse. Elite also provides contract manufacturing for Ascend Laboratories (a subsidiary of Alkem Laboratories Ltd.) and has partnered with Epic Pharma for the manufacturing and distribution of eleven approved products pending manufacturing site, with Hi-Tech Pharmacal to develop an intermediate for a generic product, and a Hong Kong based company to develop a branded product for the United States market and its territories. Elite operates a GMP and DEA registered facility for research, development, and manufacturing located in Northvale, NJ.
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Including those related to the effects, if any, on future results, performance or other expectations that may have some correlation to the subject matter of this press release, readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, its ability to obtain FDA approval of the transfers of the ANDAs or the timing of such approval process, delays, uncertainties, inability to obtain necessary ingredients and other factors not under the control of Elite, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Elite to be materially different from the results, performance or other expectations that may be implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and other factors, including, without limitation, the Company's ability to obtain sufficient funding under the LPC Agreement or from other sources, the timing or results of pending and future clinical trials, regulatory reviews and approvals by the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory authorities, intellectual property protections and defenses, and the Company's ability to operate as a going concern, are discussed in Elite's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its reports on forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. Elite undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.