BUFFALO, NY--(Marketwired - May 9, 2014) - Cleveland BioLabs, Inc. (
"We believe in CBLI's potential and are committed to achieving success," commented Dr. Kogan. "As co-founders and directors, we are taking active steps to focus as many resources as possible on our development programs and the retention of key staff."
The Company also announced the nomination of Daniel Hoth, M.D., Alexander Polinsky, Ph.D. and Richard McGowan, J.D., to its board of directors and the pending retirement of directors David Hohn, M.D. and Paul DiCorleto, Ph.D. following the expiration of their current term of service at the Company's upcoming annual meeting.
Dr. Hoth brings more than 35 years of experience in clinical drug development, primarily in cancer. Since 1997, Dr. Hoth has been a full time consultant in oncology drug development. From 1993 to 1997, he served as Senior Vice President of Development and Chief Medical Officer of Axys Pharmaceuticals, as well as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Cell Genesys. Previously, from 1987 to 1993 he was Director, Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and from 1980 to 1987 he served at the National Cancer Institute as Chief, Investigational Drug Branch, responsible for all clinical investigations of Investigational New Drug stage anticancer pharmaceuticals. Dr. Hoth's experience includes several clinical and scientific advisory Boards, as well as the Board of Directors of three companies, including Seattle Genetics, Inc., Acologix, Inc. and Symphony Evolution Inc., a joint venture with Exelixis, Inc. He also has served as a consultant to both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health in oncology drug development.
Dr. Polinsky is currently Chief Executive Officer and President of OncoTartis, Inc. and Everon Biosciences, Inc., two biotechnology companies he co-founded in 2009, with Bioprocess Capital Partners and Dr. Andrei Gudkov. Dr. Polinsky also serves on the Boards of 4Medica, Inc., Gowan Company and AtheroNova, Inc., a public company. In 2008, following eight years in various positions at Pfizer, Dr. Polinsky joined Maxwell Biotech Venture Fund as a Venture Partner. In 2007, he established and served as Chief Executive Officer of The Pfizer Incubator (TPI), starting three biotechnology companies: Fabrus, RGo and Samumed (formerly known as Wintherix). Prior to 2007, he led the development of Pfizer External Research Network and Pharma Incubator concepts at Pfizer Global Research Technology. Between 2001 and 2006, Dr. Polinsky established and managed a $750 million Pfizer investment in the creation of a modern drug screening collection, as well as the company's global chemistry outsourcing network. He joined Pfizer in 2000 as Vice President, Head of Discovery Technologies at Pfizer La Jolla Labs through a series of acquisitions, starting with Alanex Corporation, a developer of novel computational and combinatorial chemistry technologies, which Dr. Polinsky founded in 1991.
Mr. McGowan has been admitted to the practice of law in the states of Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts and numerous Federal Courts for over 30 years, retiring from active practice in 2010. From 1985 to 2009, Mr. McGowan specialized on a national level in the prosecution of mass tort pharmaceutical drug, product liability, and class action cases where he served on several Lead Plaintiff Committees and as Class Counsel, first as a Partner at Rheingold & McGowan, P.C., and then while Of Counsel for Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. From 2000 to 2008, he was also a partner and President of SFB Holdings, a private investment company that worked with micro-cap companies. Since 2008 he has been involved as a private investor in micro-cap companies.
Dr. Kogan continued, "We are excited to welcome Drs. Hoth and Polinsky and Mr. McGowan to our board. They add industry expertise and diverse perspectives that we believe will be extremely valuable as we continue to make progress with our clinical research and develop our products. We are extremely grateful to Drs. Hohn and DiCorleto for their years of service and active support. David and Paul have been strong advocates for CBLI over the years and we wish them the best in their future endeavors."
About Cleveland BioLabs
Cleveland BioLabs, Inc. is an innovative biopharmaceutical company seeking to develop first-in-class pharmaceuticals designed to address diseases with significant medical need. The company's lead product candidates are Entolimod, which is being developed as radiation countermeasure and a potential cancer treatment and Curaxin CBL0137, our lead oncology product candidate. The company conducts business in the United States and in the Russian Federation through our three operating subsidiaries, Incuron, LLC, BioLabs 612, LLC and Panacela Labs, Inc. The company maintains strategic relationships with the Cleveland Clinic, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and the Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research. To learn more about Cleveland BioLabs, Inc., please visit the Company's website at http://www.cbiolabs.com.
This press release contains certain forward-looking information about Cleveland BioLabs that is intended to be covered by the safe harbor for "forward-looking statements" provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. Words such as "expect(s)," "feel(s)," "believe(s)," "will," "may," "anticipate(s)," "taking" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our ability to successfully develop and commercialize our therapeutic products; the conduct and results of our various clinical trials; our ability to obtain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of our product candidates; and future performance. All of such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of the Company, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements.
These factors include, among others, the Company's failure to successfully and timely develop existing and new products; the Company's collaborative relationships and the financial risks related thereto; the risks inherent in the early stages of drug development and in conducting clinical trials; the Company's ability to comply with its obligations under license agreements; the Company's inability to obtain regulatory approval in a timely manner or at all; the Company's history of operating losses and the potential for future losses, which may lead the Company to not be able to continue as a going concern. Some of these factors could cause future results to materially differ from the recent results or those projected in forward-looking statements. See also the "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Statements" described in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.