PolarityTE Announces Howard Hechler from Smith & Nephew as the New Chief Business Officer


SALT LAKE CITY, May 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PolarityTE, Inc. (Nasdaq:COOL) today announced the appointment of Howard Hechler as Chief Business Officer. Mr. Hechler will lead the Company’s M&A and partnering efforts, as well as work with Executive Management to develop and execute the Company’s commercialization strategy. He will also work to align pipeline development efforts with the commercial strategy.

Mr. Hechler has nearly 15 years of life-sciences experience in Pharma, Medical Devices, and Diagnostics.  Most recently, he was Senior Director of Corporate Development at Smith & Nephew.  Previously, he was Senior Director of Strategy and Portfolio Development at Medtronic.  Before that, he worked in Commercial Strategy and M&A roles for various pharma, incubator, and consulting firms, including Mallinckrodt, XL TechGroup, and Campbell Alliance.  Mr. Hechler has a B.A. from Harvard University, as well as an MBA and Juris Doctorate, both from the University of Virginia.

“We are excited to name Howard to this new role just as we launch our first product and prepare for future pipeline commercialization.  We believe our partnering efforts are at a critical inflection point, given our early successes with PolarityTE and recent pipeline development advancements.  Howard’s industry knowledge, commercial strategy background, and strong relationships in the M&A community will enable PolarityTE to find the right partners at the right time as the Company continues to roll out our platform technology,” said Denver M. Lough, MD, PhD, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PolarityTE.

Howard said, “I am very pleased to join PolarityTE, a company that is committed to changing the face of regenerative medicine.  It is exciting to work in an environment where there is so much opportunity to make a direct and substantial impact on patient lives every day. I look forward to engaging with the M&A community and leveraging my life-sciences background and experience to further accelerate our commercial efforts and find the best partners to work with us on this potentially life-transforming technology.”

About PolarityTE™
PolarityTE is a commercial-stage biotechnology and regenerative biomaterials company focused on transforming the lives of patients by discovering, designing and developing a range of regenerative tissue products and biomaterials for the fields of medicine, biomedical engineering and material sciences. The PolarityTE platform technology begins with a small piece of the patient’s own, or autologous, healthy tissue, rather than artificially manipulated individual cells. From this small piece of healthy autologous tissue, the company creates an easily deployable, dynamic and self-propagating product designed to enhance and stimulate the patient’s own cells to regenerate the target tissues. Rather than manufacturing with synthetic and foreign materials within artificially engineered environments, PolarityTE manufactures with the patient’s own tissue and uses the patient’s own body to support the regenerative process to create the same tissue from which it was derived. PolarityTE’s innovative method is intended to promote and accelerate growth of the patient’s tissues to undergo a form of effective regenerative healing.

Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. They are generally identified by words such as “believes,” “may,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intend,” “plan,” “will,” “would,” “should” and similar expressions. Readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are based upon the Company’s beliefs and assumptions as of the date of this release. The Company’s actual results could differ materially due to risk factors and other items described in more detail in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s Annual Reports and other filings with the SEC (copies of which may be obtained at www.sec.gov). Subsequent events and developments may cause these forward-looking statements to change. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation or intention to update or revise these forward-looking statements as a result of changed events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release, except as required by applicable law. Our actual results could differ materially due to risk factors and other items described in more detail in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s Annual Reports and other filings with the SEC (copies of which may be obtained at www.sec.gov).

CONTACT

Investors:
Rich Haerle
ir@PolarityTE.com
(385) 237-5786

Media:
David Schull
Russo Partners LLC
David.Schull@RussoPartnersLLC.com 
(858) 717-2310