RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif., April 16, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cesca Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: KOOL ), an autologous cell-based regenerative medicine company, today announced the restructuring of its sales, marketing and technical support organization and the appointment of Tim Lee as Director of International Sales. The restructuring is aimed at further strengthening its cord blood business and new point of care and clinical commercial programs by providing more dedicated resource leadership to each discipline.
The restructuring will realign Hal Baker from his current role as Vice President of Commercial Operations, to an external consulting and advisory role, which will ensure an orderly and seamless transition of his existing responsibilities with specific attention given to cord blood sales and marketing initiatives. The underlying areas of Mr. Baker's functional leadership are to be divided within Cesca's new structure for maximum focus on growing each area of the business.
In the newly formed role, Director of International Sales, Mr. Lee's primary focus will be to lead global cord blood product sales and services. In addition, as Cesca's clinical programs reach therapeutic market commercialization, Mr. Lee will work directly with our President, Ken Harris, to develop and implement the sales and marketing resources to commercialize and scale these programs.
Mr. Lee has been involved with the medical and therapeutic research instrument industry for over 20 years. Over the past nine years, Mr. Lee has led sales and marketing efforts at BioSpherix, a "cell" focused equipment designer, developer and manufacturer specializing in customized, end-to-end, cell manufacturing solutions, used primarily as optimized environmentally controlled isolation systems replacing large footprint, expensive cGMP facilities. In his role, Mr. Lee has successfully led efforts to develop the global cancer research, stem cell processing and cell therapy markets for Biospherix.
Oversight of technical initiatives specific to cord blood marketing and customer support will now be led by Mitch Sivilotti, Chief Biologist at Cesca Therapeutics. Mr. Sivilotti has extensive direct cord blood clinical and banking experience and in connection with overseeing the biological development programs, he has leadership responsibility for the Company's cord blood new product design and development programs, thereby providing maximum synchronization of these interdependent functions.
"We are excited to announce Tim Lee as our new Director of International Sales. Tim's broad regenerative medicine background, proven track record and extensive industry network makes him uniquely qualified to serve as a key member of our team focused on continued cord blood market leadership. This appointment, in addition to the overall restructuring of the group, reflects our goal of realigning our company to best address the cord blood market as well as the large clinical market opportunities at the point-of-care." said Matthew Plavan, Chief Executive Officer of Cesca Therapeutics. "Equally as important, I want to thank Hal for accomplishing our mission to optimize and streamline our global sales channels and distribution networks and for his accomplishments in expanding our cord blood market share in Europe, the Middle East and Asia over the past five years." said Plavan. "Hal has proven to be a capable executive willing to take on complex challenges and get the job done. We appreciate his ongoing dedication during this transition period and wish him luck on his future endeavors thereafter," Plavan continued.
About Cesca Therapeutics
Cesca Therapeutics Inc. ( www.cescatherapeutics.com ) is engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of autologous cell-based therapeutics for use in regenerative medicine. We are a leader in developing and manufacturing automated blood and bone marrow processing systems that enable the separation, processing and preservation of cell and tissue therapy products. These include:
-- SurgWerks ™ Platform , a proprietary stem cell therapy point-of-care kit system for treating vascular and orthopedic indications that integrate the following indication specific systems:
- Cell harvesting
- Cell processing and selection
- Cell diagnostics
- Cell delivery
-- AXP ® AutoXpress ® Platform (AXP), a proprietary family of automated devices that includes the AXP and the MXP ® MarrowXpress ® and companion sterile blood processing disposables for harvesting stem cells in closed systems. The AXP device is used for the processing of cord blood.
-- The MarrowXpress Platform (MXP), a derivative product of the AXP and its accompanying disposable bag set, isolates and concentrates stem cells from bone marrow. Self-powered and microprocessor-controlled, the MXP contains flow control optical sensors that volume-reduces blood from bone marrow to a user defined volume in 30 minutes, while retaining over 90% of the MNCs.
-- The Res-Q™ 60 (Res-Q), a point-of-care system designed for the preparation of cell concentrates, including stem cells, from bone marrow aspirates and whole blood for platelet rich plasma (PRP).
-- The BioArchive ® System, an automated cryogenic device, used by cord blood stem cell banks in more than 30 countries for cryopreserving and archiving cord blood stem cell units for transplant.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include but are not limited to that Cesca Therapeutics Inc. will provide unmatched world-class capability and service to its clients. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. A more complete description of risks that could cause actual events to differ from the outcomes predicted by our forward-looking statements is set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in Cesca Therapeutics annual report on Form 10-K and other reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, and you should consider each of those factors when evaluating the forward-looking statements.
Cesca Therapeutics Inc. Website: http://www.cescatherapeutics.com Contact: Investor Relations +1-916-858-5107, or
