CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 20, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ: VCEL ), a leader in advanced cell therapies for the sports medicine and severe burn care markets, today announced the appointment of Jonathan Hopper as Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Hopper formerly served as Senior Medical Director, Orthopedic Clinical Development for Ferring Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for establishing and executing the company’s strategy for Orthopedic clinical development.  Prior to joining Ferring Pharmaceuticals, he served in a number of senior medical roles including Vice President, Global Medical Director for Stryker Corporation.  Dr. Hopper also has significant medical device regulatory experience having served as a Senior Medical Officer for the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.  Dr. Hopper graduated with a M.B. Ch.B. from Birmingham University Medical School UK, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, and attained an M.B.A. at Keele University UK.

"Jon’s experience and expertise in orthopedics, wound care, and combination biologic device products are an ideal fit with Vericel’s current business and strategic focus,” said Nick Colangelo, president and chief executive officer of Vericel.  "Jon will play a key role in the execution of our life cycle management initiatives as well as our efforts to expand our product portfolio by accessing assets complementary to our existing business.” 

About Vericel Corporation Vericel is a leader in advanced cell therapies for the sports medicine and severe burn care markets.  The company markets two cell therapy products in the United States.  MACI® (autologous cultured chondrocytes on porcine collagen membrane) is an autologous cellularized scaffold product indicated for the repair of symptomatic, single or multiple full-thickness cartilage defects of the knee with or without bone involvement in adults.  Epicel® (cultured epidermal autografts) is a permanent skin replacement for the treatment of patients with deep dermal or full thickness burns greater than or equal to 30% of total body surface area.  For more information, please visit the company's website at www.vcel.com .

Epicel ® and MACI ® are registered trademarks of Vericel Corporation. © 2018 Vericel Corporation. All rights reserved.

This document contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements concerning anticipated progress, objectives and expectations regarding our efforts to expand our portfolio, the commercial potential of our products and growth in revenues, intended product development, and objectives and expectations regarding our company described herein, all of which involve certain risks and uncertainties. These statements are often, but are not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as "anticipates," "intends," "estimates," "plans," "expects," "we believe," "we intend," and similar words or phrases, or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "potential," "could," "may," or similar expressions. Actual results may differ significantly from the expectations contained in the forward-looking statements. Among the factors that may result in differences are the inherent uncertainties associated with business development activities, competitive developments, estimating the commercial growth potential of our products and product candidates and growth in revenues and improvement in costs, market demand for our products, and our ability to supply or meet customer demand for our products. These and other significant factors are discussed in greater detail in Vericel's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on March 5, 2018, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other filings with the SEC. These forward-looking statements reflect management's current views and Vericel does not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect a change in its views or events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release except as required by law.

(vcel-corp)

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