SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 13, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amarantus Bioscience Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB:AMBS) a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of novel diagnostics and therapeutics related to neurodegeneration and apoptosis, today announced that it has appointed Mr. F. Randall Grimes, MBA as Director of Sponsored Research. Mr. Grimes will be focused on working with Amarantus' scientific team, Board of Advisors and outside collaborators to support the acquisition of non-dilutive funding from disease foundations, non-governmental and governmental organizations to advance Amarantus' pipeline.
"As we have now secured funding to allow the Company to operate well into 2014, we are in a good position to gain access to non-dilutive forms of funding to advance our pipeline in a number of key areas," said Gerald E. Commissiong, President & CEO of Amarantus. "Mr. Grimes' previous experience in gaining over $1.5 million in National Institutes of Health grants for LymPro will ultimately prove to be invaluable as we now have intimate access to historical knowledge that will guide our future sponsored research program in the LymPro program. Going forward for MANF , we intend to significantly leverage non-dilutive funding to support MANF product development, especially in secondary programs that will result from the reprioritizing process that we are currently conducting as a result of positive data in orphan indications that has begun to flow in from studies underway. We believe there is a significant appetite among certain disease foundations to support MANF development due to data that has already been generated, and given that we own the composition of matter patents and are moving forward in a product development program, we are in an excellent position to collaborate with the various researchers that have begun to publish on MANF. Having Mr. Grimes on in-house to coordinate the drafting and processing of grant applications will only serve to further help the Company leverage those resources."
Mr. F. Randall Grimes has more than 20 years of marketing, business development, financial and R&D leadership experience in early stage life science companies. He founded The Randall Group in 2001 to help small to medium-sized technology companies raise funds using state and federal competitive grants. He has garnered over $25 million in non-dilutive capital for clients and employers, including more than $1.5 million for LymPro Test development. Mr. Grimes has previously served as the Vice President of Technology Development at Provista Diagnostics, Inc., Vice President of Operations at RCP Diagnostics, Biomarker Technologies LLC and GW Medical Technologies LLC. Mr. Grimes has authored eight issued patents and has published articles in major technical and trade journals. He holds a B.S from University of Arizona in Material Sciences and Engineering and M.B.A from University of Michigan Business School with an emphasis in new product development, marketing and operations management.
"I am extremely pleased to be joining Amarantus at this juncture. Having been involved with the LymPro program for almost a decade, it is extremely gratifying to see the program making great strides, not only in terms of product development with Becton Dickinson, but also in terms of getting into the mainstream of Alzheimer's disease research with the recent evidence emerging linking abhorrent cell-cycle re-entry to amyloid beta and tau," said Mr. Grimes. "We began the process of drafting grants for Amarantus over the summer, and will begin now aggressively pursuing a sponsored research agenda heading into the fall given various data sets and delivery arrangements emerging for MANF in a number of therapeutic areas."
About Amarantus
Amarantus is a development-stage biotechnology company founded in January 2008. The Company has a focus on developing certain biologics surrounding the intellectual property and proprietary technologies it owns to treat and/or diagnose Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Traumatic Brain Injury, and other human diseases. The Company has an exclusive worldwide license to the Lymphocyte Proliferation test ("LymPro Test®") for Alzheimer's disease and owns the intellectual property rights to a therapeutic protein known as Mesencephalic-Astrocyte-derived Neurotrophic Factor ("MANF") and is developing MANF-based products as treatments for brain disorders. The Company also is a Founding Member of the Coalition for Concussion Treatment (#C4CT), a movement initiated in collaboration with Brewer Sports International seeking to raise awareness of new treatments in development for concussions and nervous-system disorders. The Company also owns intellectual property for the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease ("NuroPro") and the discovery of neurotrophic factors ("PhenoGuard"). For further information please visit www.Amarantus.com , or connect with the Company on Facebook , LinkedIn , Twitter and Google+ .
Investor/Media Contacts Russell Miller, Director of Investor Relations 408.737.2734 x 109
