CLEVELAND, Sept. 5, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Athersys, Inc. (OTCBB:AHYS) today announced that Lorin Jeffry Randall was elected to the Board of Directors and appointed as Chairman of the Audit Committee. Mr. Randall has an extensive background in the healthcare and technology industries, with over 20 years of experience as a senior executive and an independent director of private and publicly-traded companies.
Gil Van Bokkelen, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Athersys, commented: "We are delighted to welcome Jeff to the Athersys Board and Audit Committee. His extensive senior level operational and finance experience at a broad range of established and start-up companies will serve us well at a pivotal point in our growth. Jeff's insight and knowledge also will be helpful as we continue to expand our range of therapeutic product offerings while we build shareholder value."
Mr. Randall said, "I am pleased to join Athersys' Board of Directors and look forward to working with the Athersys management team. I am excited about the challenge of supporting Athersys as it reaches the next level of financial and operational performance while pursuing its mission of developing best in class therapeutics that improve the quality of human life."
Mr. Randall, a financial consultant, most recently served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Eximias Pharmaceutical Corporation, a development-stage drug development company, from 2004 to 2006. Previously, Mr. Randall was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of i-STAT Corporation, a publicly-traded manufacturer of medical diagnostic devices which was acquired by Abbott Laboratories in 2004. He currently serves on several Boards of Directors, including Acorda Therapeutics, Inc., where he is also the Chairman of the Audit Committee. Mr. Randall received a B.S. in accounting from The Pennsylvania State University and an M.B.A. from Northeastern University.
About Athersys, Inc.
Athersys is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of therapeutic product candidates designed to extend and enhance the quality of human life. The company's lead product candidate, ATHX-105, is an oral, selective 5HT2c receptor agonist in Phase I clinical trials for the treatment of obesity. The company is developing other orally active pharmaceutical product candidates for the treatment of metabolic and central nervous system disorders, utilizing proprietary technologies, including Random Activation of Gene Expression (RAGE). Athersys is also developing MultiStem(r), a patented adult-derived, "off the shelf" stem cell product platform for multiple disease indications. The company is collaborating with Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop MultiStem to treat damage caused by myocardial infarction and peripheral vascular disease. The company is independently developing MultiStem for bone marrow transplantation/oncology support, ischemic stroke and other indications.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, our growth strategy and our future financial performance, including our operations, economic performance, financial condition, prospects, and other future events. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and are largely based on our current expectations. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors could affect the accuracy of these statements. These risks may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to differ materially from any future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, the possibility of delays in, adverse results of, and excessive costs of the development process; changes in external market factors; changes in our industry's overall performance; changes in our business strategy; our ability to protect our intellectual property portfolio; our possible inability to realize commercially valuable discoveries in our collaborations with pharmaceutical and other biotechnology companies; our possible inability to execute our strategy due to changes in our industry or the economy generally; changes in productivity and reliability of suppliers; and the success of our competitors and the emergence of new competitors. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this press release, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.