Agile Therapeutics Appoints Dr. Elizabeth Ijeoma Onyemelukwe Garner as Chief Medical Officer

PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Agile Therapeutics, Inc., announced today the appointment of Elizabeth Ijeoma Onyemelukwe Garner, M.D., M.P.H., as Chief Medical Officer effective January 6, 2014.  Dr. Garner will be a member of Agile's executive management team and will lead the clinical research, drug safety and medical affairs teams in the clinical development of the Company's product pipeline.

"Elizabeth has prominent expertise in women's health and significant clinical development experience in the pharmaceutical industry and we are very pleased to welcome her as a member of our executive management team," said Al Altomari, Chief Executive Officer of Agile Therapeutics. "Her strong and highly relevant experience overseeing successful clinical trial programs and regulatory approval is the precise expertise we seek to advance our development programs of our innovative hormonal contraceptive treatment option and to drive the long-term growth."

Most recently, Dr. Garner served as Vice President, Women's Health and Preventive Care at Myriad Genetics Laboratories, and managed the women's health clinical research, publication, and Key Opinion Leader (KOL) development program, provided medical and scientific input to the company's marketing and new product strategies, and served as the company's media spokesperson.  Prior to joining Myriad Genetics, she was Senior Director at Abbott (now AbbVie) where she managed the global Phase III clinical development program in endometriosis.  From 2007 to 2011, Dr. Garner served as Director, Vaccines Clinical Research at Merck Research Laboratories where she was a key clinical development leader for the human papillomavirus vaccine program and was instrumental in achieving successful outcomes on important supplemental submissions to the Food and Drug Administration.

"I am extremely pleased to be joining Agile Therapeutics and I look forward to building upon the significant momentum of the clinical development programs and bringing them to a successful outcome," said Dr. Elizabeth Garner. "I look forward to helping the company fulfill its goal of offering women a safe and convenient hormonal option that represents real innovation and fills a critical void in women's contraception."

Prior to entering the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Garner had several years of experience in academic clinical practice, research and teaching at Harvard Medical School.  She received joint M.D. and M.P.H degrees from Harvard Medical School and the School of Public Health.  Dr. Garner did her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Brigham and Women's/Massachusetts General Hospitals, her subspecialty fellowship in gynecologic oncology at Brigham and Women's and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and received board certification in both general Obstetrics and Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology.  Dr. Garner is an author on numerous scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals and has received many awards and honors over the course of her career.

About Agile Therapeutics
Agile Therapeutics is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on women's health that is currently developing innovative contraceptive products based on Agile's proprietary and patented transdermal technology called Skinfusion®. Skinfusion consists of both an active and a peripheral adhesive system designed to allow stable drug delivery and dependable adhesion over seven days. The Company's lead investigational product, Twirla™(AG200-15), is a once-weekly contraceptive patch designed to provide convenience and compliance that is currently in late stage clinical development. Agile has an additional pipeline of product candidates consisting of innovative contraceptive patch regimens and a progestin-only contraceptive patch (AG890) that utilize Skinfusion.  For more information, please visit http://www.agiletherapeutics.com.

Forward Looking Statements
Certain matters discussed in this press release are "forward-looking statements".  We may, in some cases, use terms such as "predicts," "believes," "potential," "continue," "estimates," "anticipates," "expects," "plans," "intends," "may," "could," "might," "will," "should" or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements.  In particular, the Company's statements regarding trends and potential future results are examples of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the success, timing and cost of our ongoing clinical trials and anticipated clinical trials for our current product candidates, including statements regarding the timing of initiation and completion of the trials; the timing of and our ability to obtain and maintain U.S. Food and Drug Administration or other regulatory authority approval of, or other action with respect, to our product candidates; the Company's ability to successfully defend its intellectual property or obtain the necessary licenses at a cost acceptable to the Company, if at all; the successful implementation of the Company's research and development programs and collaborations; the success of the Company's license agreements; the acceptance by the market of the Company's products; and other factors, including general economic conditions and regulatory developments, not within the Company's control.  The factors discussed herein could cause actual results and developments to be materially different from those expressed in or implied by such statements.  The forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstance.

SOURCE Agile Therapeutics, Inc.