Amarantus BioSciences Appoints Amgen Co-Founder Dr. Joseph Rubinfeld to Advisory Board

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Amarantus BioSciences, Inc. (OTCQB: AMBS), a biotechnology company developing new treatments and diagnostics for Parkinson's disease and Traumatic Brain Injury centered on its proprietary anti-apoptosis therapeutic protein MANF, today announced that it has appointed Amgen Co-Founder Joseph Rubinfeld, PhD to its Corporate Advisory Board. Dr. Rubinfeld will assist management in positioning the Company's development programs for partnering, as well as provide guidance on MANF-based small molecule strategies with his extensive medicinal chemistry background.

"I believe in MANF," said Dr. Rubinfeld, "I have reviewed a great number of technologies in my 45 year career in the biopharmaceutical field, and I believe that MANF could be one of the biggest successes that I have ever seen. The fundamental scientific premise of reducing protein misfolding is basic, yet very profound. The data, while early, demonstrates very clearly at the cellular level and in animals that MANF reduces apoptosis, improves cellular function, and restores behavioural deficits in a number of disease models, including Parkinson's, Stroke, Myocardial Infarction and Traumatic Brain Injury. These are all indications with very large markets and clear unmet medical need. I believe that if we are able to further de-risk MANF with positive toxicology studies and early clinical data, the Company's new orphan drug strategy could get MANF to market rather expeditiously. MANF has the commercial potential to become a blockbuster drug."

Dr. Rubinfeld is one of the four original co-founders of Amgen. Dr. Rubinfeld co-founded Amgen after a 23 year career in a variety of senior scientific and operational positions at Bristol Myers Squibb. Dr. Rubinfeld served as a Senior Director at Cetus Corporation from 1987 to 1990 until he co-founded SuperGen in 1991, and served as its President & CEO through 2003. Dr. Rubinfeld is credited with inventing Amoxicillin, biodegradable detergent and the 10 second Polaroid film. Dr. Rubinfeld received his PhD in Chemistry from Columbia University.

"Clearly, Dr. Rubinfeld joining the Advisory Board is a tremendous endorsement for the Company at this critical juncture in our growth cycle," said Gerald E. Commissiong, President & CEO of Amarantus. "The Advisory Board is now well populated with extremely talented experts in the various fields that are necessary to position us for growth: science, investment banking/M&A, business development and regulatory affairs. We now intend to leverage these relationships to fill out the management team and Board of Directors with development expertise and Big Pharma experience in order to attract the capital necessary to advance our development programs towards key value inflexion milestones."

Dr. Rubinfeld is the fourth member of Amarantus' Advisory Board. The bios of the other members of the Company's Advisory Board are below:

Owen Garrick, MD MBA

Dr. Owen Garrick currently serves as the President & Chief Operating Officer at Bridge Clinical Research and is President of the American Medical Association Foundation. Prior to that, he was Director of Corporate Strategy and Business Development at McKesson Corporation. Dr. Garrick was Executive Director and Co-Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Novartis Pharmaceuticals where he oversaw company acquisitions, hybrid equity/license rights deals, mature product divestments and venture investments in biotechnology companies. Prior to Novartis, Dr. Garrick was an associate at Goldman Sachs in New York. Dr. Garrick received his MD from Yale School of Medicine and earned his MBA from Wharton School of Business. He holds an AB from Princeton University, where he has served on the national fund raising board.

Mark Benedyk, PhD

Dr. Benedyk is currently a Managing Partner at Rila Partners LLC, a business and corporate development consultancy he founded earlier in his career. Dr. Benedyk is a Director at the Center for Drug Research and Development Ventures, Inc., and is on the Translational Medicine Advisory Board of the CNS Regenerative Medicine Foundation. Previously he was head of The Pfizer Incubator (TPI) where his duties included membership on the Board of Directors, a director seat on several TPI portfolio company boards, overseeing the TPI operations team, and reviewing investment opportunities in multiple technologies. Dr. Benedyk also held executive Business Development roles at Ascenta Therapeutics, Optimer Biotechnology, Aurora Biosciences (acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals), and Elan Pharmaceuticals. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental Genetics, from The Rockefeller University, his B.S. degrees in Microbiology and Botany from the University of Michigan, B.S., and received financial certifications from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Clinton Allen, MSc

Mr. Allen has extensive experience in the biopharmaceutical space. He has held senior leadership positions at Bristol Myers Squibb as Senior Director of Corporate Compliance Audit, Director of Risk Management, Director of Product Development and Commercialization, Director of In-licensing and Business Development. Mr. Allen was a captain in the United States Army and received his master in in Environmental Management & Sciences from Tufts University.

About Amarantus BioSciences, Inc.

Amarantus BioSciences, Inc. 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, Traumatic Brain Injury and other human diseases.  The Company 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. For further information please visit www.Amarantus.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the possible benefits of MANF therapeutic applications and/or advantages presented by Amarantus' PhenoGuard technology, as well as statements about expectations, plans and prospects of the development of Amarantus' new product candidates. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks that the anticipated benefits of the therapeutic drug candidates or discovery platforms, as well as the risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to the development of Amarantus' new product candidates, including those identified under "Risk Factors" in Amarantus' most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and in other filings Amarantus periodically makes with the SEC. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements Amarantus 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 presentation.

MEDIA CONTACTS
Amarantus BioSciences, Inc.
Gerald E. Commissiong
408-737-2734
[email protected]

SOURCE Amarantus BioSciences, Inc.

WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM?

440k+
Newsrooms &
Influencers

9k+
Digital Media
Outlets

270k+
Journalists
Opted In

GET STARTED