Conatus Pharmaceuticals Appoints Daniel Ripley As Head Of Corporate Development

SAN DIEGO, July 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced today the appointment of Daniel Ripley as Head of Corporate Development, effective immediately.  Mr. Ripley will lead licensing, partnering initiatives, intellectual property analysis and act as the internal coordinator of the emricasan commercialization strategy development.

"Dan brings experience in both in-licensing and out-licensing of commercial products as well as extensive experience in partnering early-to-late stage products", said Steven J. Mento, Ph.D., President and CEO. "His varied experience in drug development transactions will be particularly important as we move forward with the development of emricasan, our first-in-class caspase inhibitor, into Phase 3 clinical trials for acute liver failure and liver fibrosis, and the related coordination of its commercialization activities".

We also want to continue our strong track record of success with collaborative drug discovery partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies, expanding the development of emricasan for disease targets other than liver disease as well as monitoring our collaboration with Abbott Laboratories in cancer," continued Dr. Mento.  "In addition, we have a leadership position in intellectual property related to programmed cell death (apoptosis) including ongoing relationships with thought leaders in the field of apoptosis and in our targeted disease areas. We possess an extensive patent portfolio comprised of over 130 issued patents including patents covering composition of matter on validated drug targets and new chemical entities (NCEs) addressing those targets, as well as broad fields of use, drug-screening assays, diagnostics and antibodies.  Dan will be involved in seeking business opportunities in each of these areas".

For more than a decade, Mr. Ripley has been involved with emerging growth life science companies in the development and execution of strategic business transactions.  His experiences include M&A, technology licenses and alliance transactions with pharmaceutical companies.  Mr. Ripley was instrumental in business negotiations at Kalypsys, Inc. and Isis Pharmaceuticals where he closed over $350 million in transactions.

Mr. Ripley earned his M.B.A. with an emphasis in Finance and a B.S. in Microbiology both from San Diego State University.

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative human therapeutics in the areas of fibrotic disease and oncology. Conatus' lead drug candidate, emricasan (IDN-6556) is in development as a potential therapy for a variety of fibrotic diseases. Fibrotic diseases affect millions of people worldwide and can be caused by many different types of injuries. Conatus was founded by the executive management team of Idun Pharmaceuticals in July 2005 following the sale of Idun to Pfizer.   Conatus acquired the Idun subsidiary from Pfizer in 2010.  For additional information, please visit www.conatuspharma.com.

SOURCE Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

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