France Dixon Helfer and Mike Ward Appointed to the Board of Directors of Aperion Biologics, Inc.

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Mar 11, 2014, 06:30 ET

SAN ANTONIO, March 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Aperion Biologics, Inc., a clinical-stage regenerative medical device company, announced that France Dixon Helfer and Mike Ward were appointed to the Company's Board of Directors.

Ms. Helfer currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Halo Healthcare Inc., a medical device and diagnostics company which develops innovative technologies for early risk detection of breast cancer. Most recently, she was the founder and CEO of Pegasus Biologics where she raised $32M, and in less than three years, built the company into an emerging growth revenue company with a solid product pipeline, acquired by Synovis Life Systems and more recently, Baxter. Ms. Helfer has held a number of executive level positions at Medtronic, Xenotech Labs (founding employee, acquired by Medtronic), SORIN Biomedica, Eclipse Surgical (IPO), and MDDataDirect. Ms. Helfer currently serves on several boards and as a strategic advisor to medical companies, including Board member of Epic Diagnostics and Epic Medical (UCLA) , an advisor to Neural Analytics (UCLA), Reviticell Holdings, and MLM Biologics. She's a strong advocate for female executives in healthcare and is an advisor to HBA, and a frequent lecturer on entrepreneurship and leadership.

Mike Ward has over 20 years of life sciences-dedicated investment banking, venture capital and private equity experience. During his career in investment banking, Mr. Ward executed over 80 life sciences M&A and financing transactions. Mr. Ward serves on the boards of the following life sciences companies: Nanosphere, Inc., a targeted molecular diagnostics company based in Northbrook, IL, and CytoPherx, Inc., an acute renal failure-focused therapeutic medical device company based in Ann Arbor, MI. Mr. Ward was previously a Director at Lurie Investments, Inc. where he was responsible for managing investment activities. Prior to joining Lurie Investments in 2009, Mr. Ward gained over 15 years of investment banking experience at Credit Suisse, Prudential Securities, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, BMO and Leerink Swann.

"France and Mike bring a wealth of experience, from private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurship, product development, and business development," said Daniel Lee, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "Their extraordinary industry experience will be a huge asset to the company as we move forward with our Z-Lig™ device, the first non-human biologic device for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction of the knee."

About Aperion Biologics, Inc.

Aperion Biologics, Inc., located in San Antonio, Texas, is a privately owned, clinical-stage medical device company addressing the need for alternatives to human-based grafts with animal-based tissue technology. Aperion developed and patented a technique to make animal tissues compatible for challenging human applications. This creates functioning scaffolds capable of remodeling into healthy tissue. Aperion's Z-Process™ is applicable to a variety of tissues used in orthopaedic, cardiovascular, plastic, dermatologic, general and other surgical specialties. The company's lead product for ligament reconstruction procedures, the Z-Lig™ ACLR Device, is currently in clinical investigation and the company has applied for the CE Mark to enable commercialization in the European market.

www.aperionbiologics.com

SOURCE Aperion Biologics, Inc.