Prometic Announces Appointment of Bruce Wendel as Chief Business Development Officer

• Bruce Wendel is an accomplished, senior pharma executive with 37 years of industry experience

LAVAL, QC, April 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Prometic Life Sciences Inc. (TSX: PLI) (OTCQX: PFSCF) ("Prometic") announces today that Mr. Bruce Wendel is joining the Executive team as Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO), effective immediately.  Mr. Wendel has been serving on the Board of Directors of Prometic Life Sciences Inc. since 2008. He has a long and impressive track record of business development and deal-making in the bio-pharma industry.

"We are delighted that Bruce is stepping-up his commitment to Prometic by joining the management team as a senior executive," said Prof. Simon Best, Chairman of the Board.  "Bruce has played an important role in the evolution of our company and understands all aspects of our pipeline and strategy.  He has already made a significant contribution to a committee of the board set up in 2016 and made up of members with deep biopharma experience specifically providing expert guidance to management on the clinical development and commercial partnership strategy for our therapeutics." 

Mr. Pierre Laurin, CEO of Prometic said, "Bruce has extensive experience in licensing and strategic partnering and has a track record of successful, value-creating transactions. Our business development group will be enhanced by his leadership.  As we have communicated, partnering is a key part of Prometic's financing strategy, and Bruce's expertise will be of great value as our initiatives to complete one or more licensing agreements for PBI-4050 and RYPLAZIM™ gain momentum."

Mr. Bruce Wendel, newly appointed Chief Business Development Officer, said "This is an exciting time for Prometic, with PBI-4050 now entering late stage clinical development and RYPLAZIM™ progressing through regulatory review.  I am thrilled to have the opportunity to take a more active role and to lead the business development efforts as we pursue a successful future for the company."

About Bruce Wendel

Mr. Wendel's most recent executive role was as Chief Strategic Officer of Hepalink USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Shenzhen Hepalink Pharmaceutical Company. From January to December 2010, he was Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Abraxis BioScience, LLC (NASDAQ: ABII), where he oversaw the development and commercialization of Abraxane® and led the negotiations that culminated in the acquisition of Abraxis by Celgene for over $2.9 billion. Prior to Abraxis, Mr. Wendel worked at American Pharmaceutical Partners, a NASDAQ-listed generic drug manufacturer, serving in business and corporate development roles of increasing responsibility. In 2008, American Pharmaceutical Partners was acquired by Fresenius SE for $3.7 billion. Mr. Wendel spent over fourteen years with Bristol-Myers Squibb, beginning in their legal department, and moving into business and corporate development roles.  At Bristol-Myers he led teams involving U.S. and international licensing, acquisitions, divestitures, and co-promotion transactions.  Mr. Wendel earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Georgetown University Law School, and a B.S. from Cornell University. Mr. Wendel has also served on the Board of Directors of Versatem Inc., a NASDAQ-listed oncology drug-discovery company, since June 2016.

About Prometic Life Sciences Inc.

Prometic Life Sciences Inc. (www.prometic.com) is a biopharmaceutical corporation with two drug discovery platforms focusing on unmet medical needs in the field of fibrosis and orphan diseases. The first platform, small molecule therapeutics, stems from the discovery of two receptors GPR40/GPR84 acting as "dual master switches" which are at the core of the healing process as opposed to fibrosis. The second platform, plasma-derived therapeutics, leverages Prometic's vast experience in bioseparation technologies to address unmet medical needs with therapeutic proteins not currently commercially available, such as Ryplazim™ (plasminogen human).  Prometic is also leveraging the second platform higher recovery yield advantage to develop some more established plasma-derived therapeutics with significant growth in demand such as Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) and provides access to its proprietary bioseparation technologies to enable pharmaceutical companies in their production of non-competing biopharmaceuticals. Globally recognized as a bioseparations expert, the Corporation derives revenue from this activity through sales of affinity chromatography media which contributes to offset the costs of its own R&D investments. Headquartered in Laval (Canada), Prometic has R&D facilities in the UK, the U.S. and Canada, manufacturing facilities in the UK and commercial activities in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements about Prometic's objectives, strategies and businesses that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are "forward-looking" because they are based on our current expectations about the markets we operate in and on various estimates and assumptions. Actual events or results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements if known or unknown risks affect our business, or if our estimates or assumptions turn out to be inaccurate. Such risks and assumptions include, but are not limited to, Prometic's ability to develop, manufacture, and successfully commercialize value-added pharmaceutical products, the availability of funds and resources to pursue R&D projects, the successful and timely completion of clinical studies, the ability of Prometic to take advantage of business opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry, uncertainties related to the regulatory process and general changes in economic conditions. You will find a more detailed assessment of the risks that could cause actual events or results to materially differ from our current expectations in Prometic's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2017, under the heading "Risk and Uncertainties related to Prometic's business". As a result, we cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statement even if new information becomes available, as a result of future events or for any other reason, unless required by applicable securities laws and regulations. All amounts are in Canadian dollars unless indicated otherwise.

SOURCE ProMetic Life Sciences Inc.

Related Links

http://www.prometic.com