Experienced Pharma Industry Clinical Operations Leader to Spearhead Development of Cellular Therapy Programs
MIAMI, FL, July11, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Longeveron Inc. (NASDAQ: LGVN) ("Longeveron" or "Company"), a clinical stage biotechnology company developing cellular therapies for life-threatening and chronic aging-related conditions, announced today the appointment of Nataliya Agafonova, M. D., as the Company’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO), effective as of July 1, 2023. As CMO, Dr. Agafonova will lead Longeveron’s global clinical development and regulatory strategy for the Company’s investigational products.
“Dr. Agafonova brings deep pharmaceutical industry experience and an extensive background in successful drug development, and we are delighted to welcome her to the Longeveron leadership team,” said Wa’el Hashad, Chief Executive Officer of Longeveron. “We look forward to working with her to advance our Lomecel-B™ regenerative medical therapy from proof-of-concept, hopefully through regulatory approval and commercialization.”
“I am very excited about the pioneering work in cellular therapies being done by Longeveron, and about the potential of our lead asset Lomecel-B™ in indications such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome,” said Dr. Agafonova. “This Company has scientific and operational excellence at its foundational core, and am delighted to join Wa’el and my leadership colleagues to realize the full potential of these assets.”
Dr. Agafonova joins Longeveron from Otsuka Pharmaceutical, where she served as Clinical Development Lead, Senior Medical Director, and Product Development Chair. Previously, she was the Clinical Development Lead and Senior Medical Director at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Agafonova previously held several senior leadership positions in clinical development and pharmacovigilance at Ardea Bioscience, Biogen, Amgen, and Genzyme corporation. Dr. Agafonova has extensive experience in therapeutic areas such as autoimmune, hematology, neuroscience, and oncology. Her cross-therapeutic expertise in drug development helped to bring several products to the U.S. and EU market. Prior to her industry experience, Dr. Agafonova served as a physician at Ukrainian Research Institute of Oncology and Radiology. Dr. Agafonova earned an M.D. from the Ukrainian National Medical University and completed her internal medicine residency at Kharkov State University Hospital in Ukraine.
About Longeveron Inc.
Longeveron is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing regenerative medicines to address unmet medical needs. The Company’s lead investigational product is Lomecel-B™ an allogeneic medicinal signaling cell (MSC) therapy product isolated from the bone marrow of young, healthy adult donors. Lomecel-B™ has multiple mechanisms of action encompassing pro-vascular, pro-regenerative, anti-inflammatory, and tissue repair and healing effects with broad potential applications across a spectrum of disease areas. Longeveron is currently advancing Lomecel-B™ through clinical trials in three indications: hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), Alzheimer’s Disease, and Aging-Related Frailty. Additional information about the Company is available at www.longeveron.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which reflect management's current expectations, assumptions, and estimates of future operations, performance and economic conditions, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the statements made herein. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believe," "expects," "may," "looks to," "will," "should," "plan," "intend," "on condition," "target," "see," "potential," "estimates," "preliminary," or "anticipates" or the negative thereof or comparable terminology, or by discussion of strategy or goals or other future events, circumstances, or effects. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, statements about the ability of Longeveron’s clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy of the Company’s product candidates, and other positive results; the timing and focus of the Company’s ongoing and future preclinical studies and clinical trials and the reporting of data from those studies and trials; the size of the market opportunity for the Company’s product candidates, including its estimates of the number of patients who suffer from the diseases being targeted; the success of competing therapies that are or may become available; the beneficial characteristics, safety, efficacy and therapeutic effects of the Company’s product candidates; the Company’s ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of its product candidates in the U.S., Japan and other jurisdictions; the Company’s plans relating to the further development of its product candidates, including additional disease states or indications it may pursue; the Company’s plans and ability to obtain or protect intellectual property rights, including extensions of existing patent terms where available and its ability to avoid infringing the intellectual property rights of others; the need to hire additional personnel and the Company’s ability to attract and retain such personnel; the Company’s estimates regarding expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing; the Company’s need to raise additional capital, and the difficulties it may face in obtaining access to capital, and the dilutive impact it may have on its investors; the Company’s financial performance, and the period over which it estimates its existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund its future operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements. Further information relating to factors that may impact the Company's results and forward-looking statements are disclosed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Longeveron’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed with the SEC on March 14, 2023. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation, other than imposed by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Investor Contact
Mike Moyer
LifeSci Advisors
Tel: 617-308-4306
Email: mmoyer@lifesciadvisors.com
