– USA,MA / ISRAEL – Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:IMNP) announced today that the Board of Directors has appointed Gad Berdugo as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and has appointed Cameron Durrant, MD, MBA, as Lead Independent Director and Chairman of the Compensation Committee. Additionally, the Board appointed Mr. Elliot Maza, JD, CPA (inactive) as an independent director and Chairman of the Audit Committee. The Board reorganization was in conjunction with the resignations of two directors and the appointment of Mr. Berdugo, who is leaving the Board in order to become the new Chief Financial Officer.
Dr. Durrant commented: “I am delighted to take this responsibility at Immune. I believe that the Company is at an exciting point in its evolution and has a clear strategic plan ready for execution as outlined in the CEO Letter to Shareholders dated January 6, 2015. I believe that together with Gad Berdugo joining the team as CFO and Elliot Maza joining the Board that the Company is well positioned for success.”
Dr. Durrant is an entrepreneur, board member and former CEO/CFO and physician. His specialty is turnarounds and growth, both of large company brands and business units as well as small/medium size companies. He has served as board chairman and director and operated as CEO or interim CEO, as well as CFO, for both private and public companies.
He has been a senior executive with US and Global Profit and Loss responsibilities and has also been at several blue-chip pharmaceutical companies, including most recently Worldwide Vice President at Johnson & Johnson and previously as Vice President at Pharmacia Corporation, prior to its acquisition by Pfizer.
He is a founding director of a private nanotech oncology company, a board member of two private medical device companies, is currently working with private equity funds and recently started a European specialty pharma company.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Berdugo was a Managing Director and Head of the Global Life Sciences at Tegris Advisors, a New York City based investment-banking boutique. He brings over 20 years of experience in investment management and banking, strategic financial advisory and business and corporate development in the biomedical industry. He was previously the Founder and Managing Partner of Explorium Capital. From 2001 to 2008 he served as Director at Lazard Asset Management Group, managing healthcare investments across a diverse range of Funds. Mr. Berdugo started his career at Abbott and then at Baxter Healthcare, where he was Director of Global Business Development for the Bio-Pharmaceutical Group. Mr. Berdugo received his M.B.A. from H.E.C. School of Management in Paris and studied at Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, his M.Sc. in Biochemical Engineering from University College London and his B.Sc. with Honors, in Biotechnology from Imperial College London.
Elliot M. Maza, JD, CPA (inactive) currently is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and CFO at Intellect Neurosciences Inc. Previously, Mr. Maza was Chief Executive Officer and CFO at Biozone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Chief Financial Officer of Emisphere Technologies Inc. Mr. Maza has been a Partner, Transaction Advisory Services, at Ernst & Young, LLP. He began his professional career as an Attorney at Sullivan and Cromwell in New York and then in Investment banking as Vice President of Structured Finance in the Fixed Income divisions of Goldman Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. and BT Securities Corporation where he developed and marketed structured finance and derivative based transactions. Mr. Maza has served on numerous Boards of Directors for OTC and NASDAQ traded companies, including positions as Chairman of the Audit Committee. Mr. Maza is a registered attorney and a licensed C.P.A. (inactive) in the states of New York and New Jersey. Mr. Maza received a B.A. in Accounting from Touro College in New York and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
About Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc. applies a personalized approach to treatment, developing novel, highly targeted antibody therapeutics to improve the lives of patients with inflammatory diseases and cancer. The Company’s lead product candidate, bertilimumab, is in clinical development for moderate to severe ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease as well as bullous pemphigoid, an orphan auto-immune dermatological condition. Immune licensed worldwide rights for systemic indications of bertilimumab from iCo Therapeutics (TSX: ICO; OTCQX: ICOTF) in June 2011, while iCo retained rights to all ophthalmic indications. iCo originally licensed the exclusive world-wide rights to bertilimumab in 2006 from MedImmune, the Global Research and Development Arm of AstraZeneca. Immune’s pipeline also includes NanomAbs®, antibody nanoparticle conjugates, for the targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics, and AmiKet™, a Neuropathic Pain drug candidate ready for Phase III. AmiKet has received Orphan Drug Designation for Post Herpetic Neuralgia.
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