WALTHAM, Mass. – September 12, 2011 – Histogenics Corporation, a privately held regenerative medicine company, has appointed Michael Lewis, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer and Peter Hamilton as Vice President of Manufacturing and Production. Dr. Lewis and Mr. Hamilton bring to Histogenics significant experience within the medical device and orthopaedics fields. Histogenics is advancing NeoCartÒ, an autologous bioengineered neocartilage grown outside the body using the patient’s own cells for the repair of full thickness cartilage lesions, and VeriCart™, a cartilage matrix designed, when combined with autologous stem cells, to stimulate cartilage repair in a simple, one-step procedure at the point of damage.
“Bringing Michael and Peter onto our leadership team reflects the significant progress Histogenics has made as we advance NeoCart into a Phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment of knee cartilage injury and underscores our commitment to optimize the clinical and commercial success of both the NeoCart cartilage regeneration system and the VeriCart cartilage repair system,” said Patrick O’Donnell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Histogenics. “I look forward to working with Michael and Peter to continue to advance these promising programs.”
Dr. Lewis has more than 30 years of experience in orthopaedic surgery and in healthcare business. He has previously served as the Professor and Chairman of Orthopaedics and Chief of Staff at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He was the Medical Director of Vanderbilt University’s Rehabilitation Hospital and was the Senior Vice President (Clinical and Business Development) of Priority Healthcare Corporation, a publicly traded company. Dr. Lewis also has been a principal, advisor and consultant to different aspects of the healthcare and financial industries and taught healthcare and entrepreneurship at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. He is a Senior Fellow at the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science and is the inventor of a medical device that eliminated the need for amputation in many children with bone cancer. Dr. Lewis received his orthopaedic training at the Hospital for Special Surgery and was a fellow in Surgery at Memorial Hospital-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He received a B.A. degree from Tufts University, an M.D. degree from Cornell University and an M.B.A. degree with honors from Vanderbilt University.
Mr. Hamilton has over 20 years of engineering and operating experience in the medical device industry. He previously served as Vice President Operations for Choice Therapeutics, Inc., a start-up wound care company specializing in antimicrobial dressings using silver nylon. He also served as Operations Manager at BioSphere Medical, where he managed production, quality control, sterilization, packaging and movement of inventory among U.S. and European facilities and developed two new methods of packaging for BioSphere’s lead product. Prior to BioSphere, Mr. Hamilton was a Senior Development Engineer at Boston Scientific, where he designed, developed and implemented production stents, snares and guide wires for non-vascular applications. He also served as a Design Engineer at Deknatel. Mr. Hamilton is the holder of six U.S. patents and received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts and an M.B.A. degree from Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts.
About Histogenics
Histogenics is a leading regenerative medicine company that combines cell therapy and tissue engineering technologies to develop highly innovative products for tissue repair and regeneration. In May of 2011, Histogenics acquired Israeli cell-therapy company Prochon BioTech. Histogenics’ flagship products focus on the treatment of active patients suffering from articular cartilage derived pain and immobility. The Company takes an interdisciplinary approach to engineering neocartilage that looks, acts and lasts like hyaline cartilage. It is developing new treatments for sports injuries and other orthopaedic conditions, where demand is growing for long-term alternatives to joint replacement. Histogenics has successfully completed Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials of its NeoCart autologous tissue implant. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, the company is privately held. For more information, visit www.histogenics.com.
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