RA'ANANA, Israel, and NEW YORK, Sept. 06, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UroGen Pharma Ltd. (NASDAQ:URGN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments to address unmet needs in the field of urology, with a focus on uro-oncology, today announced the appointment of Paul Chu to the position of Vice President of Business Development, effective immediately. In this newly-created role, Mr. Chu will be responsible for leading and optimizing the Company’s strategic business development initiatives.
“We are pleased to welcome Paul to our senior leadership team. Paul brings with him more than 15 years of public company experience in corporate business development, finance, commercial operations and strategic planning,” said Ron Bentsur, Chief Executive Officer of UroGen. “Paul has a proven track record of executing comprehensive business development plans and achieving strategic goals as well as a deep understanding of the urology field. His expertise will be invaluable as we work to maximize the Company’s value by broadening the reach of our drug candidates and innovative RTGel™ formulation technology.”
Prior to joining UroGen Pharma, Mr. Chu served as Director, Corporate Business Development for Allergan plc, where he led business development initiatives for Allergan’s Medical Aesthetics and Neurotoxin franchises. In this position, Mr. Chu played a significant role in the successful completion of multiple M&A and licensing transactions, most notably Allergan’s acquisition of Zeltiq Aesthetics, Inc. for $2.5 billion and of privately held LifeCell Corporation, which served as Allergan’s primary entry point into regenerative medicine, for $2.9 billion. Mr. Chu previously held a similar role leading Allergan’s Urology franchise, where he completed the exclusive worldwide license for UroGen’s RTGel™ for use in combination with neurotoxins for the treatment of overactive bladder. Earlier in his career, Mr. Chu held roles of increasing responsibility in finance and commercial operations for Allergan and The Coca-Cola Company. Mr. Chu holds an MBA from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and a BA in Finance and Business Administration from California State University, Fullerton.
“I am excited to join UroGen at such a pivotal time in the Company’s growth,” stated Mr. Chu. “During my time at Allergan, where I led the completion of the exclusive worldwide license agreement for RTGel™ for use in combination with neurotoxins, I came to realize the potential of this technology and UroGen's uro-oncology pipeline. I look forward to applying my expertise and working with the Company’s senior leadership team to help UroGen achieve its business development objectives.”
About UroGen Pharma Ltd.
UroGen Pharma (NASDAQ:URGN) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing advanced non-surgical treatments to address unmet needs in the field of urology, with a focus on uro-oncology. The Company has developed RTGel, a proprietary sustained release, hydrogel-based formulation for potentially improving therapeutic profiles of existing drugs. UroGen Pharma's sustained release technology is designed to enable longer exposure of the urinary tract tissue to medications, making local therapy a potentially more effective treatment option. UroGen Pharma's lead product candidates, MitoGel and VesiGel, are designed to potentially remove tumors by non-surgical means and to treat several forms of non-muscle invasive urothelial cancer, including low-grade UTUC and bladder cancer. UroGen Pharma has offices located in both Ra’anana, Israel and New York, NY, USA.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including with respect to the clinical development of MitoGel™ and other product candidates in UroGen Pharma’s pipeline, the scope and development of the Company’s product candidate pipeline, the potential utility and applicability of the RTGel technology beyond uro-oncology and overactive bladder, and the ability to consummate business development transactions, which statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, but not limited to: the timing and success of clinical trials and potential complications thereof; the ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval; the labeling for any approved product; the scope, progress and expansion of developing and commercializing a product candidate, the size and growth of the market(s) therefor and the rate and degree of market acceptance thereof vis-à-vis alternative therapies; the maintenance of any applicable collaborations; the ability to achieve business development transactions on favorable terms to the Company, if at all. In light of these risks and uncertainties, and other risks and uncertainties that are described in the Risk Factors section of the final prospectus for UroGen Pharma’s initial public offering of securities in the United States filed with the SEC on May 5, 2017 and other filings that UroGen Pharma makes with the SEC from time to time (which are available at http://www.sec.gov), the events and circumstances discussed in such forward-looking statements may not occur, and UroGen Pharma’s actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied thereby. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are based on information available to UroGen Pharma as of the date of this release.
CONTACTS:
UroGen Pharma Ltd.
Gary Titus
Chief Financial Officer
garyt@urogen.com
646-768-9531
Or
Burns McClellan, Inc.
Steve Klass
sklass@burnsmc.com
212-213-0006
UroGen Pharma