Biopure Corp.

Brett Kaplan, M.D. appointed Chief Operating Officer Nishi Rampal, M.D. appointed Senior Vice President, Clinical Development SEATTLE and CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, Aug. 26, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eliem Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ELYM), announced today the appointments of Brett Kaplan, M.D., as Chief Operating Officer, and Nishi Rampal, M.D., as Senior Vice President, Clinical Development. “I am delighted to announce the addition of Brett and Nishi to our executive team,” said Dr. Aoife Brennan, CEO of Eliem Therapeutics. “Since completing the Tenet Medicines acquisition, we have worked diligently to build a best-in-class management team as we transition Eliem into a leading biotechnology company. Brett and Nishi represent two critical additions to the Eliem team. Brett has demonstrated exceptional financial and operational leadership throughout his career. Nishi brings an impressive track record in leading clinical development strategy, from bench to launch, across a variety of therapeutic areas, including key focus areas we plan to pursue at Eliem. We look forward to leveraging their expertise and insights as we grow Eliem and advance our pipeline focused on developing therapeutics for autoimmune-driven inflammatory diseases.” “I could not be more excited to be joining Eliem at this juncture in its evolution,” said Dr. Kaplan. “I look forward to working with the team to strengthen key areas of the business, positioning the Company for sustained success. Our commitment to advancing the organization will give us the potential to develop a pipeline of transformative therapies.” “Many patients with autoimmune diseases face suboptimal treatments,” said Dr. Rampal. “Eliem’s lead asset, budoprutug (previously referred to as TNT119), represents a potentially best-in-class anti-CD19 antibody with broad applications across a number of autoimmune diseases. I am inspired by Eliem’s mission and excited to advance the development of antibody-based therapies to address these unmet medical needs.” Brett Kaplan, M.D., Chief Operating OfficerDr. Kaplan has over 20 years of finance and operations leadership in biotechnology and investment banking. Before joining Eliem, Dr. Kaplan served as President, Chief Financial and Corporate Development Officer at Chroma Medicine Inc., where he raised approximately $250 million to fund the research and development of epigenetic editors, a new class of genomic medicines. Prior to Chroma, Dr. Kaplan was the Chief Financial Officer of Prevail Therapeutics, which was acquired by Eli Lilly and Company for $940 million. At Evercore Partners, Dr. Kaplan was a Managing Director, Investment Banking advising on strategic and financing transactions. Dr. Kaplan has held other corporate development and strategy positions at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical company acquired by Merck & Co., Inc., Biopure Corporation, and Eli Lilly. Dr. Kaplan is currently a director of Myeloid Therapeutics, Inc. and also served as a director of Compass Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Kaplan holds an MBBCh. and an M.B.A. from the University of Witwatersrand. Nishi Rampal, M.D., Senior Vice President, Clinical DevelopmentDr. Rampal brings over 10 years of extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with a track record of leadership in rare disease drug development, spanning neurology, rheumatology, dermatology, and hematology. Over the course of her career in industry, she has led programs resulting in successfully global approvals including UPLINZA® (inebilizumab-cdon), a groundbreaking treatment for neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder and ULTOMIRIS (ravulizumab-cwvz) a treatment for myasthenia gravis. Prior to Eliem, Dr. Rampal was the Executive Director Clinical Development at Horizon Therapeutics (acquired by Amgen, Inc. for $27.8 billion in October 2023), where she was the global lead on the development and strategy for UPLINZA. Prior to Amgen, Dr. Rampal was a Medical Director Clinical Development at Alexion Pharmaceuticals (acquired by AstraZeneca for $39 billion in December 2021). While at Alexion, Dr. Rampal worked on the global pivotal Phase 3 trial for ravulizumab (Ultomiris), CHAMPION® developed for myasthenia gravis. Dr Rampal completed her neurology residency at the Yale School of Medicine and her neurophysiology and epilepsy fellowship at Columbia University, and is double board certified with past academic appointments at Yale University, Columbia University, and Mount Sinai Icahn Schools of Medicine. About Eliem Therapeutics, Inc.Eliem Therapeutics is focused on developing therapeutics for autoimmune-driven inflammatory diseases, including advancing budoprutug, an anti-CD19 antibody designed for a broad range of autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, lupus nephritis, immune thrombocytopenia and membranous nephropathy. For more information, please visit https://eliemtx.com/ Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including without limitation statements regarding: future expectations, plans and prospects for Eliem; the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of Tenet Medicines, Inc.; the strategy, anticipated milestones and key inflection points for Eliem; Eliem’s budoprutug product candidate, including expectations regarding budoprutug’s therapeutic benefits, clinical potential and clinical development and other statements containing the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “would,” “will,” “working” and similar expressions. Any forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in, or implied by, such forward-looking statements. Eliem may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, important risks and uncertainties associated with: the ability of the Eliem to timely and successfully achieve or recognize the anticipated benefits of the acquisition; changes in applicable laws or regulation; the possibility that Eliem may be adversely affected by other economic, business and/or competitive factors; Eliem’s ability to advance budoprutug and/or its other product candidates on the timelines expected or at all and to obtain and maintain necessary approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory authorities; obtaining and maintaining the necessary approvals from investigational review boards at clinical trial sites and independent data safety monitoring board; replicating in clinical trials positive results found in early-stage clinical trials of budoprutug; competing successfully with other companies that are seeking to develop treatments for systemic lupus erythematosus and lupus nephritis, immune thrombocytopenia and membranous nephropathy and other autoimmune driven inflammatory diseases; maintaining or protecting intellectual property rights related to budoprutug and/or its other product candidates; managing expenses; and raising the substantial additional capital needed, on the timeline necessary, to continue development of budoprutug and other product candidates Eliem may develop. For a discussion of other risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which could cause Eliem’s actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the “Risk Factors” section, as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties and other important factors, in Eliem’s most recent filings with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent Eliem’s views as of the date hereof and should not be relied upon as representing Eliem’s views as of any date subsequent to the date hereof. Eliem anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Eliem’s views to change. However, while Eliem may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Eliem specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. InvestorsChris Brinzey ICR Westwickechris.brinzey@westwicke.com339-970-2843

Former Biopure Corp. senior vice president Howard Richman earned a three-year prison sentence and a $50,000 fine for faking cancer in an attempt to skate on a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit, according to news reports. Judge Mark Wolf of the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts slapped Richman, 57, with a harsher penalty than the 21 months prosecutors asked for and more than double the 15 months his lawyer sought. Richman, the defunct Cambridge, Mass.-based blood substitute maker’s regulatory affairs chief, will also serve 36 months probation once he’s out of prison. He pleaded guilty in March to obstructing justice in the SEC case. The commission accused Richman and other former managers of concealing the fact that the Food & Drug Administration was withholding approval of the firm’s flagship product, the blood substitute Hemopure, and halting further clinical trials over safety concerns. Biopure raised millions on two public stock offerings before disclosing the bad news from the FDA, which sent its stock price plummeting. Richman sought to avoid the trial by telling a federal judge he couldn’t participate because he was terminally ill with colon cancer, going so far as to impersonate a doctor during a phone call with his lawyers. Biopure went belly-up in July and sold off its remaining assets in August to OPK Biotech, which is owned by Russian oligarch Sergei Pugachev. Coincidentally, OPK put out a press release today detailing its acquistion of Biopure and its capacity to make about 100,000 Hemopure units a year. “The company also has all estimated and technical documents required for the construction of factories, able to produce more than 500 thousand doses of Hemopure a year,” according to the press release. “OPK Biotech and OPK plans imply the development of research-and-production complex in Russia, as well as further perfectionning of these technologies with the participation of Russian scientists and specialists.”