Healthcare Industry News: sickle cell
News Release - July 11, 2007
StemCyte Appoints Robert Dickey IV as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
ARCADIA, Calif., July 10 (HSMN NewsFeed) -- StemCyte, Inc., a leading stem cell transplantation and therapeutics company, announced today the appointment of Robert Dickey IV as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Dickey brings to StemCyte a total of more than 25 years of experience in entrepreneurial management and in investment banking. During his career, Mr. Dickey has been actively involved in fundraising in both the private and public markets, IPO's, and mergers and acquisitions. In addition, he has significant experience in the building and management of high growth companies. He will be based with StemCyte's CEO, CSO and head of business development, among others, at the Company's planned new headquarters on the east coast.Mr. Dickey joins StemCyte from Locus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where as CFO he raised over $40 million in debt and equity financing and from partnering revenues. Previously, Mr. Dickey was President, CEO and CFO of Protarga, Inc., where he raised more than $55 million, filed a registration statement to take Protarga public and then sold the company to Daiichi Sankyo, Co., Ltd. During this time he played a key structuring and negotiating role in a number of pharmaceutical and academic collaborations and licensing agreements. He began his career on Wall Street with 13 years' experience at Lehman Brothers in general corporate finance and in the M&A department and then four years as a Managing Director at Legg Mason Wood Walker. Mr. Dickey holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. from Princeton University.
"Rob Dickey's joining StemCyte reflects the organization's anticipated growth into a larger and more complex company and the consequent need to expand our team of senior professional managers", said StemCyte's CEO Ken Giacin. "With Rob's finance, drug development and Wall Street experience, he will play an integral role in overseeing our financial and corporate operations as we continue to expand the number of our stem cell banking facilities and significantly increase our investment in the development of umbilical cord blood ("UCB") stem cell therapeutics. Henry Chase, the current CFO, has been named Vice President of Finance.
About StemCyte
StemCyte, Inc. operates as both an international umbilical stem cell storage bank and a therapeutics company. Stem cells are used to replace or initiate the production of other cells that are damaged or missing due to disease. StemCyte collects, processes and banks umbilical cord blood ("UCB") stem cells to be used as therapeutic treatments. The Company currently operates UCB storage banks in California and Taiwan and is expanding its locations into other regions around the globe. In addition, the Company is pursuing collaborations with a number of leading stem cell researchers to improve and expand the treatment opportunities using stem cells.
UCB stem cells are a non-controversial and readily available source of stem cells, harvested from umbilical cords that would otherwise be discarded. To date, UCB stem cells have been used in approximately 8,000 transplants worldwide and have successfully treated certain cancers (e.g., leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma), blood disorders (e.g., thalassemia, sickle cell anemia and Fanconi anemia) and immune deficiency diseases. StemCyte and its scientific founder have developed proprietary processes to ensure that the least number of stem cells are lost post-collection and post-thaw. Studies have shown that successful patient engraftment and survival outcome are directly correlated to the number of stem cells provided. StemCyte's stem cells are currently being used to treat three to four patients per week and the Company recently released its 500th cord blood stem cell shipment for transplant. With an inventory of over 25,000 units, the Company's stem cell banks represent one of the largest and most ethnically diverse sources of unrelated (allogeneic) UCB stem cells.
StemCyte's therapeutic activities involve expanding the use of UCB stem cells in indications where stem cells are already an FDA-approved therapy, validating the engraftment and survival benefits of its proprietary stem cell processing technology and participating in clinical trials for new transplant indications. New indications include thalassemia, a devastating red blood cell deficiency diagnosed in over 150,000 babies each year with severe forms of the disease, and non-blood-based disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases.
StemCyte has received accreditation from the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB), the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), the College of American Pathologists (CAP), and Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) for allogeneic donations and has the only cord blood bank in the world accredited by FACT for autologous donations. StemCyte is one of only six banks to have been selected to participate in the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program under the initial $79 million authorized by Congress in the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005.
StemCyte is privately-held. Visit http://www.stemcyte.com for more information.
Source: StemCyte
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