Oragenics,
Inc. (NYSE: OGEN), a leader in the development of novel, effective
antibiotics and oral care probiotics, today announced two new
appointments to the Product Development team. Joining the company are
Guojun (Shawn) Nie Ph.D., as Director of Process Development, and Mr.
Joel Ngoje as Senior Process Scientist. Together, the two bring almost
40 years of pharmaceutical, protein and process development experience
to the company. Encouraging progress from the development of Oragenics’
novel Lantibiotic platform has necessitated the accelerated expansion of
the R & D team to position the pipeline for clinical success.
Dr. Nie joins Oragenics with extensive industrial experience in the
preclinical, clinical and late stage manufacturing activities at large
CMOs (global reach) and clinical manufacturing for GMP production,
including process design and development, improvement and optimization
strategies, downstream development, scale-up, and technology transfer.
Prior to joining Oragenics, Dr. Nie was most recently Senior Scientist,
Process Development at Caliber Biotherapeutics. Prior to that, Dr. Nie
held various positions in product development at GenVec Inc., Human
Genome Sciences, Inc. and Baxter International, Inc.
Mr. Joel Ngoje joins Oragenics with comprehensive industrial experience
in upstream and downstream protein purification process development as
well as process optimization and scale-up from pilot to full-scale
manufacturing. Prior to joining Oragenics, Mr. Ngoje worked as a Product
Development Engineer in various research capacities at Celgene
Corporation, VaxInnate Corporation, BioDelivery Sciences International,
Inc. and Alpharma Inc.
Albert Fosmoe, Sr. VP Operations and Product Development of Oragenics,
said, “We are thrilled to have these outstanding individuals on board to
further empower our development team as we deliver on our vision to
transform the lives of patients with innovative new antibiotics.”
John N. Bonfiglio, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of
Oragenics added, “Shawn and Joel bring a wealth of product and process
development experience to the company at an important inflection point.
Our new team members will be instrumental to the success of our
Lantibiotic platform and the further advancement of our drug candidate
pipeline.”
About Oragenics, Inc.
Oragenics, Inc. is focused on becoming the world leader in novel
antibiotics against infectious disease and probiotics for oral health in
humans and pets. Oragenics, Inc. has established two exclusive worldwide
channel collaborations with Intrexon Corporation Inc. (NYSE: XON), a
synthetic biology company. The collaborations will allow Oragenics
access to Intrexon's proprietary technologies with the idea of
accelerating the development of much needed new antibiotics that will
work against resistant strains of bacteria and new therapeutic
probiotics designed to alleviate symptoms from oral diseases. Oragenics
also develops, markets and sells proprietary OTC probiotics specifically
designed to enhance oral health for humans and pets, under the brand
names Evora
and ProBiora
in more than 13 countries worldwide.
For more information about Oragenics, visit www.oragenics.com.
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Safe Harbor Statement: Under the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release includes forward-looking
statements that reflect management’s current views with respect to
future events and performance. These forward-looking statements are
based on management’s beliefs and assumptions and information currently
available. The words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,”
“estimate,” “project” and similar expressions that do not relate solely
to historical matters identify forward-looking statements. Investors
should be cautious in relying on forward-looking statements because they
are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in
any such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not
limited to those described in the filings of Intrexon and Oragenics with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Any responsibility to
update forward-looking statements is expressly disclaimed.
Copyright Business Wire 2014