Company Overview
Omni Bio Pharmaceutical, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that was formed in 2006 to explore new methods of use of an FDA approved drug - Alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT). AAT has a 20-year safety record as an approved treatment for emphysema
in AAT-deficient patients (a market that is currently estimated at $400
million).
We are currently evaluating AAT for the treatment of several
diseases, including Type 1 diabetes, bone marrow transplantation complications (also known as graft versus host disease or GVHD), islet transplantation, HIV, influenza and certain bacterial disorders, including anthrax
exposure. Novel discoveries made at the University of Colorado indicate that AAT has the
potential to address these indications.
Our core strategy is based on licensing issued and pending patents that cover new uses for AAT. We intend to leverage sponsored research, collaborations with existing AAT manufacturers, and licensed patents for the development and commercialization of AAT in additional indications.
In July 2011, Omni Bio purchased a 25% equity interest in a newly formed company, BioMimetix Pharmaceutical, Inc. BioMimetix was formed to develop a new class of patented compounds for the treatment of various
disease and health care treatment classifications including radiation toxicity incurred
during the treatment of cancer. BioMimetix's research and development efforts are being performed under an exclusive license of an issued patent held by Duke University. Omni Bio provided the initial funding for BioMimetix in the amount of $2 million.
Management Team
James Crapo - CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Dr. James Crapo, MD has served as our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board of Directors since March 2011. He has also served on our Scientific Advisory Board since March 2009. He has been a Professor at National Jewish Medical
and Research Center since June 1996 and served as Executive Vice President
of Academic Affairs and Chairman of Medicine from June 1996 to 2004.
National Jewish Health is a private institution specializing in immunology and
allergic diseases. From July 2004 to December 2004, Dr. Crapo served as Chief
Executive Officer of Aeolus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a
developer of a new class of catalytic antioxidant compounds that protects
healthy tissue from the damaging effects of radiation. He was the first scientist to extend
Dr. Fridovich's and Dr. Joe McCord's original discovery of superoxide
dismutase, a natural antioxidant referred to as "SOD," to mammalian models of
disease. Prior to joining National Jewish, Dr. Crapo spent over 15 years as the Chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Division at Duke University Medical Center. He is involved in a number of professional societies, including service on the NHLBI Advisory Council and serving as President of the American Thoracic Society and President of the Fleischner Society. He currently serves on the board of directors and as the chairman of the audit committee of Lifevantage Corporation (LFVN.OB), a maker of science-based solutions to oxidative stress. From 2007 to 2009, he served as the chairman of the board of directors of Lifevantage Corporation.
Charles Dinarello - CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER
Dr. Charles Dinarello, MD has served as our Chief Scientific Officer and Director of Medical Affairs since February 2011. He also serves on our Scientific Advisory Board. From March 2009 to February 2011, he served as our Acting Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board of Directors. Previously Professor of Medicine at Tufts University in Boston, since 1996, he is Professor of Medicine and Immunology at the University of Colorado Denver. Dr. Dinarello has published over 700 original research articles on cytokines, particularly interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor, and is considered a “founding father” of cytokine biology. Dr. Dinarello currently serves as a director of Techne Corporation (NASDAQ NNM: TECH), and is a Scientific Advisory Board member of Senesco Technologies, Inc., Source MDx, Inc., GlobeImmune, Inc., and Capstone Pharmaeuticals, Inc. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Dinarello has received numerous international awards for his scientific contributions. Most recently, he received the Novartis Prize in Immunology at the International Congress of Immunology and in March 2010, he was awarded The Paul Ehrlich Prize for his work on cytokines. The Paul Ehrlich Prize is the most prestigious prize in Germany in the field of medicine. In 2009, he was the recipient of the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, which is the largest monetary award given in the US for medicine. Also, in 2009, he received the Crafoord Prize from the King of Sweden. The Crafoord Prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and is the second most significant prize next to the Nobel Prize in medicine awarded by the Swedish Academy. Other awards have included Germany’s Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine; the Ludwig Heilmeyer Gold Medal of the Society for Internal Medicine; the Italian National Academy of Medicine’s International Chirone Prize; the Carol Nachman Prize in Rheumatology; the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashdid al Maktoum Award (United Arab Emirates); the Beering Award (USA) and the Bonfils-Stanton Prize in Medicine. With the prize monies, Dr. Dinarello established a charitable foundation, the Interleukin Foundation, which supports research on cytokines and inflammatory diseases.
Robert Ogden - CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Robert Ogden has served as our Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary since May 2009. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Ogden was a financial consultant, primarily providing services to public companies, including Fortune 500 and micro-cap entities. From May 2004 to June 2007, Mr. Ogden served as Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary of SAN Holdings, Inc., a publicly-traded data storage solutions provider and software company, where he was responsible for all administrative and finance functions. From 2000 to May 2004, he was a multi-industry financial consultant providing financial controller and reporting services to both private and public companies. His prior experience includes financial executive positions with two micro-cap companies. Mr. Ogden began his career as a public accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Mr. Ogden received a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia and is a CPA.
Board of Directors
James Crapo
Vicki Barone
Vicki Barone has served as the Chairperson of our Board of Directors since March 2009 and is a member of our Audit Committee. From March 2008 until March 2009, she was the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Apro Bio Pharmaceutical Corporation (“Apro Bio”), our predecessor operating company. Since 1996, Ms. Barone has served as the Chief Financial and Compliance Officer for GVC Capital LLC (“GVC Capital”), where she is also a Senior Managing Partner and a member of the Commitment Committee, and actively manages the corporate finance projects of the firm. Since 2010, she has served on the board of the National Investment Banking Association, which she also served on from 2005 to 2007, including serving as the Chairperson in 2007 and Secretary and Treasurer in 2006. She is a CPA and a Certified Financial Planner and received a BS in Finance and MS in Accounting from the University of Colorado.
Michael Iseman
Dr. Michael Iseman, MD has served as a member of our Board of Directors since March 2009 and is the Chairman of our Scientific Advisory Board. From August 2008 until March 2009, Dr. Iseman was a director of Apro Bio. Since 1980, he has been a Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver with appointments in both the Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Infectious Diseases. Since 1983, he has also been a physician with the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver and currently serves as its Chief of Clinical Mycobacterial Disease Service. Dr. Iseman received his undergraduate degree with honors from Princeton University and his MD from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Michael Wort
Michael Wort has served as a member of our Board of Directors since March 2009, and is a founder of Apro Bio, which commenced operations in February 2006. From October 2008 until March 2009, he was a director of Apro Bio and from October 2008 through December 2008, he served as its Interim Chief Executive Officer. Since 2007, Mr. Wort has served as the Managing Director of De Facto Communications, a subsidiary of Chime Communications, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange. In 2004, Mr. Wort founded MC BioCommunications, an investor and public relations firm specializing in emerging bioscience companies. He is also a founder and director of BeckPharma Limited, a technology transfer company, and PharmScape, a biotechnology consultancy company, both of which were founded in 2003. Mr. Wort’s other prior experience includes various sales, marketing and general management positions with GlaxoSmithKline plc. Additionally, he has served as an advisor and consultant on fund raising for more than 15 small-cap, biotechnology companies. Mr. Wort received his BSC in Applied Biology and is a Chartered Graduate Biologist in Industrial Microbiology.
Albert Kramer
Albert Kramer has served as a member of our Board of Directors since March 2009. From April 2008 until March 2009, he was a director of Apro Bio. Since 1993, Mr. Kramer has served as an attorney with the Kramer Law Firm. From 1993 to 2005, Mr. Kramer served as Special Counsel to Syratech Corporation. From 2004 to 2008, he served as Chief Counsel to Travelers Marketing, LLC. From 1975 to 1992, Mr. Kramer served as a District Court Judge for the Massachusetts Trial Court. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from Boston University.
Steven Bathgate
Steven Bathgate has served as a member of our Board of Directors since March 2009. From April 2008 until March 2009, he was a director of Apro Bio. Since 1996, Mr. Bathgate has served as a Senior Managing Partner of GVC Capital., and is its founder. Prior to starting GVC Capital, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cohig & Associates, Inc. Mr. Bathgate currently serves on the board of directors of Peerless Systems Corp. (Nasdaq: PRLS), Creston Resources, Inc. (Pink Sheets: CSTJ) and formerly served on the board of directors of Birner Dental Management Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: BDMS). He received a BS degree in Finance from the University of Colorado.
Scientific Advisory Board
Michael Iseman, Chairperson
Charles dinarello
James crapo
James Mier
Dr. James Mier, MD has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board since April 2009 and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. He is also a practicing physician in the Division of Hematology-Oncology at Beth Israel. Dr. Mier has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Senesco Technologies Inc. since April 2007. Dr. Mier’s research is funded by the NIH and he is a member of numerous professional societies. He received his MD from Indiana University School of Medicine.
Eli Lewis
Dr. Eli Lewis, PhD has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board since May 2009. He is the director of the Clinical Islet Laboratory and a lecturer in clinical biochemistry for the faculty of Health Sciences at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. In October 2008, Dr. Lewis co-published a study in the Publication of the National Academy of Sciences with Dr. Charles Dinarello and Dr. Leland Shapiro titled “Alpha-1-Antitrypsin Monotherapy Induces Immune Tolerance during Islet Allograft Transplantation in Mice.” Dr. Lewis is a member of numerous professional societies. Dr. Lewis received his undergraduate, masters and Ph.D degrees from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, where he received Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude distinctions in his masters and Ph.D programs, respectively. He completed his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Colorado Denver.
Principal Investigator
Leland Shapiro
Dr. Leland Shapiro, MD is our principal investigator for viral and bacterial disorders. Dr. Shapiro is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver and a staff physician at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver. Dr. Shapiro received his BA and BS degrees from Tufts University and graduated from the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine. He obtained medical training as a resident in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also served as chief medical resident. He also completed a infectious diseases fellowship clinical and scientific training at the Tufts New England Medical Center where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Dinarello as a post-doctoral fellow in infectious diseases. He was selected as a fellow of the American College of Physicians for outstanding achievements in the areas of clinical care and scientific investigation. Current research projects include investigating the role of innate immunity (including natural and synthetic serine protease inhibitors) in the pathogenesis of several diseases, including those considered bio-weapons. Dr. Shapiro is also the majority shareholder in Bio Holding, Inc. with whom the Company has a licensing agreement for the treatment of diabetes.
