Beyond Air® Expands Leadership Team with the Appointment of Dr. Andrew Colin to Chief Medical Officer
Beyond Air (NASDAQ: XAIR) has appointed Dr. Andrew Colin as Chief Medical Officer effective December 1, 2021. Dr. Colin, with four decades in pediatric pulmonology, has been a key member of Beyond Air’s Scientific Advisory Board since 2013. His extensive experience includes over 20 clinical trials and contributions to various pulmonology advancements. The company is focused on developing inhaled nitric oxide therapies for respiratory conditions and solid tumors. The leadership change is expected to enhance the growth of clinical programs, particularly in acute viral infections and nontuberculous mycobacteria.
- Dr. Colin's extensive clinical experience and past contributions expected to enhance leadership in clinical programs.
- Appointment of a well-respected figure in pediatric pulmonology may strengthen investor confidence.
- Potential growth in clinical trials for treatments targeting severe lung infections and solid tumors.
- Transitioning to new leadership poses risks related to continuity and operational changes.
Dr. Colin brings four decades of clinical experience in pediatric pulmonology to Beyond Air, with research spanning respiratory physiology, Cystic Fibrosis, and lung infections culminating in over 120 peer-reviewed publications and 250 global lectures
As a board-certified pediatric pulmonologist, Dr. Colin has been an active member of Beyond Air’s Scientific Advisory Board since 2013
Dr. Colin has participated in over 20 clinical trials, including studies sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Therapeutic Development Network
GARDEN CITY, N.Y., Dec. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Beyond Air, Inc. (NASDAQ: XAIR), a clinical-stage medical device and biopharmaceutical company focused on developing inhaled nitric oxide (NO) for the treatment of patients with respiratory conditions, including serious lung infections and pulmonary hypertension, and, through its affiliate Beyond Cancer, ultra-high concentration nitric oxide (UNO) for the treatment of solid tumors, today announced the appointment of Dr. Andrew Colin to the newly created position of Chief Medical Officer, effective December 1, 2021.
“I am delighted and honored to welcome Dr. Colin to the Beyond Air family,” commented Steve Lisi, Chairman and CEO of Beyond Air. “Dr. Colin’s contributions as a longtime member of our Scientific Advisory Board have already been instrumental to the progress of our ongoing clinical programs, specifically in bronchiolitis and NTM. I am excited to see the growth of our clinical programs under his leadership.”
“I am thrilled to join Beyond Air at such an exciting time in the Company’s history,” commented Dr. Colin on his appointment as Chief Medical Officer. “Throughout my time on Beyond Air’s Scientific Advisory Board I have developed a productive partnership with the executive team and have become very well versed on the Company’s ongoing clinical programs, as well as strategic plans. I am excited to accelerate these activities and help lead the late-stage development efforts and potential commercialization of both LungFit® PRO and LungFit® GO systems in acute viral respiratory infections, NTM, and other future indications.”
Dr. Colin joins Beyond Air from the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami, where he spent the last 16 years, serving as the Professor of Pediatric Pulmonology and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Pulmonology and the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Program. In this role Dr. Colin directed one of only two Pediatric Pulmonary fellowship training programs in Florida, and throughout his career, has mentored nearly 60 fellows both in the United States and globally. In a career spanning four decades, Dr. Colin has seen many advances in pulmonology and has made significant contributions in multiple facets of the field. While on faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, he spent a decade studying HIV related lung disease and effects on lung maturation in infants and children, predominantly through application of novel technologies to study infant pulmonary function. Dr. Colin was one of the early participants in the studies for the first CF drug, DNase. As a member of the North American Scientific Advisory Board of the Epidemiology Study of Cystic Fibrosis that was established by Genentech following the DNase studies, he participated in the creation of the first major database for all CF patients in the United States and the basis of multiple subsequent studies. In recent years, his focus has been on nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) lung infection, and he was the first to report successful treatment with nebulized amikacin for Mycobacterium abscessus in CF patients.
Dr. Colin has received numerous awards for his contributions to the field of pulmonology. At Harvard he received a Pulmonary Teaching Award named after him, and in 2004 he received the Klaus Peter International Teaching Award. For his contributions to the field and support for its global recognition, Dr. Colin was named Honorary Fellow of the Pediatric Pulmonary Societies of the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and the Pediatric Society of Guatemala. Additionally, he has been on the editorial board of “Pediatric Pulmonology” for over 25 years, is an active reviewer for multiple journals, and is an active member of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and the European Respiratory Society. At the ATS 2017 International Conference, Dr. Colin was recognized with the Society’s first Lifetime Contributions to Pediatric Respiratory Medicine Award. He received his M.D. at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel in 1976 and completed his pediatric training in hospitals related to that medical school. He was trained in Pediatric Pulmonology and Pediatric Intensive Care at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and subsequently completed a formal fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonology at Children`s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, where he remained on the faculty for 15 years.
About Beyond Air, Inc.
Beyond Air, Inc. is a clinical-stage medical device and biopharmaceutical company developing a revolutionary NO Generator and Delivery System, LungFit®, that uses NO generated from ambient air to deliver precise amounts of NO to the lungs for the potential treatment of a variety of pulmonary diseases. The LungFit® can generate up to 400 ppm of NO, for delivery either continuously or for a fixed amount of time and has the ability to either titrate dose on demand or maintain a constant dose. The Company is currently applying its therapeutic expertise to develop treatments for pulmonary hypertension in various settings, in addition to treatments for respiratory tract infections that are not effectively addressed with current standards of care. Beyond Air is currently advancing its revolutionary LungFit® for clinical trials for the treatment of severe lung infections such as acute viral pneumonia (including COVID-19) and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). Additionally, Beyond Air, through its affiliate, Beyond Cancer, is using ultra-high concentrations of NO with a proprietary delivery system to target certain solid tumors in the pre-clinical setting. For more information, visit www.beyondair.net.
About Nitric Oxide (NO)
Nitric Oxide (NO) is a powerful molecule, naturally synthesized in the human body, proven to play a critical role in a broad array of biological functions. In the airways, NO targets the vascular smooth muscle cells that surround the small resistance arteries in the lungs. Currently, exogenous inhaled NO is used in adult respiratory distress syndrome, post certain cardiac surgeries and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn to treat hypoxemia. Additionally, NO is believed to play a key role in the innate immune system and in vitro studies suggest that NO possesses anti-microbial activity not only against common bacteria, including both gram-positive and gram-negative, but also against other diverse pathogens, including mycobacteria, viruses, fungi, yeast and parasites, and has the potential to eliminate multi-drug resistant strains.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” concerning inhaled nitric-oxide and the Company’s LungFit® product, including statements with regard to potential regulatory developments, the potential impact on patients and anticipated benefits associated with its use. Forward-looking statements include statements about our expectations, beliefs, or intentions regarding our product offerings, business, financial condition, results of operations, strategies or prospects. You can identify such forward-looking statements by the words “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “impacts,” “plans,” “projects,” “believes,” “estimates,” “likely,” “goal,” “assumes,” “targets” and similar expressions and/or the use of future tense or conditional constructions (such as “will,” “may,” “could,” “should” and the like) and by the fact that these statements do not relate strictly to historical or current matters. Rather, forward-looking statements relate to anticipated or expected events, activities, trends or results as of the date they are made. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and reflect our views as of the date they are made with respect to future events and financial performance. Many factors could cause our actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in forward-looking statements, including risks related to: our approach to discover and develop novel drugs, which is unproven and may never lead to efficacious or marketable products; our ability to fund and the results of further pre-clinical and clinical trials; obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual property utilized by our products; our ability to enforce our patents against infringers and to defend our patent portfolio against challenges from third parties; our ability to obtain additional funding to support our business activities; our dependence on third parties for development, manufacture, marketing, sales, and distribution of products; the successful development of our product candidates, all of which are in early stages of development; obtaining regulatory approval for products; competition from others using technology similar to ours and others developing products for similar uses; our dependence on collaborators; our short operating history and other risks identified and described in more detail in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC, all of which are available on our website. We undertake no obligation to update, and we do not have a policy of updating or revising, these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law.
CONTACTS:
Maria Yonkoski, Head of Investor Relations
Beyond Air, Inc.
Myonkoski@beyondair.net
Corey Davis, Ph.D.
LifeSci Advisors, LLC
Cdavis@lifesciadvisors.com
(212) 915-2577
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