Matinas BioPharma Appoints Jerome D. Jabbour as Chief Executive Officer

On Mar 19, 2018

Bedminster-based Matinas BioPharma Holdings, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative anti-infectives for orphan indications, announced the appointment of Jerome D. Jabbour, co-founder and president of Matinas, as its chief executive officer and a member of its Board of Directors, effective immediately. As part of a planned transition, Roelof Rongen has stepped down as CEO and a member of the Board. The company also outlined its revised and streamlined clinical and regulatory strategy for lead antifungal program, MAT2203, following its recent successful meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and its plans for optimizing its proprietary cochleate nano-particle platform delivery technology to secure strategic collaborations in areas of innovative medicine.

Herb Conrad, chairman of the Board of Matinas, stated, “As we look to drive the company forward into its next stage, it is evident that we need to embark on aggressive, yet focused strategies to fully realize the potential value associated with our technology platform. In preparing for this logical transition for some time, Jerry is intimately familiar with our delivery technology and product candidates and has developed valuable relationships and credibility with thought leaders and investors since joining the company in 2013. The Board is confident that his vision and direction for the company and demonstrated ability to execute are perfectly aligned with our strategic priorities moving forward. We are sincerely grateful to Roelof for his years of service to Matinas. He was integral in laying the foundation of the company and positioning MAT2203 for a successful regulatory interaction with FDA in January 2018.”

Jabbour is a Co-founder of Matinas and has served as president since March 2016 and as executive vice president, chief business officer since 2013. Jabbour’s key accomplishments since joining Matinas include engineering and executing the acquisition of Aquarius Biotechnologies Inc., and its novel and proprietary cochleate lipid-crystal delivery technology platform, leading the company’s financing strategy resulting in successfully raising more than $50 million to date and the up-listing of the company’s common stock to NYSE AMER in 2017.

“I am fully supportive of the transition plan laid out by our Board of Directors, and I leave the day-to-day operations of the company confident in our clinical development program and the potential value associated with the disruptive cochleate nano-particle delivery platform technology. Having successfully led the company to and through our recent positive FDA meeting, it is appropriate for me to step aside as the company prepares for its next stage of growth. Jerry brings strong leadership, experience and continuity to our business, through which his efforts are already well positioned to achieve both corporate and clinical success,” commented Roelof Rongen.

“I am honored and delighted to be named Matinas’ next CEO and to lead the company during this exciting and critical time. It has been a pleasure to partner with and learn from Roelof since we founded the company together,” commented Jerome D. Jabbour, chief executive officer. “During 2017, we gained valuable insight into our products and our technology platform, including the announcement of our first human patient data for MAT2203. I have a very clear vision for how we will utilize our available resources to maximize the opportunities presented by our potentially broadly applicable delivery platform. We are very pleased with the outcome of our meeting with FDA, which provided us with important insight and clarity for our clinical development path forward for MAT2203 during a highly-collaborative discussion. This significant advancement combined with ongoing dialogue with potential strategic partners in applying our disruptive delivery platform technology to new and innovative therapeutic areas, enables us to build on this momentum and drive significant value creation in 2018 and beyond. I look forward to working with the Board, our management team and all of our employees to execute on our focused growth strategy,” concluded, Jabbour.

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