Organovo Holdings, Inc. (NYSE MKT: ONVO; "Organovo"), a three-dimensional biology company focused on delivering scientific and medical breakthroughs using 3D bioprinting technology, today announced that the Company has hired Paul Gallant as its General Manager of the in vitro tissue service and product business. Mr. Gallant has more than 20 years of management and R&D experience in the drug discovery industry, most recently serving as chief operating officer for DiscoveRx, a global scientific product and services company. At Organovo, Mr. Gallant will be responsible for driving the success of the toxicology contract research services business, in close partnership with the sales and marketing team under Michael Renard and the Research and Development team under Sharon Presnell.
"Paul has an impressive track record in creating business units and growing commercial operations to serve customers focused on research and development of innovative therapeutics," said Keith Murphy, chairman and chief executive officer of Organovo. "Paul's experience in advancing new technology platforms in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations and academic institutions will be invaluable as he develops and executes strategies for growing our business."
"Organovo offers a unique technology that has the potential to transform toxicology testing and drug development for the pharmaceutical industry, as well as develop long-range applications in organ replacement," said Mr. Gallant. "I look forward to building Organovo's customer base and developing and implementing strategies to advance Organovo's products to realize the promise of 3D bioprinting."
As chief operating officer at DiscoveRx, Mr. Gallant was responsible for the P&L results of the company's largest business unit, managing drug discovery services. Mr. Gallant formerly served as senior director at Ambit Pharmaceuticals, acquired by DiscoveRx in 2010, where he led the development and commercialization for the KINOMEscan platform. The world's largest commercial kinase screening panel, KINOMEscan became a key element of DiscoveRx's offering post-acquisition.
Mr. Gallant has also led R&D and service teams at Amgen, Inc., Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Massachusetts General Hospital. He earned a B.A. in biology from Colby University.
Organovo's 3D bioprinting enables the reproducible, automated creation of living human tissues that mimic the form and function of native tissues in the body. The company recently announced collaborations with L'Oreal to produce skin tissue for research and toxicity testing, with Merck to print liver and kidney tissues for studies of drug toxicity, and with Yale School of Medicine to develop 3D organ tissues for surgical transplantation research. Fast Company named Organovo one of The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 in Health Care.
www.organovo.com
