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Cell Therapy Company Adds Industry Heavyweights to Leadership Team

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 30, 2005 - Pervasis Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company founded to develop the next generation of medical therapies that integrate biomaterials with cells and drugs, today announced several recent additions to its quickly growing team, including a president, senior advisor and two independent directors.

Steve Bollinger joined Pervasis in June of this year as president and chief operating officer. Bollinger was previously chief operating officer of Angiolink Corporation, a privately held medical device company, which was sold during his tenure to Medtronic Corporation after Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the company's percutaneous vascular closure device. Prior to that Bollinger was vice president of research, development, and operations for Byron Medical, which he sold to Mentor Corporation in 1999.

Beverly Huss, former president of Guidant Corporation's Endovascular Solutions division, was appointed a senior advisor to the company in July. Huss had been with Guidant since 1986, in a variety of executive roles within the company's medical device divisions. As head of the company's worldwide Endovascular Solutions she was responsible for research and development, manufacturing, sales, marketing, finance, regulatory affairs, quality assurance, clinical affairs and human resources.

"Pervasis is taking a unique and powerful approach to solve extremely relevant problems in vascular disease," said Huss. "Deep understanding of vascular biology enables the development of therapies that will restore healing to damaged and diseased blood vessels. Once these concepts are demonstrated in the clinical studies ahead of us, we will have permanently changed the landscape of therapy for both patients and industry alike."

Duke Collier, executive vice president of Genzyme Corporation, has joined the Pervasis Board as an independent director. Currently responsible for managing Genzyme's oncology and cardiovascular businesses, Collier has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare. He was also president of Genzyme Biosurgery and its predecessor, Genzyme Surgical Products, the division in which Genzyme's cell-therapy products, Epicel and Carticel products were developed.

Peter Barton Hutt, former chief counsel of the FDA and currently a senior partner at Covington & Burling, has also joined Pervasis as an independent director. Hutt has been a member of the Institute of Medicine since its founding in 1971, and currently serves on the Panel on the Administrative Restructuring of the National Institutes of Health. He is a lecturer at the Harvard Law School, where he teaches a course on food and drug law, and is also the co-author of the casebook used to teach food and drug law throughout the country. In 2005, Hutt was presented with the FDA Distinguished Alumni Award.

"I am excited about the world-class founders, investors and advisors Pervasis has assembled. We share a clear vision for developing unique therapeutic devices," said Bollinger. "The combination of Beverly's extraordinary track record of product development in cardiology, Duke's uniquely deep experience with cell therapy and Peter's history of leadership in dynamic regulatory environments, gives us unparalleled breadth as we tackle unsolved problems in vascular medicine and beyond. I look forward to leveraging my own development experience in cardiology with that of our advisors to help bring to market a broad family of products that combine our novel approaches to cell therapy and regenerative devices."

In addition to these significant intellectual resources, Pervasis also recently closed $12 million in series B funding to support the company's next phase of growth and human clinical trails. (See separate release "Pervasis Therapeutics Closes $12 Million Series B Financing.")

About Pervasis Therapeutics

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Pervasis Therapeutics is focused on creating biologically active vascular technologies to treat significant unmet needs in cardiovascular disease. The company's products represent the next generation of combination therapies by bringing together advances in cell biology, drug delivery, and biomaterials. Pervasis' investors include Flagship Ventures, Highland Capital Partners and Polaris Venture Partners. The company was founded by Elazer Edelman, Robert Langer, Joseph Vacanti and Helen Nugent, and based on research funded in part by the Deshpande Center for Innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Contact

Emerge PR Steve Sylven, 781-915-5015 ssylven@emergepr.com