Capricor Therapeutics Announces the Appointment of Philip J. Gotwals to Its Board of Directors

Capricor Therapeutics announced the appointment of Philip J. Gotwals, Ph.D. to its Board of Directors, effective immediately. Dr. Gotwals, most recently the Global Head, Vice President of Business Development and Licensing at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, bring his strategic vision for research, innovation for drug development and valuable experience to the Company. Dr. Gotwals has experience in drug development, research, corporate strategy and business development with a career spanning nearly 30 years in the biotechnology industry.

Dr. Gotwals most recently served as the Global Head, Vice President of Business Development and Licensing at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) where he oversaw business development efforts for all disease areas and technology platforms. Under Dr. Gotwals? leadership, NIBR business development and licensing executed over 50 major strategic transactions which included licensing deals, collaborations, acquisitions and new company creations. These transactions led to significant corporate evolution and growth.

During his 13 years at Novartis, Dr. Gotwals was instrumental in building the company?s immuno-oncology strategic research area and spearheading the collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania to develop chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. Prior to Novartis, he was Vice President of Program Management at Altus Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for all product development project management activities. Prior to Altus, he was Senior Director of Program and Alliance Management at Biogen, where he oversaw leadership of internal and allied early product development teams in the autoimmune, neurology and oncology therapeutic areas.

Dr. Gotwals has a B.A. in Biology from Amherst College, holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California at Berkeley, completed postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, business training at Harvard Business School and has published extensively in the area of integrin biology.