Optinose announced its Board of Directors has named Tomas J. Heyman as a new director. Tom has a long-standing track record of leadership and management in the biopharmaceutical industry, with extensive experience in business development and venture capital. During his thirty-seven-year career with Johnson & Johnson, he held a diverse range of leadership roles across legal, R&D, business development, general corporate management, and equity investments. Most recently, he served as president of JJDC, the venture capital group within Johnson & Johnson, where he managed approximately $1.5 billion of capital and oversaw investments in more than 120 companies. Prior to leading JJDC, he led business development for Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical group, Janssen, for twenty-three years. Under his leadership the group completed hundreds of licensing and M&A transactions including the acquisitions of Centocor, Tibotec, Cougar Pharmaceuticals, and Aragon Pharmaceuticals. In addition, he currently serves on the Board of Directors for Akero Therapeutics. In addition, the Company also announced that William F. Doyle, who has served on the Optinose Board of Directors since 2010, and previously as a member of the OptiNose AS Board of Directors from 2004 to 2010, intends to resign following a regularly scheduled Board meeting to be held on December 11, 2020.
OptiNose, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company focused on patients treated by ear, nose and throat (ENT) and allergy specialists. The Company's product, XHANCE (fluticasone propionate) nasal spray, 93 microgram (mcg), is a therapeutic utilizing its Exhalation Delivery System (EDS) that delivers a topically-acting corticosteroid for the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps and chronic rhinosinusitis without nasal polyps (also known as chronic sinusitis). XHANCE combines the EDS with a liquid formulation of fluticasone propionate, a well-characterized, second-generation corticosteroid. XHANCE is designed to deliver medication into the high and deep regions of the nasal passages where both nasal polyps and inflamed and swollen membranes can obstruct normal sinus ventilation and drainage. The Company has developed both a liquid delivery EDS and a powder delivery EDS utilizing natural functional behaviors of the upper nasal airways intended to offer better drug deposition.