EATONTOWN, N.J., Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Osteotech, Inc. (Nasdaq: OSTE), a leader in the emerging field of biologic products for regenerative healing, announced today that it has appointed two experienced industry leaders to serve in the Company's newly created roles of Senior Vice President of Sales and Senior Vice President of Tissue Engineering. These new positions underscore Osteotech's commitment to executing its strategy to effectively bring to market innovative, therapy-driven products that meet the evolving needs of physicians and the patient communities.

Michael P. McCarthy has joined Osteotech as Senior Vice President of Sales and is responsible for further implementing and managing the Company's sales model that incorporates distributor, channel partner and direct sales strategies. He most previously served as Chief Business Development Officer for Pipeline Biomedical Holdings, LLC, a medical products and technology development company. Robert C. Cohen has joined the Company as Senior Vice President of Tissue Engineering and will spearhead the Company's efforts to fully translate Osteotech's investments in technology-based therapies into innovative procedure-related products while also managing direct relationships with surgeon customers. He also joins Osteotech from Pipeline Biomedical, where he served as the Chief Technology Officer and oversaw technical new product due diligence, research and development, regulatory, clinical affairs and quality assurance. Messrs. McCarthy and Cohen will both report directly to Sam Owusu-Akyaw, Osteotech's President and Chief Executive Officer.

"We are excited to expand our senior management team with the addition of Michael and Robert, who each bring uniquely relevant experience and market proven expertise to our team," stated Mr. Owusu-Akyaw. "We believe that Michael's successful track record of managing sales teams and distributor networks as well as his experience in bringing to market novel biologics and medical technology will prove valuable as we further execute on our sales strategy. We have a variety of new products in our commercialization pipeline, including our MagniFuse(TM) Bone Graft and Plexur(TM) Biocomposites. We regard this new role as critical to our ability to successfully drive sales growth within these new high margin opportunities, while maintaining strong revenue in our base businesses that include our Grafton(R) DBM family of products."

"At the same time, we believe Robert's 25 years of experience bringing innovative new products to market in the orthopedic device and related orthopedic biologics industries will be instrumental as we continue to develop and invest in new procedure-driven products, including the re-launch of our Plexur P(TM) Biocomposite for procedural specific applications accompanied by human clinical information," continued Mr. Owusu-Akyaw. "Our development roadmap includes a variety of biologic platforms that should expand our addressable market opportunity, strengthen our competitive position and allow us to bring to market new products that surgeons want and patients need. We recently announced our goal to bring our DuraTech(TM) BioRegeneration Matrix to market in late 2009 and over the next few years we also expect to introduce products focused on a variety of new clinical indications including rotator cuff repair, abdominal wall reconstruction and wound care applications. We believe Robert's technical and procedural application expertise will allow him to provide valuable contributions and leadership as we progress toward these specific therapies. We look forward to Robert's and Michael's contributions to Osteotech."

Prior to his role as Chief Business Development Officer at Pipeline Biomedical, Mr. McCarthy served as the President and CEO of Endius Inc., a minimally invasive surgical spine device company. He has also served as the global Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Implex Corp., a reconstructive, spinal, trauma and sports medicine developer. Before Implex, Mr. McCarthy was a principal at Oxford Medical Inc., an independent sales distribution organization for the Johnson & Johnson orthopedic product portfolio. He began his career in the industry at Johnson & Johnson where he held a variety of corporate orthopedic sales and marketing positions. Mr. McCarthy holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Villanova University.

Mr. Cohen has spent the past 25 years in the medical technology industry with a focus on product development for orthopedic devices and related biologics. Prior to his role at Pipeline Biomedical, Mr. Cohen served as the President of Zimmer Spine, Inc., a spinal products company, where he was responsible for product development, marketing and sales. He also served as the General Manager/Vice President, Research and Development at Zimmer Trabecular Metal Technology, Inc., a company focused on orthopedic reconstructive prosthetic and spinal implant systems, bone replacements and musculoskeletal research. Before this, he served as Vice President, Research and Development at Implex Corp. Mr. Cohen earned a Master of Science in Engineering Management, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering all from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Mr. Cohen has 25 patents and 35 publications to his credit.

Pipeline Biomedical Holdings, LLC is a medical products and technology development company. During 2008, Pipeline provided consulting services to Osteotech. Messrs. McCarthy and Cohen each holds equity investments in Pipeline.

About Osteotech

Osteotech, Inc., headquartered in Eatontown, New Jersey, is a global leader in providing OsteoBiologic solutions for regenerative medicine to support surgeons and their patients through the development of innovative therapy-driven products that alleviate pain, promote regenerative and biologic healing and restore function. For further information regarding Osteotech or this press release, please go to Osteotech's website at www.osteotech.com.

Certain statements made throughout this press release that are not historical facts contain forward-looking statements (as such are defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) regarding the Company's future plans, objectives and expected performance. Any such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that the Company believes are reasonable, but are subject to a wide range of risks and uncertainties and, therefore, there can be no assurance that actual results may not differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to develop and introduce new products, differences in anticipated and actual product and service introduction dates, the ultimate success of those products in the marketplace, the continued acceptance and growth of current products and services, the impact of competitive products and services, the availability of sufficient quantities of suitable donated tissue and the success of cost control and margin improvement efforts. Certain of these factors are detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information in this press release is as of January 27, 2009, and the Company does not intend to update this information.

SOURCE Osteotech, Inc.