MedBridge LLC, a Santa Barbara-based leading provider of management services in the health-care industry, announced Monday a significant investment and involvement in publicly traded VG Life Sciences (OTC Pink: VGLS), a biotechnology company focused on technologies for the discovery and development of drug therapies for cancer, infectious disease and inflammation.
“Our company was founded on the overarching principle that we help professionals be professionals in the area they are most skilled and passionate about,” MedBridge President/CEO Dave Odell said. “We believe that by taking administrative tasks off their plate, our partners can pursue leading edge advancements with even more vigor and focus. We exist so that they can focus on what they do best. What we do best is managing businesses.
“By leveraging our administrative practice, VG Life Sciences can focus on moving their important technologies forward. Our goals are simple: Make the professionals successful and thus create stockholder value.”
MedBridge’s investment in VGLS includes more than $500,000 in cash infusion, full administrative support, and representation on the VGLS Board of Directors.
“This is a transformational development for VG Life Sciences,” said Haig Keledjian, CEO of VG Life Sciences. “The significant commitment from MedBridge provides us with the capital and operational infrastructure to focus our efforts on advancing our pipeline of preclinical drug candidates into Phase I human clinical trials. Over the next two years, we expect to complete the required preclinical safety, pharmacology, and toxicity studies to move our targeted peptide technologies into Phase I clinical trials for several applications, including HIV, lyme disease and inflammatory syndromes.”
John Tynan, president of the TynanGroup Companies, who is also a longtime investor in VGLS and MedBridge partner, will also be a board member together with Odell.
“We welcome David Odell and John Tynan to our board and expect to benefit greatly from their significant business expertise,” Keledjian said. “As longtime VG Life Sciences investors, and in David’s case, by service as a board member to our majority-owned subsidiary VG Energy, these seasoned executives have fully vetted our drug pipeline and associated IP and have now paved the way for accelerated growth and increased shareholder value through their continued support.”
VGLS’ chief scientist is M. Karen Newell-Rogers, Ph.D. Dr. Newell-Rogers is primary inventor of both the Targeted Peptides and Metabolic Disruption patented technologies. She is the Raleigh R. White Jr. Endowed Professor of Surgical Research, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, at Texas A&M Health Sciences Center and Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Texas. Newell-Rogers is also the Director of the newly formed Center for Cell Death and Differentiation at TAMHSC/Scott and White Hospital.
VGLS’ Advisory Board includes noted doctor Eric Rosenberg, M.D., associate professor of medicine Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rosenberg has an extensive background studying HIV. He is best known for his research on early HIV infection. VGLS’ peptide platform is a targeted application for HIV.
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