Leading Biotechnology Entrepreneur and Investor Isaac Blech Joins Medgenics Board of Directors

Medgenics, Inc. has announced that Isaac Blech, age 61, a leading biotechnology entrepreneur and investor, has joined the Company’s Board of Directors.

Mr. Blech has served on the Company’s Strategic Advisory Board since February 2011 and is a major investor in the Company having invested over $7 million in the Company over the past year. The Medgenics Board of Directors now has seven members.

Mr. Blech is one of the most successful private financiers in the biotechnology industry. As an industry pioneer, he founded seven companies, all of which were subsequently brought public.

These include Celgene Corporation, Genetic Systems Corporation, Icos Corporation, Nova Pharmaceuticals Corporation and PathoGenesis Corporation.

These companies are responsible for major advances in a number of diseases including the diagnosis and/or treatment of cancer, chlamydia, sexual dysfunction, cystic fibrosis and AIDS. Their combined value is in excess of $30 billion.

Mr. Blech is a major shareholder and a Director of Socialwise, Inc., an innovator in e-commerce for the youth market, and is also a major shareholder and Director of ContraFect Corporation, a company developing therapies for infectious diseases, Mr. Blech is also a major shareholder of the public companies Premier Alliance Group, a financial consulting company, and Stratus Media Group, an owner, producer, promoter and operator of live entertainment events.

Mr. Blech is also a founder, Director and major shareholder of Cerecor Inc., a private company developing new treatments for central nervous system disorders.

“It is with great pleasure that we welcome Isaac to our Board of Directors. Isaac’s in-depth experience in biotechnology commercialization and his impressive professional network should be instrumental in helping us build Medgenics into a leading biotechnology company pioneering personalized sustained therapy using our Biopump platform for continuous production and delivery of therapeutic proteins by the patient’s own skin. We look forward to Isaac’s active involvement and support as a Director, as we advance our platform technology toward commercialization in a number of chronic diseases.” stated Andrew L. Pearlman, Ph.D., President and CEO of Medgenics.

Commenting on his appointment, Isaac Blech said, “Medgenics is demonstrating its ability to use a patient’s own tissue to create Biopumps that, when inserted back into that patient, are designed to deliver sustained production of the desired protein. This is potentially a major scientific and medical breakthrough which has the ability to change the treatment paradigm across a range of chronic diseases. I am delighted to be working with the Medgenics team and look forward to guiding them in the successful clinical development and commercialization of this powerful technology.”