Cesca Therapeutics Appoints Healthcare Investment Banking Veteran Joe E. Balagot as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif., Nov. 22, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Cesca Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:KOOL), a market leader in automated cell processing and point-of-care, autologous cell-based therapies, today announced the appointment of healthcare investment banking veteran Joe Balagot to the newly-created position of senior vice president of corporate development, effective immediately. Mr. Balagot, who will report to Vivian Liu, chief operating officer, will have primary responsibility for all corporate development activities, including the evaluation and execution of strategic transactions, the establishment of partnerships and collaborations with industry and academia, as well as outreach to the investment community.   

“We are excited to welcome Joe to the Cesca team, and look forward to his contributions as we pursue our goal of becoming a key player in the rapidly-evolving field of immunotherapy, particularly CAR-T,” said Chris Xu, chief executive officer. “With our proprietary CAR-TXpress™ platform, we have the ability to address the unique automation needs of a broad range of potential partners, including pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, as well as academic institutions and distributors, and we are seeing significant inbound interest from these and other parties. Joe’s vast industry experience and deep knowledge of the immunotherapy landscape will be invaluable as we target strategic transactions with industry leaders that fully leverage our expertise in automated cellular processing. With our automation technology, we can help bring these groundbreaking treatments to more patients while creating long-term value for our shareholders.”         

“I have been following Cesca Therapeutics for many years, and am delighted to join the team at this pivotal time in the company’s evolution,” commented Mr. Balagot. “The introduction of CAR-TXpress represents an exciting opportunity for Cesca with the recent approvals of two, novel, CAR-T therapies in the last six months and many more in development.  I look forward to helping create a world class organization and partner-of-choice for this revolutionary new field of cancer treatment.”    

Mr. Balagot brings to Cesca more than 20 years of financial and strategic advisory experience and an extensive track record that includes the completion of more than 80 corporate finance transactions for health care companies with an aggregate publicly-announced value exceeding $7 billion. Prior to joining Cesca, Mr. Balagot spent nine years as a managing director / partner of investment banking at Dawson James Securities. Before that, he held positions of increasing responsibility in the healthcare investment banking divisions of Merriman Curhan Ford & Co., CIBC World Markets Corp., Salomon Smith Barney International (London), and Salomon Brothers, Inc.  Mr. Balagot earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in Finance, from Boston University School of Management.

About Cesca Therapeutics Inc.

Cesca is a leading regenerative medicine company that develops, commercializes and markets a range of automated technologies for cell-based therapeutics. Its device division, ThermoGenesis, provides a full suite of solutions for automated clinical biobanking, point-of-care applications, and automation for immuno-oncology. Cesca is also leveraging its proprietary AutoXpress® technology platform to develop an automated, functionally-closed CAR-TXpress platform that addresses cellular manufacturing needs in the immuno-oncology field.

Forward-Looking Statement

The statements contained herein may include statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on management’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. A more complete description of risks that could cause actual events to differ from the outcomes predicted by Cesca Therapeutics’ forward-looking statements is set forth under the caption “Risk Factors” in Cesca Therapeutics’ annual report on Form 10-K and other reports it files with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, and you should consider each of those factors when evaluating the forward-looking statements.

Company Contact:  
Cesca Therapeutics Inc.
Wendy Samford
916-858-5191
ir@cescatherapeutics.com

Investor Contact:
Rx Communications
Paula Schwartz
917-322-2216
pschwartz@rxir.com

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