TLC Announces the Appointment of Thomas H. Bliss, Jr., MBA, as Chief Business Officer
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. and TAIPEI, Taiwan, Oct. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TLC (Nasdaq: TLC, TWO: 4152), a clinical-stage, specialty pharmaceutical company developing novel nanomedicines to target areas of unmet medical need, today announced the appointment of Thomas H. Bliss, Jr., MBA, as the Company’s Chief Business Officer following the retirement of Wenji Chen, PhD, MBA, from her position as Vice President of Corporate Development. With decades of experience accrued from both investment banking and biotech sectors, Mr. Bliss will take the lead in the Company’s global corporate and business development efforts, with a key focus on the Unites States.
“On behalf of TLC, I would like to thank Dr. Chen for her involvement in the securement of several collaborations which have aided in the Company’s development blueprint, and we wish her a very happy and fulfilled retired life,” said George Yeh, President of TLC. “With the advancement of our leading programs such as TLC599 into the commercial phase, now is an opportune time to welcome the return of Mr. Bliss to TLC. We look forward to successful commercialization and licensing of TLC’s programs across the globe under Mr. Bliss’s leadership, as well as to creating benefit and bringing value for all of TLC’s stakeholders.”“I am delighted to be returning to TLC, having been the Company’s first Independent Director in the run up to TLC’s initial public offering (IPO),” said Mr. Bliss. “As a long-time watcher of TLC, I have observed improvements on all fronts and am impressed by the ripening pipeline and the efficiency of the development process of bringing life-changing medicines to patients. I look forward to working closely with my TLC colleagues and our external partners to bring these important medicines to markets across the globe.”Mr. Bliss joins TLC following interim roles in cellular therapy, drug delivery and combination therapy where he led efforts to confirm research outcomes and partner the various technologies. Earlier in his career, he ran business-development functions at Amgen and Baxter. While at Amgen, Mr. Bliss created International Licensing, ran M&A and built an entire department within Research called China/India Research Activities with over 200 contributors and a budget of over $35 million. While at Baxter, Mr. Bliss completed antibody licenses with Cambridge Antibody Technologies (later acquired by AstraZeneca) and Dyax (later acquired by Shire/Takeda) and accelerated the conversion of the plasma-derived portfolio recombinant alternatives. Mr. Bliss gained experience in licensing and business development at Johnson & Johnson after receiving his MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his BA from Dartmouth College.About TLCTLC (NASDAQ: TLC, TWO: 4152) is a clinical-stage, specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to the research and development of novel nanomedicines that maximize the potential of its proprietary lipid-assembled drug delivery platform (LipAD™), including BioSeizer® sustained release technology and NanoX™ active drug loading technology, which are versatile in the choice of active pharmaceutical ingredients and scalable in manufacturing. TLC has a diverse, wholly owned portfolio of therapeutics targeting areas of unmet medical need in pain management, ophthalmology, oncology and infectious diseases. TLC is consistently ranked top 5% among all listed companies in Taiwan’s Corporate Governance Evaluations.Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks, assumptions, uncertainties and factors, including risks that the outcome of any clinical trial is inherently uncertain and product candidates may prove to be unsafe or ineffective, or may not achieve commercial approval. Other risks are described in the Risk Factors section of TLC’s annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements are based on TLC’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, TLC expressly disclaims any responsibility to update any forward-looking statement contained herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
