Christian S. Schade to Join Omthera Pharmaceuticals as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

BEDMINSTER, N.J., Aug. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Omthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately-held emerging specialty pharmaceuticals company, announced today that Christian S. Schade will join the Company in the newly created position of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, beginning in early September.  Mr. Schade brings to Omthera, both extensive experience as a public company financial executive in the biopharmaceutical and energy industries, as well as expertise in the public capital markets through his tenure in the investment banking industry.

"As we continue to expand our executive ranks, we are very pleased to welcome Chris to Omthera's management team. With 28 years of public company and capital market transaction experience, Chris' significant expertise will be extremely valuable to us as we continue to pursue our goals, including the completion of our clinical program and commercialization of Epanova™, our novel, Omega-3 free fatty acid product, that is being developed for the treatment of patients with high triglycerides," stated, Jerry Wisler, President and Chief Executive Officer of Omthera.

Since April 2010, Mr. Schade has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at NRG Energy, a NYSE listed, S&P 500 wholesale power generation company based in Princeton, NJ.  While there, he has overseen NRG's corporate financial functions, including Treasury, Accounting, Tax, Risk, Credit Management and Insurance. Prior to joining NRG, he was Senior Vice President Administration and Chief Financial Officer at Medarex Inc., a NASDAQ listed, Princeton-based biopharmaceutical company which was acquired for $2.4 billion by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in September 2009.  Mr. Schade played a lead role in negotiations for the sale of Medarex to Bristol-Myers Squibb and helped lead the merger-integration process of the research, development and administrative functions. He also helped Medarex to grow to become a leading pharmaceutical development company, raising capital through a series of public capital market and asset monetization transactions.  While there, in addition to overseeing the manufacturing of multiple development/clinical programs, he also directed the business development team in the pursuit of key licensing agreements and potential acquisition opportunities, and spearheaded the company's investor relations outreach.  

Before joining Medarex, Mr. Schade served as Managing Director at Merrill Lynch in London, where he was head of the European Corporate Funding Group and was responsible for certain capital markets activities of Merrill Lynch's European corporate clients.  He also held various corporate finance and capital markets positions in New York and London for both Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase & Co.  Mr. Schade received an A.B. degree from Princeton University, and received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.  An active member of the community, Mr. Schade currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart and coaches boys youth lacrosse. He also serves on the Board of Directors at Integra Life Sciences (IART).

Mr. Schade noted, "I am excited about reentering the health care industry and delighted to join Omthera's management team at this exciting time in the Company's development. I  look forward to utilizing my experiences to assist the Company as it plans ahead for the potential commercialization of an important product; I believe that Epanova has the potential to be a market leader in the large and rapidly growing market for Omega 3 therapeutics. I am very much looking forward to being a part of the team bringing this product to market, with the potential to benefit a large patient population."

About Omthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Founded in 2008, Omthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a privately-held, emerging specialty pharmaceuticals company focusing its efforts on the clinical development of new therapies for dyslipidemia.  Led by a team of experts with exceptional experience in developing new therapies for lipid disorders, Omthera is dedicated to developing innovative therapies for the millions of patients who have elevated triglyceride levels and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.  In March 2011, the Company initiated a pivotal Phase III clinical trial for its lead product candidate, Epanova™, an Omega-3 fatty acid compound in development as a triglyceride-lowering adjunct therapy to diet in patients with very high triglycerides (greater than or equal to 500 mg/dL). Future planned clinical trials for Epanova include patients with high triglycerides (greater than or equal to 200 mg/dL and less than or equal to 500 mg/dL) currently on statin therapy.   For more information, please visit www.omthera.com.

SOURCE Omthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc.