RuiYi Appoints Mark Saad Chief Financial Officer

LA JOLLA, Calif. and SHANGHAI, Sept. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- RuiYi, Inc., a global therapeutic innovation leader, announced today the appointment of Mark Saad as chief financial officer (CFO). Mr. Saad is a skilled financial and operations leader and was most recently CFO at Cytori Therapeutics for the past ten years. At RuiYi, he will play a critical leadership role in executing the company's growth strategy for important global therapeutic needs. RuiYi has developed a pipeline of first-in-class monoclonal antibodies to validated G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which are highly valuable drug targets. The company's iCAPS (Intermembranous Conformation Antigen Presenting System) technology identifies selective monoclonal antibody inhibitors or activators to GPCRs with great specificity for more effective therapeutics.

"Mark has a depth of experience in life sciences from his strategic financial and operational leadership at an international public company and from his extensive career in investment banking," said Paul Grayson, president and CEO of RuiYi. "Mark brings hands-on operating abilities, a significant track record in leading successful financing, M&A and license transactions and a broad global business expertise, which will be important for RuiYi's corporate strategy as we pursue the company's rapid expansion to become a leading innovator of therapeutic antibodies."  

During his ten years at Cytori, Mr. Saad oversaw finance and accounting, business development, legal, human resources, facilities and information technology. He led the raising of more than $250 million through strategic investments, private and marketed equity, debt, M&A and license transactions. Prior to Cytori, Mr. Saad served as executive director in the Investment Banking Department at UBS, where he was both a calling officer and chief operating officer of the market leading Global Healthcare Group. During that time he oversaw the operations of the 130-person group and led numerous financing and M&A transactions in the life science sector. Earlier in his career, Mr. Saad was an analyst and associate in the Health Care Investment Banking Group at Salomon Smith Barney. He holds a B.A. in economics from Villanova University.

"RuiYi's iCAPS technology, which identifies highly-specific monoclonal antibodies to GPCRs, has enabled the discovery of first-in-class molecules and the development of an exciting pipeline of new therapeutic product candidates in a validated and highly valued therapeutic space," said Mr. Saad. "RuiYi is advancing RYI-018, the novel anti-CB1 receptor antagonist, for fibrotic liver disease including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and RYI-008, the novel anti-IL-6 antibody for rheumatoid arthritis, towards clinical development in multiple geographies. I look forward to providing operating and strategic guidance as the RuiYi team expands and accelerates a pipeline of candidates from our iCAPS technology to meet global therapeutic needs."

About iCAPS

RuiYi's iCAPS platform, the leading GPCR drug discovery platform, can isolate and present functional GPCRs in their correct confirmation to identify selective monoclonal antibody inhibitors or activators with great specificity for more effective therapeutics. GPCRs are a valuable class of drug targets but have been largely unexplored because of difficulty isolating GPCRs in the correct conformation and functional form, as well as finding drug candidates that have the necessary specificity for therapeutic intervention. RuiYi has developed a series of technologies, termed intermembranous Conformation Antigen Presenting System or iCAPS, that enable the presentation of purified, isolated, functional and conformationally correct GPCRs optimized for generation of antibodies and other biologic modulators.

About RuiYi

RuiYi is focused on the discovery and development of novel biologic therapeutics that have the potential to be disruptive globally. In addition to RYI-018 and RYI-008, RuiYi has a growing pipeline of monoclonal antibodies from its internal discovery efforts utilizing a series of the Company's technologies, including the iCAPS (intramembranous Conformation Antigen Presenting System). Targets include a select subset of G protein coupled receptors (GPCR), where specificity in binding is critical but has proven difficult to achieve with small molecule modulators. RuiYi's executive management team has offices in La Jolla, California, and RuiYi's discovery efforts and research facility are located in in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Pudong, Shanghai, China. For more, visit www.ruiyibio.com.  

SOURCE RuiYi Inc.