Mr. Garrett joins ApiJect with extensive legal and strategic business expertise. Since 2012 he served in executive leadership roles at NuVasive, Inc., a global public company dedicated to advancing the adoption of less invasive surgery through procedural integration and the use of enabling technologies. As Senior Vice President for Business and Quality Systems, as well as Government & Regulations Strategy (2018-2020) he delivered strategic direction across multiple business units to support, among other things, the organization’s sterile packaging and device traceability solutions and quality management efforts. He previously served NuVasive as Vice President, Chief Risk & Compliance Officer (2017-2019), and Vice President, Associate General Counsel (2012-2017). In these capacities, Mr. Garrett expanded risk management capabilities within the legal department, provided strategic management of global litigation, and actively led an extensive network of legal counsel, experts and advisors. From 2001-2010, Mr. Garrett practiced law across diverse industries including retail, manufacturing, and biological sciences/healthcare with the firms Brobeck Phleger & Harrison LLP, (Associate, 2001-2003), Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, (Senior Associate, 2003-2008), and DLA Piper LLP, (Of Counsel, 2008–2010). He holds a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law.
Mr. Garrett assumes responsibilities from Magdalena Fincham, who served as ApiJect’s counsel for Intellectual Property before stepping into the role of interim General Counsel. Through her private practice, Ms. Fincham will continue to support ApiJect’s intellectual property strategy and activities.
In welcoming Mr. Garrett to the ApiJect team, Franco Negron, ApiJect’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “As ApiJect continues to execute its growth strategy, Jim Garrett’s skills combining business experience with legal judgment makes him a perfect fit for our senior management team. His success in leading risk management and complex business litigation on a global scale is exactly the kind of experience that is an immediate and long-term asset for our company.”
Mr. Negron added: “Jim’s expertise will be invaluable as we move aggressively to transform the U.S. and global pharmaceutical supply chain to deliver on our critical mission of producing high volumes of single-dose prefilled syringes for COVID-19 vaccines and other injectable medicines. Jim will lead the way in ensuring our compliance with legal and regulatory systems in the U.S. and overseas. We’re excited to have him on board.”
Mr. Garrett commented: “I am thrilled to join ApiJect at this critical moment in the battle against COVID-19. This talented and experienced group have clearly shown that safe and cost-effective Blow-Fill-Seal technology will be crucial in delivering billions of vaccines in the U.S. and globally in 2021. Joining ApiJect on the cusp of U.S. COVID-19 vaccine approvals is exciting. There are myriad of regulatory agencies, national and global companies and legal frameworks that we must actively navigate, and I am excited to take on this challenge with the ApiJect team.”
ABOUT APIJECT SYSTEMS, CORP.
ApiJect Systems, Corp., is a global injectable platform technology company that seeks to change how medicines and vaccines are packaged and delivered to the world. Its platform is centered around the combination of two globally-trusted technologies: pen needle-style hubs and Blow-Fill-Seal drug packaging, or BFS for short. The ApiJect platform’s first device, the Prefilled Injector, allows a healthcare professional to twist an intramuscular Needle Hub onto a BFS prefilled container, creating a simple, safe and convenient-to-use prefilled injector.
The ApiJect team is led by a seasoned group of senior employees in pharma management, operations, engineering, production, quality and sales.
By creating a domestic and global network of partners that can package medicines and vaccines in BFS containers at high-speed, the ApiJect platform can efficiently and reliably supply healthcare markets with billions of single-dose, ready-to-use prefilled injectors. ApiJect, along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a founding member of the RAPID Consortium, a public- private partnership dedicated to giving the U.S. and the world the surge drug packaging capacity it needs for addressing future pandemics and bio-emergencies.
In 2020, ApiJect was awarded a $138 million contract from the Department of Defense, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to create by year’s end a high-volume domestic capacity to supply prefilled injectors. The U.S.-based capacity ApiJect has built through this emergency program aims to provide approximately 45 million single-dose prefilled injectors per month to America’s population through 2021.
ApiJect has also recently been approved by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation for a $590 million loan to construct a multi-facility campus enabling the U.S. to more quickly package high volumes of injectable medicines and vaccines in the event of a national emergency, beginning with COVID-19. Located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, this one million square foot, $900 million campus will be home to the ApiJect Gigafactory, featuring the world’s largest pharmaceutical fill-finish facility, capable of producing annually up to 3 billion single-dose prefilled injectors. Learn more about ApiJect at www.apiject.com.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included in these materials that address activities, events or developments that ApiJect expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. The words “believe”, “expect”, “may”, “estimates”, “will”, “anticipate”, “plan”, “intend”, “foresee”, “should”, “would”, “could”, or other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which are generally not historical in nature. However, the absence of these words does not mean that the statements are not forward looking. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, forward-looking statement contained in this press release specifically include the expectations of plans, strategies, and objectives of ApiJect. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of ApiJect, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied or expressed by the forward-looking statements.
SOURCE ApiJect Systems, Corp.
