CytoSorbents Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSO), a critical care immunotherapy leader commercializing its CytoSorb® blood purification technology to treat deadly inflammation in critically ill and cardiac surgery patients around the world, announces the immediate appointment of James Komsa as Vice President - U.S. Sales and Marketing.
Over a distinguished 18 year career at Medtronic, Mr. Komsa was most recently Vice President of the Restorative Therapy Group (RTG) and the U.S. Pain Organization, with annual sales of $400 million and $1.1 billion, respectively, at the time. There, he was responsible for 16 business units, including Medtronic Spine, Neurology, ENT, Pain and others. Prior to that, Jim led the successful turnaround of Kyphon as U.S. Vice President Medtronic Spine Division. Formerly as Vice President, Northeast Region, Medtronic Cardiac and Vascular Group (CVG), Mr. Komsa was responsible for sales, marketing and operations for the Coronary, Structural Heart, Endovascular, and Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management business units, encompassing more than 300 full-time employees and generating more than $310 million in annual sales.
Prior to his career at Medtronic, Mr. Komsa was Vice President at Hambrecht & Quist, where he helped lead the operations and rapid sales growth of two start-up companies, Paceart and Zymed, which were ultimately acquired by Medtronic and Philips, respectively. Most recently, Mr. Komsa was Executive Vice President and General Manager of privately-held Pathy Medical, a medical device company focused on improving surgical illumination.
Mr. James Komsa stated, "I am excited to join the talented CytoSorbents team and look forward to leading and building a world-class sales and marketing infrastructure for U.S. commercialization during this major growth period for the company overall. In the U.S., we will continue to build the CytoSorb brand, already started with U.S. COVID-19 sales, then focus on rapid ticagrelor and other blood thinner removal during on-pump emergent and urgent cardiothoracic surgery, and later on other key applications under development, including those in critical care. I believe CytoSorb's unique and effective technology for ticagrelor and other antithrombotic drug adsorption is a fantastic near-term opportunity that should accelerate overall sales growth while benefitting tens of thousands of Americans each year. This may significantly reduce medical and societal costs, providing tremendous Clinical and Economic Value – a great story to communicate to customers. From my 18 years at Medtronic, I see this compelling application as a win-win for hospitals, physicians and patients, and just the start of what could be a long and outstanding growth story for the Company in this indication and future others."
Mr. Vincent Capponi, President and Chief Operating Officer of CytoSorbents remarked, "It will be great to work with Jim in his role as VP of U.S. Sales and Marketing. Jim brings a wealth of cardiac medical device experience and best-of-class sales practices from his long tenure with Medtronic where he led sales teams in the cardiac surgery, pacing, spine, and neuromod divisions. His outstanding track record of building and managing high performing sales teams is expected to be the key to the success of our commercialization efforts here in the U.S. We plan to take advantage of our extensive history of selling CytoSorb in 67 countries worldwide to facilitate this process."
Dr. Phillip Chan, Chief Executive Officer of CytoSorbents added, "We are fortunate to have Jim, a seasoned and experienced sales and marketing leader from one of the largest and most respected medical device companies in the world, join our company. During 2021, Jim will help to maximize our CytoSorb sales opportunities under FDA Emergency Use Authorization for COVID-19 and more importantly, prepare the Company to rapidly target an estimated $250 million annual addressable U.S. market, contingent upon future U.S. approval of CytoSorb for ticagrelor removal during urgent and emergent cardiothoracic surgery."
About CytoSorbents Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSO)
CytoSorbents Corporation is a leader in critical care immunotherapy, specializing in blood purification. Its flagship product, CytoSorb® is approved in the European Union with distribution in 67 countries around the world, as an extracorporeal cytokine adsorber designed to reduce the "cytokine storm" or "cytokine release syndrome" that could otherwise cause massive inflammation, organ failure and death in common critical illnesses. These are conditions where the risk of death is extremely high, yet no effective treatments exist. CytoSorb® is also being used during and after cardiac surgery to remove inflammatory mediators that can lead to post-operative complications, including multiple organ failure. CytoSorb® has been used in more than 110,000 human treatments to date. CytoSorb has received CE-Mark label expansions for the removal of bilirubin (liver disease), myoglobin (trauma) and both ticagrelor and rivaroxaban during cardiothoracic surgery. CytoSorb has also received FDA Emergency Use Authorization in the United States for use in critically ill COVID-19 patients with imminent or confirmed respiratory failure, in defined circumstances. CytoSorb has also been granted FDA Breakthrough Designation for the removal of ticagrelor in a cardiopulmonary bypass circuit during emergent and urgent cardiothoracic surgery.
