GlobeNewswire Inc | Jan 24, 2022 07:12AM EST

January 24, 2022

MALVERN, Pa., Jan. 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ocugen, Inc.(NASDAQ: OCGN), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing gene therapies to cure blindness diseases and developing a vaccine to save lives from COVID-19, today announced the appointment of Nirdosh Jagota, Ph.D., as Senior Vice President (SVP), Regulatory Affairs, compliance and safety.

Hell be responsible for ensuring the global strategy, development and execution of regulatory activities for the companys pipeline, including gene therapies and vaccines, are aligned with local and international registration requirements. His responsibilities include supporting commercialization. He will serve as a member of Ocugens management team, reporting directly to the CEO.

Dr. Jagota is a seasoned biopharmaceutical regulatory professional with 30 years of experience in leading roles in drug development and regulatory sciences for vaccines, biologics and small molecules. Prior to joining Ocugen, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Regulatory Officer of Arcturus Therapeutics. Before joining Arcuturs he was Senior Vice President in Global Regulatory Affairs and Safety. Over the course of his career, Dr. Jagota has held leadership positions with Genentech, Roche, and Pfizer.

Weve been making progress on our regulatory efforts, and Nirdoshs arrival comes at an important time. He brings the experience, knowledge and successful track record of bringing many biopharmaceuticals and vaccines, through high performance teams, to the market. This is an investment into Ocugens future work with national and international regulatory agencies, saidDr. Shankar Musunuri, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-founder of Ocugen.

Ocugen is a company with the talent and expertise to tackle some of the worlds most challenging health issues, and Im excited to be joining this team, commented Nirdosh Jagota, Ph.D.

Dr. Jagotas work has had international impact, managing teams spanning more than 20 countries, successfully shaping regulatory strategy across multiple therapeutic categories and establishing centers of excellence. In his career,Dr. Jagotahas led and contributed to development, approval, and expansion of more than 30 vaccines and therapeutics including Ervebo, Vaxneuvance, Gardasil9, Kadcyla, Erivedge, Zelboraf, and Keytruda.

Dr. Jagota holds a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from University of Georgia and an M.S. in biotechnology from University of Toledo, Ohio. and a BS/MS in pharmacy fromIndian Institute of Technology (IIT) Varanasi.

About Ocugen, Inc.Ocugen, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing gene therapies to cure blindness diseases and develop a vaccine to save lives from COVID-19. Our breakthrough modifier gene therapy platform has the potential to treat multiple retinal diseases with one drug one to many and our novel biologic product candidate aims to offer better therapy to patients with underserved diseases such as wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, and diabetic retinopathy. We are co-developing Bharat Biotechs COVAXIN vaccine candidate for COVID-19 in the U.S. market. For more information, please visitwww.ocugen.com.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. We may, in some cases, use terms such as predicts, believes, potential, proposed, continue, estimates, anticipates, expects, plans, intends, may, could, might, will, should or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to numerous important factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from our current expectations. These and other risks and uncertainties are more fully described in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the risk factors described in the section entitled Risk Factors in the quarterly and annual reports that we file with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements that we make in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this press release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release.

OcugenContact:Ken InchaustiHead, Investor Relations & CommunicationsIR@Ocugen.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/72554bf3-8738-4ea2-9ff2-cd34fe6c151e.