Bone Biologics Adds CEO, COO

Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Bone Biologics Corp. has made some leadership changes. The company named Stephen R. La Neve as CEO and president. Jeffrey Frelick was appointed the company’s chief operating officer (COO). La Neve replaces interim CEO Michael Schuler.

Bone Biologics was founded by University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) professors in collaboration with an Osaka University professor and a University of Southern California surgeon in 2004. Formed to pursue regenerative medicine for bone, the company currently has as its strategic partners the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, an Edison, N.J.-based tissue bank, and Lewisville, Texas-based spine, reconstruction and trauma firm Orthofix Holdings Inc. Bone Biologics currently is focused on bone regeneration in spinal fusion using its recombinant human protein known as Nell-1. Nell-1 is an osteoinductive orthobiologic—a recombinant protein that provides control over bone regeneration. This patented technology has exclusively been licensed to Bone Biologics from UCLA.

La Neve brings 30 years of healthcare experience to Bone Biologics. Prior to his new position, La Neve held leadership roles in the device and diagnostic segments, including service as CEO and president of Etex Corp.; president of Becton Dickinson and Company’s pre-Analytical Systems business; president of Medtronic plc’s spine and biologics business; and president of Medtronic Japan. He also served as senior vice president and executive vice president at Premier, one of the largest group purchasing organizations in the United States, and ran the global Injection Systems business unit for Becton Dickinson. He serves on the board of directors for SkelRegen LLC and Rapid Pathogen Screening, Inc., and he consults for private equity companies in the medical device sector. La Neve has a B.S. in health planning and administration from Pennsylvania State University, an M.B.A. from West Chester University, and is a member of the Omicron Delta Epsilon honor society for academic excellence in economics.

Frelick most recently was COO of Life Science Enterprises, and brings more than 25 years of medtech experience to Bone Biologics. He spent the past 15 years on Wall Street as a sell-side analyst, following the medtech industry at investment banks such as Canaccord Genuity, ThinkEquity and Lazard. Prior to becoming an equity research analyst, Frelick worked at Boston Biomedical Consultants Inc., where he provided strategic planning assistance, market research data and due diligence for diagnostics companies. He previously held sales and sales management positions at Becton Dickinson’s Primary Care Diagnostic Division after gaining technical experience as a laboratory technologist with its clinical pathology facility. Frelick received a B.S. in biology from University of Pittsburgh and an M.B.A. from Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School.

“We are very pleased to have individuals of the caliber of Steve and Jeff join our company,” Bone Biologics Board Chairman Bruce Stroever said. “We have a very exciting technology and now have the full time management to bring this product to market. We’re also thankful for the time Mike Schuler dedicated to Bone Biologics Corp. in his role as interim CEO as he returns to his position with MTF (the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation).”  Stroever is the president and CEO of MTF.

The Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation is a non-profit entity with offices in Jessup, Pa., and Berlin, Germany. It is a national consortium composed of leading organ procurement organizations, tissue recovery organizations and academic medical institutions. Since its inception in 1987 MTF has received tissue from more than 100,000 donors and distributed more than 5 million grafts for transplantation.