NightHawk Biosciences Announces Planned Name Change To Scorpius Holdings, Reflecting Successful Transition To A Large Molecule Biomanufacturing CDMO; In Connection With The Name Change, The Company's Ticker Will Change To "SCPX"

NightHawk Biosciences (NYSE:NHWK, NHWK))), an integrated contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), today announced that it is changing the name of the Company to Scorpius Holdings, Inc. ("Scorpius") to better reflect the Company's successful shift into a pure-play, large molecule biomanufacturing CDMO. The Company will continue to operate its CDMO within the Scorpius BioManufacturing subsidiary.

 

In connection with the name change, the Company's ticker will change to SCPX as well. The name and symbol changes will not affect the Company's share structure or the rights of the Company's shareholders, and no further action will be required by existing shareholders.

In addition, the Company announced that it has bolstered its leadership team with the promotions of Brian O'Mara to VP of Process Sciences and Steve Lavezoli to VP of Commercial Operations, as well as the additions of Juan Lagos as Senior Director of Cell-Based Technologies and Ania Szymanska as Site Head of Quality.

Jeff Wolf, CEO of Nighthawk, commented, "Our rebranding to Scorpius Holdings is a testament to our successful transition and the growth of our CDMO operations. The industry faces a critical shortage of clinical-scale biologic manufacturing capacity, driven by increasing demand for large molecule CDMO services. Our state-of-the-art facility in San Antonio, Texas ideally positions us to address this gap in CDMO manufacturing capacity and services. The response from major biotech companies and leading research institutions to our CDMO capabilities has been positive, as evidenced by the expansion of our sales pipeline."

Mr. Wolf further noted, "To better service increasing demand for our specialized CDMO services, we have expanded our team with key hires to support our growing client base. Each of these team members brings extensive industry experience and will help ensure that we continue to provide our clients with exceptional service. Given the investments in both our facility and operations, we now have significant capacity to scale our operations, which we expect will generate high incremental margins and attractive returns for our shareholders in the years ahead."

Senior Promotions and Appointments

Brian O'Mara - VP of Process Sciences. Mr. O'Mara joined Scorpius in June 2022 as the Senior Director, Manufacturing Science & Technology. He has more than 20 years of industrial biotechnology experience in downstream process development of early- and late-stage protein therapeutics from mammalian and microbial expression systems. He also has extensive experience in the development and scale-up of protein conjugates, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), bi-specifics, and PEGylated molecules, as well as experience in technology transfer, CDMO management, process characterization, preparation and oversight of PPQ campaigns, and associated CMC regulatory filings. Brian earned a BS in Biology from Binghamton University and an MS in Chemistry from Lehigh University.

Steve Lavezoli - VP of Commercial Operations. Mr. Lavezoli joined Scorpius in December 2022 as the Regional VP of Business Development for the central region. He now oversees Scorpius' business development, proposals, and marketing strategy. He brings extensive experience in various roles throughout business development and marketing. He spent 12 years in the industrial gasses industry with Linde Gas, as well as W.L. Gore in their Startup Biopharmaceutical division working on a Commercial Business/Market Development role for Bulk Drug Substance Single-Use items. He also spent 3 years with Catalent Biologics, focused on Drug Substance Business Development in the US for early-stage clinical programs with clients to bring life-changing therapies to the market. Steve holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA in Marketing from Robert Morris University.

Juan Lagos - Senior Director of Cell-Based Technologies. Mr. Lagos brings more than 20 years of experience in cell culture and upstream process development from lab bench to cGMP manufacturing and leads Scorpius' cell-based technologies team, which is responsible for analytical and cell therapy processes. Before joining Scorpius, he was the Associate Director MS&T / LVV Suspension Process Development at Rocket Pharmaceuticals. His industry experience includes director-level and senior engineering roles at Allakos and Bristol Myers Squibb, as well as experience at biopharma service providers like WuXi Apptec and Patheon. He holds a dual B.S. in Computer Science and Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University, where he continues to pursue a Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering.

Ania Szymanska - Site Head of Quality. Ms. Szymanska brings over 19 years of leadership and management experience in Quality Control, Quality Assurance, and Compliance at pharmaceutical and biotech companies. She joined Scorpius from Marker Therapeutics, Inc. where she was Vice President of Quality and built the Quality Management Systems. She played a critical role in the design, construction, and qualification of their state-of-the-art cell therapy GMP manufacturing facility and Quality Control laboratories. Prior to Marker, she served as Director of Quality Control for Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where she developed its Quality Control department and was responsible for aseptic facility qualification. She also served as Quality Validation Specialists of Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. and in roles of increasing responsibility at Woodfield Pharmaceutical, LLC (formerly Pernix Manufacturing, LLC), most recently as Director of Microbiology. Ms. Szymanska earned an M.S. in Microbiology from the University of Warsaw.