Avinger Appoints Healthcare Veteran Tamara Elias, MD, to Board of Directors

REDWOOD, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 16, 2019 / Avinger, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGR), a commercial-stage medical device company marketing the first and only intravascular image-guided, catheter-based system for diagnosis and treatment of Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), is pleased to announce that Tamara Elias, MD, has been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective December 12, 2019. Dr. Elias has been actively involved with healthcare for more than 20 years in strategic consulting, private equity investing, corporate strategy, business development and product innovation.

Dr. Elias most recently served as Vice President of Clinical Product Development at Aetna, focused on optimizing and rationalizing the clinical product portfolio for all lines of business as well as aligning future product and service design with the Aetna digital roadmap and customer needs within each business segment. From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Elias was Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development for the $8 billion medical segment at Becton Dickinson and was a member of the leadership team involved in the $24 billion acquisition of C.R. Bard.

From 2007-2015, Dr. Elias was a Partner with Essex Woodlands Healthcare Partners, a healthcare only growth equity firm founded in 1985 and currently with over $3 billion in funds raised to date. There she focused on medical device, healthcare services and healthcare IT investments and served on several boards, including Millennium Pharmacy Systems (sold to Pharmerica), BreatheAmerica, Influence Health (sold to Healthgrades) and ATS Medical (sold to Medtronic). Earlier in her career, Dr. Elias was a management consultant at McKinsey, advising pharmaceutical, diagnostic and device companies in R&D, product commercialization and M&A.

Dr. Elias holds degrees in Biology and Anthropology from Yale University, and an M.D. from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She trained as a general surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Elias join our Board, bringing the benefit of her expertise as a clinician and surgeon as well as extensive work in corporate strategy and the medical technology marketplace,” said Jeff Soinski, Avinger’s President and CEO. “Her experience at world class organizations like McKinsey, Becton Dickinson, Essex Woodlands, and Aetna will provide valuable perspective as we continue to expand our clinical network, bring additional devices to market and drive operating efficiencies through the growth of our commercial business.”

“I look forward to working with the team at Avinger to advance the company’s mission of radically improving the way vascular disease is treated,” said Dr. Elias. “With a highly differentiated technology platform, growing product portfolio and emphasis on market expansion, I believe the company can make important contributions to improving the standard of care for patients with PAD, while building a compelling business.”

About Avinger, Inc.

Avinger is a commercial-stage medical device company that designs and develops the first-ever image-guided, catheter-based system for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). PAD is estimated to affect over 12 million people in the U.S. and over 200 million people worldwide. Avinger is dedicated to radically changing the way vascular disease is treated through its Lumivascular platform, which currently consists of the Lightbox imaging console, the Ocelot family of chronic total occlusion (CTO) catheters, and the Pantheris® family of atherectomy devices. Avinger is based in Redwood City, California. For more information, please visit www.avinger.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on current assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, include the risks described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 6, 2019, as well as in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and should not be unduly relied upon. Avinger disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Public Relations Contact:

Phil Preuss
VP of Marketing & Business Operations
Avinger, Inc.
(650) 241-7942
pr@avinger.com

Investor Contact:

Mark Weinswig
Chief Financial Officer
Avinger, Inc.
(650) 241-7916
ir@avinger.com

Matt Kreps
Darrow Associates Investor Relations
(214) 597-8200
mkreps@darrowir.com

SOURCE: Avinger, Inc.

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