Cytosorbents (CTSO) Announces Retirement of Board Chair

CytoSorbents Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSO), a leader in the treatment of life-threatening conditions in the intensive care unit and cardiac surgery using blood purification via its proprietary polymer adsorption technology, announced today that its Chairman of the Board, Al W. Kraus, will retire at the end of his term in early June 2023.

Mr. Al Kraus stated, “The past twenty years at CytoSorbents has been a wonderful journey that I am proud to have contributed to. Hearing the case reports and studies of how our therapy has helped to save lives never grows old, and I am grateful to have been a part of it. Now the time has come for me to move on after many enjoyable years at CytoSorbents. I look forward to following the success story of the Company.”

Dr. Phillip Chan, Chief Executive Officer of CytoSorbents stated, “Al’s long and distinguished executive career in the medical device industry spans more than four decades. During that time, he has left an indelible footprint on numerous organizations, particularly in the blood purification industry, including our own. For example, as President of Gambro, Inc., Al led its U.S. initial public offering in 1983 and drove U.S. expansion, helping to quadruple sales. Gambro ultimately went on to become the second largest vertically integrated supplier of dialysis products and services worldwide, with revenues exceeding $2.7 billion, prior to its acquisition by Baxter in 2013. Then at Althin Healthcare, another manufacturer of dialysis products, Al engineered a turnaround of the core business, revamped its sales force with a focus on new product offerings and commercial operations throughout North and South America, and as President and CEO, oversaw the Company’s acquisition by Baxter in 2000.”

Dr. Chan continued, “In 2003, Al became CEO of MedaSorb Technologies, now known as CytoSorbents, which at the time was focused on treating chronic kidney disease with our sorbent technology. However, based upon a key scientific collaboration with Dr. John Kellum from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Al pivoted the Company’s focus away from the treatment of chronic kidney disease, which today is faced with lower growth and poor reimbursement, and towards the treatment of cytokine storm and sepsis – a prescient call. Today, of the more than 200,000 CytoSorb treatments that have been performed worldwide, approximately half have been related to sepsis and septic shock. Al then led the Company through a reverse merger to become a publicly-traded company in 2006 and executed multiple financings to help fund the first human trial using CytoSorb to treat sepsis. After retiring as CEO at the end of 2008, and during his 15-year tenure as CytoSorbents’ Chairman of the Board, Al has continued to share his extensive insight, experience, and leadership with the management team and Board of Directors as we navigated numerous challenges, such as commercial expansion into 75 countries around the world, uplisting to Nasdaq, the COVID pandemic, and now our goal of opening the U.S. and Canadian markets for the first time with DrugSorb-ATR. To this end, Al will continue to serve as a consultant and we look forward to leveraging his U.S. commercial expertise as we ramp our U.S. and Canadian pre-market activities.”

Dr. Chan concluded, “Al has been an integral part of all that we have achieved to date. What I find remarkable is that over the 20 years that Al has helped to lead this company, through thick and thin, he has never wavered in his passion and belief in the technology and our people, and our mission to help save the lives of patients all over the world. It has been both an honor and a pleasure, and I want to personally thank him for his invaluable mentorship, advice, and support. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire Company, we congratulate Al on his exceptional career and thank him for all of his contributions, hard work, and commitment to the success of the Company. We wish him the best in retirement!”

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