17 January 2019 - - US-based clinical stage biopharma company Dance Biopharm Holdings Inc. has appointed Dr. Melissa Rhodes to the position of chief development officer and Michael Kaseta to the role of chief financial officer, the company said.

Rhodes will have primary responsibility for leading the registration trials for Dance 501, the company's soft mist inhaled insulin, and accelerating the prioritization and transition of key pipeline programs into human clinical trials. She will assume her new role on February 4, 2019.

She has more than 15 years of firsthand drug development and biotechnology industry experience including almost a decade at GlaxoSmithKline.

Most recently, Rhodes held the position of chief development officer at Altavant Sciences, where she was responsible for project leadership of clinical assets, as well as translational medicine, chemistry manufacturing and controls, regulatory affairs and project management.

Previously, Rhodes served as senior vice president at Roivant Sciences, Inc. where she managed all aspects of nonclinical research. She holds a PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from Duke University Medical Center and is a Diplomate of the American board of Toxicology.

As Dance's new CFO, Kaseta will be responsible for the finance function as well as overseeing aspects of the company's human resources, information systems, investor relations and alliance management, in collaboration with other team members.

In addition to ensuring the company is well funded to support its development programs, Mike will play a vital role in formally establishing and leading Dance's joint development venture with Dongbao in China and managing key partner relationships. He will start with the company on January 21, 2019.

Kaseta has a strong background in finance, business strategy, product licensing and commercialization of biopharma products, including insulin, having worked at Sanofi SA for more than a decade.

While at Sanofi, Kaseta served as the chief financial officer for North America, Global Services and the North America Pharmaceutical Region, where he was deeply involved in the commercial launch of multiple diabetes products, as well as other biologics and pharmaceuticals.

Most recently, Kaseta served as the chief financial officer at Aralez Pharmaceuticals.

Inhaled insulin delivery offers a potentially promising needle-free alternative for managing diabetes.

As the company's most advanced clinical candidate currently studied for the treatment of type 1 and 2 diabetes, Dance 501 is a transformative drug device combination product, which includes a novel, preservative-free formulation of inhaled recombinant human insulin delivered via a proprietary, handheld soft mist device that is part of a connected health platform.

Dance 501 has been designed to enable convenient and confident delivery of insulin into a patient's lungs in just a few breaths, yielding high lung deposition and distribution.

Dance Biopharm is a private company focused on developing novel inhaled formulations of medicines to treat diabetes and other serious chronic diseases. The company began operations in 2010, founded by Dr. John Patton, who has more than 28 years of experience developing inhaled insulin and other inhaled therapies.