The Board of Directors of Sorrento Therapeutics appointed Dorman Followwill and David Lemus as independent directors of the company.

Followwill will serve as a member of the Compensation Committee of the Board and Lemus will serve as a member of the Audit Committee of the Board.

Dorman Followwill, age 54, has been Senior Partner, Transformational Health at Frost & Sullivan, a business consulting firm involved in market research and analysis, growth strategy consulting and corporate training across multiple industries, since 2016. Prior to that time, he served in various roles at Frost & Sullivan, including Partner on the Executive Committee managing the P&L of the business in Europe, Israel and Africa, and Partner overseeing the Healthcare and Life Sciences business in North America, since initially joining Frost & Sullivan to help found the Consulting practice in January 1988. Followwill has more than 30 years of organizational leadership and management consulting experience, having worked on hundreds of consulting projects across all major regions and across multiple industry sectors, each project focused around the strategic imperative of growth. He obtained his BA from Stanford University in The Management of Organizations in 1985.

Commenting on his appointment, Dorman Followwill stated: "I am honored to join the Sorrento Board for many reasons, but primarily because of the strength of the firm's portfolio. I am compelled by the platform to target intracellular immunotherapy, one of the Holy Grails in drug discovery, as well as the potential franchise molecule, resiniferatoxin, to address currently unmanageable pain, including cancer pain in terminal patients. These novel therapies will prove to truly help patients all over the world, driving significant value both medically and financially."

David Lemus, age 54, currently serves as a non-executive board member of BioHealth Innovation, The MIT Club of Washington DC and Proteros BioScience. Most recently, from January 2016 to May 2017, he served as Interim Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Medigene, a publicly-listed German biotechnology company focused on T-Cell-Receptor based immunotherapies. Prior to that time, at Sigma Tau Pharmaceuticals, he served in the roles of Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and V.P. Finance in the period from 2011 to 2015. Before this, Lemus launched Germany's first biotech IPO, serving as Chief Financial Officer and Executive V.P. of MorphoSys from 1998 to 2011. Prior to his role at MorphoSys, he held various positions, including Operations Manager and Controller (Pharma International Division) at Hoffman La Roche, Group Treasurer of Lindt & Spruengli and Treasury Consultant for Electrolux. Lemus received an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management in 1988 and a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Maryland in 1984. Lemus is also a certified public accountant licensed in the State of Maryland. 

Also commenting on his appointment, Dave Lemus added, "I am very excited to join Sorrento as the company moves to the next stage of its growth, focusing its unique immuno-oncology approach on progressing its R&D pipeline, and building its commercial and manufacturing capabilities."

"We are very pleased with the appointments of Dorman and Dave," stated Dr. Henry Ji, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Sorrento. "We believe their expertise and outstanding contributions in their respective fields will prove invaluable as we launch into the next stage of our development. With a strong focus towards progressing our current assets through clinical stages, streamlining our operations and maximizing the value of past ventures, we look forward to their guidance and leadership in helping us to provide novel therapeutic approaches for cancer patients and building outstanding shareholder value in the process."