Navidea Strengthens Leadership Team to Accelerate Lymphoseek® Growth

Two Key Appointments Enhance Commercial & Medical Affairs Management Teams

DUBLIN, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Navidea Biopharmaceuticals (NYSE MKT:NAVB) today announced that it has strengthened its management team with the appointments of Thomas J. Klima as Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer and Michael Tomblyn, M.D., M.S. as Executive Medical Director. These highly experienced and skilled additions to the Company's team are being made to support the continued emphasis on the growth of Lymphoseek^® (technetium Tc 99m tilmanocept) injection.

“These important additions to our team allow us to continue to successfully position Lymphoseek as the premier agent to detect the spread of cancer. Tom and Mike bring many years of brand-building, life-cycle management, global commercial strategy development, radiopharmaceutical and medical affairs experience to our team during this critical time as we transform and grow the Company to a commercially-focused enterprise,” said Navidea CEO, Rick Gonzalez. “They both have an appreciation and understanding of the oncology landscape necessary to fully deploy company resources to successfully penetrate the markets enabled by Lymphoseek’s expanded label.”

Thomas J. Klima joins Navidea having held numerous commercial leadership positions, including Head of Sales for oncology company, Algeta (recently acquired by Bayer AG) and Senior Director of Marketing at Dendreon Corporation. Mr. Klima also led various U.S. and global commercial efforts at Eli Lilly, including U.S. Marketing for the Cymbalta Brand Team. Mr. Klima has a B.A. degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Western State College.

Mr. Klima commented, "It is an exciting time to join Navidea. We have a great opportunity to build a premier oncology business dedicated to improving the lives of cancer patients worldwide. Lymphoseek has demonstrated initial fundamental success on which we can build. With our renewed focus on commercial execution, repurposing of resources and our drive to succeed, Navidea is in a stronger position than ever to communicate Lymphoseek’s value proposition and engage directly with the oncology treatment team through its own sales force.”

Michael Tomblyn, M.D., M.S. served as Senior Medical Director of Bayer Healthcare/Algeta focusing on targeted-radiation therapies. Prior to this Dr. Tomblyn was Assistant Member and Director of Clinical Research, Department of Radiation Oncology, at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Assistant Professor, Department of Oncologic Science, at University of South Florida. Dr. Tomblyn has a M.D. degree from Rush Medical College, a M.S. in Toxicology from University of Kentucky, a M.A. in Biomedical Sciences from Marshall University, and a B.A. in Medical Ethics from Carnegie Mellon University.

“Lymphoseek represents unique value to the entire nuclear medicine and oncology treatment team and has the potential to dramatically impact patients by accurately diagnosing and informing treatment options,” said Dr. Tomblyn. “I have been very impressed with Lymphoseek’s product profile and look forward to helping shape surgeon education to make it the standard of care agent in sentinel lymph node biopsies.”

About Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Inc.

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE MKT: NAVB) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of precision diagnostics, therapeutics and radiopharmaceutical agents. Navidea is developing multiple precision-targeted products and platforms including Manocept™, NAV4694, and NAV5001, to help identify the sites and pathways of undetected disease and enable better diagnostic accuracy, clinical decision-making, targeted treatment and, ultimately, patient care. Lymphoseek^® (technetium Tc 99m tilmanocept) injection, Navidea’s first commercial product from the Manocept platform, was approved by the FDA in March 2013 and by the EMA in November 2014. Navidea’s strategy is to deliver superior growth and shareholder return by bringing to market novel radiopharmaceutical agents and advancing the Company’s pipeline through selective acquisitions, global partnering and commercialization efforts. For more information, please visit www.navidea.com.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the Act) provides a safe harbor for forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of the Company. Statements in this news release, which relate to other than strictly historical facts, such as statements about the Company’s plans and strategies, expectations for future financial performance, new and existing products and technologies, anticipated clinical and regulatory pathways, and markets for the Company’s products are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act. The words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “project,” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof. Investors are cautioned that such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical or anticipated results due to many factors including, but not limited to, the Company’s continuing operating losses, uncertainty of market acceptance of its products, reliance on third party manufacturers, accumulated deficit, future capital needs, uncertainty of capital funding, dependence on limited product line and distribution channels, competition, limited marketing and manufacturing experience, risks of development of new products, regulatory risks and other risks detailed in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals
Brent Larson, 614-822-2330
Executive VP & CFO
or
Sharon Correia, 978-655-2686
Associate Director, Corporate Communications

Source: Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.

Released January 5, 2015