Acusphere, Inc. (ACUSD.PK) today announced that William I. Ramage, D. Phil., has been appointed Chief Development Officer of the Company. Acusphere is focused on the development of Imagify™ (Perflubutane Polymer Microspheres for Injectable Suspension), which if approved for sale, will be a novel cardiovascular drug for the detection of coronary artery disease (CAD), the leading cause of death in the United States and Europe.

Mark Leuchtenberger, Acusphere’s President and CEO, said, “Bill’s three-plus decades of experience in the imaging industry, his understanding of current market dynamics, his personal relationships with key opinion leaders and his strong working relationship with the Acusphere team make him the ideal person to step into this dedicated role as Chief Development Officer.”

“I have had the pleasure of working on the development of Imagify for the last 14 years as a consultant and I am honored to join the Acusphere management team,” said Dr. Ramage.

Dr. Ramage brings with him over 30 years of imaging experience, 25 of which have been dedicated to cardiovascular imaging. He served as an Executive Consultant at Acusphere from March 2000 to October 2013 where he was responsible for key clinical and regulatory activities and as an Independent Business Development and Strategic Marketing Consultant from August 1999 until March 2000. Dr. Ramage has also served as a consultant to numerous companies, primarily in the cardiovascular imaging industry. Prior to Acusphere, Dr. Ramage was Vice President of Business Development and Customer Services at DuPont-Merck (now Lantheus) and had major business responsibility for the leading nuclear perfusion agent, Cardiolite®, and in-licensed the ultrasound contrast agent, Definity®. Dr. Ramage also served previously as Vice President, Business Development and Marketing at Molecular BioSystems, where he oversaw the approval and launch of Optison® in the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Ramage holds a B.Sc. from the University of Glasgow and a D.Phil. from Oxford University.