SMSbiotech Appoints Michael C. Swartzburg as Chief Financial Officer
San Marcos, California — March 24, 2026 — SMSbiotech, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing first-in-class SMS cell therapies for chronic and degenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of Michael C. Swartzburg, CPA, as Chief Financial Officer.
Mr. Swartzburg brings more than two decades of experience leading life sciences companies from early-stage clinical development through commercialization, with over $3 billion in completed M&A transactions, public and private equity financings, IPOs, and structured non-dilutive transactions.
Previously, Mr. Swartzburg served as Chief Financial Officer of Dermavant Sciences, where he guided the company from a clinical-stage organization to a fully commercial enterprise, including the FDA approval and launch of VTAMA® (tapinarof) for plaque psoriasis in adults, and its subsequent $1.2 billion acquisition by Organon & Co.
Prior to that, he served as Principal Financial Officer and VP of Finance at Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ: IOVA), where he supported the development of AMTAGVI® (lifileucel), an FDA-approved cell therapy for metastatic melanoma, and helped raise over $1 billion in capital to support clinical development and manufacturing scale-up.
“We are excited to welcome Michael to SMSbiotech,” said Dr. Abdulkader Rahmo, Chief Executive Officer of SMSbiotech. “His deep experience in capital markets and scaling clinical-stage biotechnology companies will be instrumental as we advance our COPD program toward IND and position the company for its next phase of growth.”
At SMSbiotech, Mr. Swartzburg will lead financial strategy, capital markets activities, and corporate development initiatives as the company advances its lead COPD program toward IND and early U.S. clinical development, with a focus on achieving key value inflection points and supporting long-term platform expansion.
Mr. Swartzburg began his career at Ernst & Young and is a Certified Public Accountant (active). He has been recognized as a 2024 LA Times B2B CFO Leadership Honoree and named a Top CFO by both the Los Angeles and Orange County Business Journals
