Axya Medical Announces Appointment of James V. Barrile As Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

BEVERLY, Mass. -- Axya Medical Inc., a privately held medical device company, announced today that James V. Barrile has joined Axya as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Barrile has held senior management positions with medical device companies such as Vasca, Inc., Innovasive Devices, Inc., and Nova Biomedical Corporation. Most recently, Mr. Barrile served as Chief Financial Officer for Trans1, Inc. and provided consulting services to Warburg Pincus LLC.

Mr. Barrile was a co-founder and the Chief Financial Officer at Innovasive Devices, a venture capital backed start-up that developed, manufactured and sold products to the orthopedic sports medicine market. He was instrumental in fund raising, leading the company through an initial public offering and negotiating strategic transactions that included an acquisition and the sale of the company to Johnson & Johnson.

At Vasca, an early stage medical product company that develops, manufactures and distributes implants for dialysis patients, Mr. Barrile's major responsibility was to prepare the company for the product launch and scale-up of operations.

Mr. Barrile received his MBA from Babson College and undergraduate degree from Bentley College.

Paul Fenton, Axya's President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Jim Barrile brings considerable knowledge and medical device industry expertise to our arthroscopic focus. As we continue to expand our ultrasonic technology platform to other areas such as endoscopic and open surgical procedures, Jim will play an important leadership role in our success."

Axya is a pioneer developer of products to facilitate minimally invasive, arthroscopic surgery. The Company has developed and continues to advance its innovative method of utilizing ultrasonic energy to weld polymeric materials such as sutures. In conjunction with leaders in the fields of sports medicine and arthroscopic surgery, Axya has developed a suture welding system that eliminates the often tedious and time consuming process of deploying suture knots through a small scope. Following the release of its improved Shoulder Fixation System(TM) last year, Axya recently expanded its arthroscopic shoulder surgery product offering to include a line of bioabsorbable anchors.

Recently, Axya has released considerable improvements in its proprietary technology, furthering surgeon's technique advancements and ease of use in arthroscopy. The company will be exhibiting its product line at the Arthroscopy Association of North America's 24th Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC on May 12 - 15 in Booth 209.