HANOVER, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Adimab LLC, a leader in the discovery of fully human antibodies, today announced that Frances K. Heller has been appointed to its Board of Directors. Ms. Heller is the Executive Vice President of Business Development of Exelixis, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXEL) and is an acknowledged life sciences business development leader, having led or participated in nearly 100 transactions over the course of her career.
“Fran is one of the elite deal makers and business strategists in the Pharmaceutical industry, having structured a truly impressive number of transactions that span biotechnology and pharma and cover a broad range of therapeutic areas,” commented Tillman Gerngross, PhD, Adimab’s CEO and co–founder. “We very much look forward to her strategic insight as Adimab prepares to expand its repertoire of transactions to include broader technology access deals.”
“Adimab’s novel approach to the discovery and optimization of therapeutic antibodies, both in terms of the quality of candidates it generates and the business options it creates, represents an exciting opportunity,” commented Fran Heller. “Adimab has already demonstrated the success of their business model with numerous collaborations with large pharma and biotech companies. I look forward to participating in the growth and expansion of this exciting company and future business possibilities.”
Ms. Heller is Executive Vice President of Business Development at Exelixis and has more than 15 years as a business development and legal executive in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. She has led a large volume of strategic transactions and partnerships across a broad range of molecular modalities and in various therapeutic areas. She has the unique combination of having been on both the buy and sell side of strategy setting and deal making on behalf of both big pharma and biotech.
Prior to joining Exelixis, Ms. Heller was Head of Strategic Alliances at Novartis Pharmaceuticals where she was responsible for transactions with partners in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry as well as academic institutions worldwide. Prior to joining Novartis, Ms. Heller was Vice President of Corporate Development and Legal Affairs at Signature BioScience, Inc., a drug discovery company focused in oncology. Previously, she was Corporate and Intellectual Property Counsel for Celera Genomics, where she was the head of the legal department and responsible for negotiating corporate and business transactions and collaborations. She previously held several positions of increasing responsibility in the areas of business development, licensing, and sales and marketing. Ms. Heller is a guest lecturer and instructor at several universities as an expert in the business of strategy setting, deal making and negotiation. Ms. Heller is a member of the California State Bar, is licensed by the US Patent and Trademark Office. She has a B.S. in biology from Tulane University, an M.A. in biology from American University and J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law.
About Adimab
Adimab’s integrated antibody discovery and optimization platform provides unprecedented speed from antigen to purified, full-length human IgGs. Adimab offers fundamental advantages by delivering diverse panels of therapeutically relevant antibodies that meet the most aggressive standards for affinity, epitope coverage, species cross-reactivity and expressability. Adimab enables its partners to rapidly expand their biologics pipelines through a broad spectrum of technology access arrangements. For more information, visit http://www.adimab.com.