SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 3, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (FivePrime), a leader in the discovery and development of innovative biologics, announced today that it has promoted Aron Knickerbocker to the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer. Mr. Knickerbocker originally joined FivePrime in September 2009 as its Vice President, Business Development, to lead FivePrime's business development and licensing activities.
Mr. Knickerbocker has played an instrumental leadership role in sourcing, structuring, negotiating and entering into several strategically important transactions between FivePrime and its partners, including a regional development and commercialization collaboration with Human Genome Sciences, Inc. for FivePrime's lead clinical candidate in cancer, HGS1036/FP-1039, two discovery collaborations with GlaxoSmithKline and several other undisclosed product and technology transactions that have helped advance and broaden FivePrime's preclinical development pipeline.
Mr. Knickerbocker has also been a key leader on FivePrime's Executive Committee, and has had a major influence on corporate development planning and the refinement of FivePrime's strategic objectives as the company transitions to focus more on the development of its pipeline of therapeutic candidates.
"Aron has been an effective and strategic leader within FivePrime. The creation of this new position reflects our confidence in Aron's judgment and ability to create value for our company. Aron has been key to our business and corporate development discussions with potential partners, investors and financial advisors," said Lewis T. "Rusty" Williams, MD, PhD, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of FivePrime. "We have benefited from his experience and long track record of establishing successful strategic alliances elsewhere, and we are delighted that he will play an expanded role in advancing FivePrime into the next phase of the company's development."
"I am honored and pleased by FivePrime's confidence in my work. It is exciting to be part of a company with both a promising pipeline of novel biologic products, and a powerful discovery platform that has the potential to identify new drug targets and therapeutic candidates for FivePrime and our partners," said Aron Knickerbocker. "I look forward to playing a key role at FivePrime as we work to build a valuable business that discovers and develops important new medications for patients who need better treatments."
Mr. Knickerbocker has worked in the biopharmaceutical industry for nearly 20 years, including the last 13 years in business development roles. Prior to joining FivePrime, Mr. Knickerbocker was at Genentech, Inc. where he most recently was Senior Director, Business Development, leading Genentech's oncology business development team that was responsible for evaluating and negotiating multiple strategic alliances. Prior to Genentech, Mr. Knickerbocker was at ALZA Corporation, where he negotiated and closed in-licensing and co-promotion transactions as Director of Commercial Development, and held sales, market research, marketing, and corporate development positions at Amgen, Inc. He began his career in the biopharmaceutical industry in research as a scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Aron received his A.B. degree in biology from Washington University in St. Louis, and his M.B.A. degree from the University of Michigan.
About FivePrime
Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage, privately held, biotechnology company discovering and developing innovative antibody and protein therapeutics. Using its integrated discovery platform, FivePrime is building a strong pipeline of oncology and immunology drug candidates. FivePrime mines its comprehensive library of secreted and extracellular human proteins to screen for medically relevant new therapeutic proteins and antibody targets. FivePrime has entered into a collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize its lead product, FP-1039, with Human Genome Sciences, Inc. in the United States, Canada and the EU. FivePrime has also established significant collaborations for the discovery of innovative biologics in specific therapeutic areas with several leading pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Centocor and GlaxoSmithKline. For more information about FivePrime, please visit FivePrime's web site at www.fiveprime.com.
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