OmniAb Announces Two New Appointments to its Board of Directors
Philip Gotwals, Ph.D. and Steve Crouse bring strategic and operational experience in business development and global tools and technology
OmniAb, Inc. (NASDAQ:OABI) today announced the appointments of Philip J. Gotwals, Ph.D., and Steve Crouse to its Board of Directors. OmniAb also announced the departure of Director Sarah Boyce, who is stepping down following nearly six years of service during a period of key strategic acquisitions and the significant expansion of the scope and size of OmniAb's partnership base. These Board changes are effective immediately and increase the number of Directors to seven.
"We're delighted to welcome Phil and Steve to our Board of Directors. Their extensive experience and diverse expertise in the various technology licensing and commercial elements of the healthcare industry will be valuable as we advance our strategic initiatives," said John Higgins, OmniAb Board Chair. "Phil's experience in discovery research, product development and corporate development transactions, along with Steve's expertise in marketing, sales and product development of tools and technology on a global scale, make them ideal additions to OmniAb's Board as we work to accelerate the growth of our business. We look forward to their insights, contributions and leadership in shaping the future of OmniAb. We're also grateful to Sarah, who has been an important member of our Board, contributing significantly to the company's strategic growth from a small discovery licensing business to a significant player in antibody technology innovation and licensing with over 91 active partners," he added.
Dr. Gotwals has 30 years of biopharmaceutical experience in R&D, business development, product development and therapeutic area strategy. He was Global Head of Business Development and Licensing at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, overseeing business development for all disease areas and technology platforms. His team executed over 50 major strategic transactions, including licenses, collaborations, acquisitions, asset sales and new company creations. Previously, Dr. Gotwals led program management at Altus Pharmaceuticals and spent 12 years at Biogen Idec in research, development and program management. He is currently a Partner at Red Sky Partners, which advises biotechnology and pharmaceutical clients on business strategy and transaction processes and provides third-party insight into product values and portfolio priorities. Dr. Gotwals received a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley, completed postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, received business training at Harvard Business School and holds a B.A. in biology from Amherst College. He also serves on the Board of Capricor Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAPR).
Mr. Crouse has more than 20 years of experience in life sciences sales and marketing, product development, business development and general management. Currently, he is Senior Vice President, General Manager of the Analytical Solutions Division at Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) with global responsibility for its ProteinSimple-branded products and R&D Systems Immunoassays portfolio. Previously, Mr. Crouse led the Protein Detection and Quantification unit at Thermo Fisher Scientific, and served as Chief Operating Officer at Vortex Biosciences. In addition, he has held leadership positions at Freeslate, Bio-Rad Laboratories and Invitrogen Corporation. Mr. Crouse holds an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, an M.S. in biochemistry from Georgetown University and a B.S. in pharmacology from the University of California Santa Barbara.
Dr. Gotwals will serve as a member of the Board's Human Capital Management & Compensation Committee and the Science & Technology Committee. Mr. Crouse will serve as a member of the Audit Committee and the Science & Technology Committee.
About OmniAb®
OmniAb licenses cutting edge discovery research technology to pharmaceutical and biotech companies and academic institutions to enable the discovery of next-generation therapeutics. Our technology platform creates and screens diverse antibody repertoires and is designed to quickly identify optimal antibodies and other target-binding proteins for our partners' drug development efforts. At the heart of the OmniAb platform is something we call Biological Intelligence™, which powers the immune systems of our proprietary, engineered transgenic animals to create optimized antibody candidates for human therapeutics. We believe the OmniAb animals comprise the most diverse host systems available in the industry. Our suite of technologies and methods, including computational antigen design and immunization methods, paired with high-throughput single B cell phenotypic screening and mining of next-generation sequencing datasets with custom algorithms, is used to identify fully-human antibodies with exceptional performance and developability characteristics. We provide our partners both integrated end-to-end capabilities and highly customizable offerings, which address critical industry challenges and provide optimized discovery solutions. Our business model aligns scientific and economic interests of our partners through structured agreements that generally include upfront/access fees, service revenue, milestones and royalties on commercial sales.
For more information, please visit www.omniab.com
Forward-Looking Statements
OmniAb cautions you that statements contained in this press release regarding matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Words such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "could," "intend," "target," "project," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential" or continue" and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations and include, but are not limited to: statements regarding the expansion and growth prospects of our business and the expected performance of our technologies and the opportunities they may create. Actual results may differ from those set forth in this press release due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in our business, including, without limitation: our future success is dependent on acceptance of our technology platform and technologies by new and existing partners, as well as on the eventual development, approval and commercialization of products developed by our partners for which we have no control over the development plan, regulatory strategy or commercialization efforts; biopharmaceutical development is inherently uncertain; risks arising from changes in technology; the competitive environment in the life sciences and biotechnology platform market; our failure to maintain, protect and defend our intellectual property rights; difficulties with performance of third parties we will rely on for our business; regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries; unstable market and economic conditions may have serious adverse consequences on our business, financial condition and stock price; we may use our capital resources sooner than we expect; and other risks described in our prior press releases and filings with the SEC, including under the heading "Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent filings with the SEC. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, which is made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
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OmniAb, Inc.
Neha Singh, Ph.D.
[email protected]
X @OmniAbTech
(510) 768-7760