MENLO PARK, Calif., Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- ForteBio, Inc., a rapidly growing life science company that develops and commercializes analytical instruments and consumables to accelerate and improve therapeutics development, announced today that Joseph D. Keegan, Ph. D., has been named president and chief executive officer, beginning September 24, 2007. ForteBio founding CEO Winnie H. Wan, Ph.D., who is credited with building the company into an emerging leader in the label-free technology market, will continue to serve on the board of directors. Dr. Keegan was most recently president and chief executive officer of Molecular Devices Corp. (MDC) before it was acquired by MDS, Inc. earlier this year.
“ForteBio is experiencing significant growth as our enabling technology breaks down ease-of-use and cost barriers to make widespread application of real-time label-free kinetics and quantitative analysis a reality,” said Dr. Wan. “I am pleased that we have someone of Dr. Keegan’s caliber, with a proven record in building and managing later-stage life science businesses, to lead the company to the next stage.”
Dr. Keegan has more than 25 years of experience managing life science tools businesses. During his 9-year tenure at MDC, Dr. Keegan grew the company’s revenues from $30 million to $190 million through internal growth and acquisitions. In early 2007, he oversaw its acquisition by MDS for $615 million. Dr. Keegan joined MDC from Becton Dickinson and Company where he served as president of Worldwide Tissue Culture and vice president, general manager of Worldwide Flow Cytometry. Prior to Becton Dickinson, Dr. Keegan was vice president of the Microscopy and Scientific Instruments Division of Leica, Inc. He currently serves on the board of directors of Alpha Innotech Corporation, BioImagene, Inc. and Seahorse Bioscience Inc. Dr. Keegan holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Stanford University.
“ForteBio launched its first product -- the Octet System -- in late 2005 and its placement at the majority of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies, as well as numerous biotechnology companies, is a testament to its value as a tool for therapeutic development,” said Craig C. Taylor, board director for ForteBio and partner at Alloy Ventures, the lead investor in the company. “Under Dr. Wan’s leadership, the employees of ForteBio have developed a series of productive, quality instruments and reagents based on a technology that I think has considerable further potential. Given Dr. Keegan’s experience, we are all excited that he is joining us to help the company realize that potential.” Mr. Taylor noted that to date the company has successfully launched multiple new products, and its instrument platforms and biosensors are now sold in 32 countries. The company has also established manufacturing capabilities in both Menlo Park and Shanghai, China.
“I am eager to lead ForteBio, as I believe that the company has tremendous opportunities for growth in the rapidly expanding label-free technology market,” said Dr. Keegan. “I look forward to building upon the company’s success to date.”
About ForteBio, Inc.
ForteBio is a venture-capital funded life science company providing analytical systems to accelerate the development of therapeutics. These systems enable real-time analysis of biomolecular interactions, providing information on affinity, kinetics and concentration. Most importantly, ForteBio’s analytical capabilities enable significantly easier, faster and better characterization of drug candidates, thus providing greater value in drug development applications where existing methods have limitations in throughput, performance and cost. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with a wholly owned subsidiary in Shanghai, China. For more information, please visit http://www.fortebio.com.
ForteBio, Inc.
CONTACT: Joy Concepcion of ForteBio, Inc., +1-650-289-6819,jconcepcion@fortebio.com
Web site: http://www.fortebio.com/
