Senior Director, Business Development

Ligand is a dynamic, fast-paced organization committed to creating shareholder value through developing and acquiring royalty revenue generating assets and coupling them to a lean corporate cost structure. To be successful at Ligand, employees must be innovative, efficient, versatile, self-starters who take great pride in their work and want to contribute to something significant. Pfenex Inc. (A wholly owned subsidiary of Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated) is a full-cycle development and licensing biotechnology company focused on leveraging its Pfenex Expression Technology to improve protein therapies for unmet patient needs. Using the patented Pfenex Expression Technology platform, the Company has created an advanced pipeline of therapeutic equivalents, vaccines, biologics and biosimilars.

The Senior Director, Business Development reports directly to the Vice President, Platform Technology & Innovation and is responsible for overseeing Business Development and leading search and evaluation of new opportunities to support the business strategy at Pfenex with the goal of building new partnerships based on the Pfenex platform. The candidate will also lead or provide support to a variety of transactions: in-licensing, and other pipeline/technology out-licensing transactions. Experience in other areas will be important (e.g. commercial assessment, corporate strategy, business development, financial modeling, competitive intelligence). In this role, you will be responsible for identifying and developing a broad range of partnerships based on the Pfenex capabilities and platform.

• Participate in the development and execution of the business strategy
• Provide leadership and management for the business development function and a team of three
• Establish and execute short- and long-term company strategies in support business’ Vision, Mission, Goals, and Culture
• Develop key partner target lists and implement business development strategies focused on those partner targets
• Provide key commercial input into strategic discussions and initiatives including the portfolio prioritization team
• In partnership with the marketing function develop and maintain key market messages to the various targeted segments, contribute to development of marketing pieces and collateral.
• Prepare, issue and negotiate confidentiality agreements, term sheets, proposals, partnering agreements and licenses to meet Pfenex’s business development goals
• Develop and maintain economic models in support of proposed transactions.
• Manage the partnering opportunity evaluation process by leading cross functional teams with R&D/Regulatory Finance, and IP/Legal.
• Propose business strategies for selected partnering opportunities for management review.
• Manage and lead multiple, complex transactions in business development.
• Attend partnering meetings, scientific/clinical conferences and search multiple sources for new in-licensing opportunities.
• Effectively & proactively communicate with potential partners.
• Prioritize & manage multiple projects and opportunities.
• Maintain close communications with prospective partners to ensure knowledge of platform and offering is current to maximize potential opportunities.
• Organize and hosts onsite partner visits
• Provides effective internal communications to ensure commercial support requirements are understood
• Develop improved business processes to increase effectiveness and efficiency of business development efforts
• Maintain high level of business acumen related to Pfenex’s core markets
• Travels up to 30 - 40% of the time
• Other duties as required

• 15 years of business development experience working in biotechnology, biopharma or Big Pharma environments
• Experience building relevant relationships with various scientific and business teams within pharmaceutical companies
• Proven track record of presenting, negotiating and closing deals driving to revenue and value creation
• Excellent communication skills ability to clearly and effectively communicate to a broad range of audiences
• Experience directly driving in and out licensing deals
• Self-driven, entrepreneurial personality with a drive to succeed in fast paced environment
• Understanding of recombinant expression of proteins, protein modification technologies and general understanding of the biologics market sector

Ligand is an equal opportunity employer & prohibits unlawful discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin/ancestry, age, disability, marital & veteran status.

Ligand proudly complies with the Americans with Disabilities act of 1990, and as such, provides the details relating to the physical, environmental conditions and workplace demands of working at Ligand are available from Human Resources.
From: Ligand Pharmaceuticals