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Thomas B. Neff
DirectorThomas B. Neff is a member of Kolltan's Board of Directors. Mr. Neff founded FibroGen, Inc., a San Francisco based biotechnology company, and has been CEO and Chairman of Fibrogen since 1994. FibroGen discovered and developed the use of oral antagonists of prolyl hydroxylases for selective HIF activation therapy, with first-in-class candidate products in clinical development for anemia, prevention of CHF post MI and chronic neurodegeneration. FibroGen scientists co-discovered CTGF and demonstrated its role as the necessary factor in all forms of persistent tissue fibrosis. Blockade of CTGF has been shown to reverse tissue fibrosis in models of liver, CHF and radiation induced injury; clinical development is focused on fully human neutralizing antibody for applications with diabetic nephropathy, lung and liver fibrosis and systemic sclerosis. Mr. Neff is listed as a named inventor on over twenty-five U.S. and foreign patents, and over 100 corresponding U.S. and foreign patent applications related to the FibroGen technology programs.
Prior to FibroGen, Mr. Neff pioneered the arena of investing in royalty rights to on-market pharmaceutical drug products, commencing with two investment partnerships founded in 1993 and 1994, of which he became managing general partner in 1997. From 1988-1992, he was senior vice president at Lazard Frères & Co. and prior to that, at PaineWebber Group (now UBS) from 1983 to 1988. Mr. Neff completed his undergraduate studies at Claremont McKenna College, where he remains a trustee, with concentrations in molecular biology and government, and graduate studies at the University of Chicago in economics and business, and was a fellow of the Thomas Watson Foundation. He received a Doctor of Medicine degree, honoris causa, from Oulu University, Oulu, Finland in 2009.