Franz F. Hefti, Ph.D.

 

Scientific Advisor
VP and Chief Development Officer, Chlorion Pharma

Dr. Hefti has worked for over twenty years in the pharmaceutical industry and has more than a decade of experience in academia. He is currently VP and Chief Development Officer at Chlorion Pharma, a company focused on treating neurological disorders by quelling hyperactivity in the central nervous system through correcting neuronal chloride imbalances.

Prior to joining Chlorion, he led drug development efforts at Rinat Neuroscience Corporation as the company’s Executive Vice President of Drug Development. During Dr. Hefti’s tenure at Rinat, three antibody drug candidates were brought from the discovery stage to preclinical and clinical development. The success of these programs led to the acquisition of Rinat by Pfizer in 2006.

Previously, Dr. Hefti was Senior Vice President of Neuroscience Research at Merck & Co., where he coordinated the company’s neuroscience research worldwide, serving as site head for neuroscience research centers in the U.K. and U.S. While working with Merck, small molecule drug candidates covering six drug targets in the neuroscience area were taken into development. Dr. Hefti was also Director of the Neuroscience Research Department at Genentech, and spent more than a decade in academia as a Professor at the University of Southern California, and Associate Professor at the University of Miami. He has published over 250 papers on neurotrophic factors and topics in neuropharmacology, as well as a recent textbook entitled “Drug Discovery for Nervous System Diseases” (John Wiley & Sons). Dr. Hefti received a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich and did his postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Max Planck Institute in Munich.