Meet the team
Tara Heitner, PhD, MBA
Director of Business Development, HiFiBio: High Fidelity Biology
Founder & Director, Heitner Biopharm Consultation
Dr. Tara Heitner draws upon over 15 years of international experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to support companies in maximizing the commercial value of their innovations. Dr. Heitner offers expertise in market guided strategic development of new business and business models as well as partnering and licensing support for biotechnology and therapeutics-‐based companies. Her experience includes the development and commercialization of early stage drug discovery technologies, small molecule drug discovery, therapeutic antibody development as well as scouting, evaluation and matchmaking for novel business opportunities across therapeutic areas.
Dr. Heitner has recently joined next generation antibody discovery company, HiFiBio, (Paris, France) as Director of Business Development where she will drive expansion of commercial opportunities and the strategic development of internal capabilities. She continues to support Vipergen (Copenhagen, Denmark) in its business development activities after having served for 3 years as Associate Director of Business Development where she successfully launched a disruptive business model and lead commercialization efforts toward multiple top tier discovery partnerships. Dr. Heitner’s experience ranges from biotech startups to global pharmaceutical companies: Previously she worked with Berlex Biosciences (Richmond, CA, USA) to establish a core therapeutic antibody discovery facility and BioTrove (Cambridge, MA, USA), an MIT spinout developing micro-‐machined drug discovery devices. Dr. Heitner serves as guest lecturer at the Danish Technical University (Lyngby, Denmark) teaching a masters level course in market research and value creation in the biopharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Heitner earned a PhD in Chemistry from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and completed a Post Doctoral Fellowship at the University of California San Francisco in the lab of Prof. Jim Marks. She earned an executive MBA from Danish Technical University in 2014.
Dr. Heitner’s accomplishments include technology patents and patent applications, scientific publications, two antibody therapeutics currently in clinical development arising from her postdoctoral work and subsequent career, commercialization of Vipergen’s small molecule drug discovery technologies, and catalyzing and negotiating major partnerships with several top 20 pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Heitner founded Heitner Biopharm Consultation in 2014 and has since worked with biopharmceutical companies across the globe in strategic business development and international scouting and evaluation.