Oncobiologics Expands its Board of Directors with the Appointment of Three New Independent Members

CRANBURY, N.J., Dec. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncobiologics, Inc. (Oncobiologics) announces the expansion of its Board of Directors with the appointment of Albert D. Dyrness, Kurt J. Hilzinger and Robin Smith Hoke, effective December 11, 2015. The new members of the board provide additional expertise in manufacturing, commercial distribution, payor, legal and strategic expertise to the company, complementing the broad skill set of the current board. In addition, Mr. Hilzinger has been elected Chairperson of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and Ms. Hoke was elected to Chair the Nominating, Disclosure and Corporate Governance Committee, effective immediately. Scott Canute, a current director, was elected to Chair the Compensation Committee.

Mr. Dyrness has more than 20 years of experience in the design, start-up and qualification of systems and equipment used in the manufacture of biologics and pharmaceuticals. He is a recognized industry leader in bio-process engineering with expertise in upstream, downstream, and fill/finish processes. In 1988, he co-founded ADVENT Engineering Services, a privately-held engineering services firm that serves the energy and life sciences industries, and currently heads its Life Sciences Division. Mr. Dyrness currently serves as the Vice-Chairperson for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Bioprocess Equipment Standard (AMSE-BPE) System Design subcommittee. Mr. Dyrness is an Industrial Advisory Board Member of the University of the Pacific's Bioengineering Program. Mr. Dyrness holds an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and professional engineer licenses in the state of California for both Chemical and Mechanical Engineering.

Mr. Hilzinger has extensive experience with companies that manage the supply of pharmaceuticals. He spent 16 years in various executive management capacities with AmerisourceBergen Corporation, serving as president and chief operating officer and earlier as executive vice president and chief financial officer. In 2007, he became a partner at Court Square Capital Partners, a private equity firm. Since 2003, Mr. Hilzinger has been on the board of managed care company, Humana, including serving as lead director from 2010 to 2014 when he became chairman of the Board. He serves on the Visiting Committee at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and also formerly served as Chairman of the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA), the trade association of the pharmaceutical distribution industry. Mr. Hilzinger received his B.B.A. degree from the University of Michigan and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Ms. Hoke is a seasoned business and legal executive with over 20 years of healthcare and pharmaceutical experience in various legal and business roles where she focused on strategy, business development, acquisitions, and strategic relationships, including, strategic alliances, joint ventures, partnerships and other investments. Ms. Hoke currently provides pharmaceutical and healthcare advisory services to multi-national, mid-tier and emerging companies and private equity firms. She served as chair of the Board of Directors and interim chief executive officer at Ricerca Biosciences, LLC. Prior to Ricerca, Ms. Hoke served as the president of GeneraMedix, Inc., and held senior legal and business roles at Cardinal Health, Inc. She also spent time with Abbott Laboratories, Inc., and served as a partner in the business law firm of Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter, Co., L.P.A. Ms. Hoke received her B.S. from Michigan State University and her law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

About Oncobiologics, Inc. and its BioSymphony™ Platform
Oncobiologics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on identifying, developing, manufacturing and commercializing complex biosimilar therapeutics. Its current focus is on technically challenging and commercially attractive monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in the disease areas of immunology and oncology. Oncobiologics is advancing its pipeline of eight biosimilar products, two of which are currently in clinical development. Led by a team of biopharmaceutical experts, Oncobiologics operates from in-house state-of-the-art fully integrated research and development, and manufacturing facility in Cranbury, New Jersey. Oncobiologics employs its BioSymphony™ Platform to address the challenges of biosimilar development and commercialization by developing high quality mAb biosimilars in an efficient and cost-effective manner on an accelerated timeline. For more information, please visit www.oncobiologics.com.

CONTACTS:

Oncobiologics: Lawrence A. Kenyon
                        Chief Financial Officer
                        [email protected] 

Media:           Tony Russo
                      Russo Partners, LLC
                      [email protected]

Investors:      Robert Flamm, Ph.D.
                     Russo Partners, LLC
                     [email protected]

SOURCE Oncobiologics, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.oncobiologics.com