Franklin Berger Biography and Net Worth

Franklin currently serves on the board of six public biotechnology companies: Five Prime Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FPRX), Bellus Health (NASDAQ: BLU), ESSA Pharma (NASDAQ: EPIX), Proteostasis (NASDAQ:PTI), Tocagen (NASDAQ: TOCA), and Kezar Life Sciences (NASDAQ:KZR). Previous public company board service includes eleven years with Seattle Genetics, seven years with VaxGen, (vaccines/biodefense) and Aurinia (previously Isotechnika), based in Canada. He also serves or has served on private biotech company boards including Atreca, Applied Therapeutics, Immune Design, (acquired by Merck in 2019), Rain Therapeutics, CERUS Endovascular, Caprion Proteomics, (sold in July 2012) and ViroChem Pharma, which was purchased by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, for $400 million in 2009. Franklin has led multiple M&A analyses resulting in >$3 billion in transaction value.

Franklin started his consulting practice in 2003 after leaving J. P. Morgan Securities, Inc. as head of biotechnology equity research. His clients were exclusively biotechnology industry participants including major biopharmaceutical firms, mid-capitalization biotechnology companies, specialist asset managers and venture capital companies. Assignments included business development, strategic advisory/financings, partnering and royalty acquisitions. Some of his past mandates include Stemcentrx, PDL BioPharma, Inc., Intra-Cellular Therapeutics, Serono, Merck KGaA, Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Valeant (formerly Biovail), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

As a senior portfolio manager on the buy-side, Franklin worked at Sectoral Asset Management as a co-founder of the small-cap focused NEMO Fund from 2007 through June 2008. He reduced his consulting practice commitment during his full time employment with Sectoral Asset Management.

Franklin spent twelve years in sell-side equity research, most recently as Managing Director, U.S. Equity Research, J. P. Morgan Securities, Inc., from May 1998 to March 2003. During his five years at J. P. Morgan Securities, Inc., he was involved with the issuance of over $12 billion in biotechnology company equity or equity-linked securities. Most of these transactions were lead-managed and book-run by the J. P. Morgan Biotech Team. He was associated with several notable financings in the biotechnology sector including the Genentech IPO, then the largest biotechnology IPO financing ever executed, the first large Celgene Corporation financings as well as several large-cap biotechnology companies in their rapid growth phase. His team covered 26 publicly-traded biotechnology companies. Franklin began his career as a sell-side analyst at Josephthal & Co. in 1991, subsequently moving to Salomon Smith Barney in 1997 serving as Director, Equity Research and Senior Biotechnology Analyst.

Institutional Investor Magazine ranked Franklin #3 on J. P. Morgan’s All-Star Research Team. The Wall Street Journal selected him as the No. 1 ranked biotechnology analyst in its All-Star Analyst Survey in 1997 and No. 2 ranked in the WSJ’s 2000 Survey. In 2000, he became a Founding Fellow of the Biotechnology Study Center at New York University School of Medicine.

Franklin received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1975; Johns Hopkins University conferred both his MA and AB degrees in 1971 and 1972, respectively.