Derek Kelaita

Derek Kelaita joined Lineage Cell Therapeutics as the Vice President, Business Development in August 2019. Derek brings 20 years of experience with publicly-traded and venture-backed biotechnology companies to Lineage. He was most recently Vice President of Business Development at ArmaGen from 2013 through early 2019, where he negotiated several early-stage research collaborations and option agreements with pharma partners related to the company’s blood-brain barrier technology as well as a $225M global license agreement with Shire plc (now part of Takeda Pharmaceuticals) for ArmaGen’s lead clinical stage program. Throughout his career, Derek is responsible for licensing/M&A transactions cumulatively valued at over $1 billion in multiple therapeutic areas including: Neurology (ArmaGen), Immunotherapy (AnaptysBio), Metabolic/diabetes (Cebix), Dental (Novalar), Infectious disease (Nventa), Oncology (Dendreon) and Cardiovascular disease (Corvas). He began his career as a Research Associate at the Sanford Burnham Institute in La Jolla, CA. Derek has a BA in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from University of San Diego.