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Xencor announces appointment, promotion

Xencor announced the appointment of Kurt Gustafson to its board of directors and the promotion of John R. Desjarlais, PhD, to senior vice president of research and chief scientific officer, according to a press release.

The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, based in Monrovia, Calif., develops engineered monoclonal antibodies for treating asthma and allergic diseases, autoimmune diseases and cancer. XmAb7195 is in phase 1 development for treating asthma as part of its XmAb antibody engineering technology, Xencor reported in the release.

Gustafson, executive vice president, chief financial officer and principal accounting officer for Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, has more than 20 years of industry-related experience.

“Kurt brings a tremendous amount of experience and a fresh perspective to the board as we grow our company and expand our drug development efforts,” Bassil Dahiyat, PhD, president and chief executive officer of Xencor, said in the release.

As vice president of research at Xencor, Desjarlais oversees technology development, protein and antibody engineering and generation of drug candidates, according to the release.

“In addition to his critical involvement in our clinical-stage antibody programs, John has played a key role in the creation of our entire XmAb technology and pipeline, including our new biospecifics programs, which we are beginning to advance into development,” Dahiyat said in the release.