Xencor Appoints Yujiro S. Hata to Board of Directors

MONROVIA, Calif., July 31, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Xencor, Inc. (NASDAQ: XNCR), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing engineered monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, asthma and allergic diseases, and cancer, today announced the appointment of Yujiro S. Hata to its board of directors.

"Yujiro's wealth of experience in business and corporate development is a tremendous asset to our board," said Bassil Dahiyat, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Xencor. "Xencor faces a range of opportunities for our XmAb pipeline and platform across a number of therapeutic areas.  We look forward to benefiting from Yujiro's knowledge and perspective on strategy and deal-making as we continue to progress our clinical programs and advance our bispecific oncology candidates into clinical development."  

Mr. Hata joins the board with more than 20 years of industry-related experience. Currently, Mr. Hata serves as chief operating officer at immunooncology company FLX Bio, where he oversees all business operations, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing. From 2014 until its acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb in April 2015, Mr. Hata served as chief operating officer at Flexus Biosciences. From 2010 until its acquisition by Amgen in October 2013, Mr. Hata was vice president, corporate development and strategy at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, where he held various leadership roles, including head of mergers and acquisitions, and licensing, and head of corporate strategy and strategic asset management. From 2002 to 2010, he served in various roles as vice president, senior vice president, and chief business officer at Enanta Pharmaceuticals, and earlier in his career served in business and corporate development roles at Genome Therapeutics Corporation, McKinsey and Company and ImClone Systems Incorporated. Mr. Hata obtained his MBA at Wharton as a Henry J. Kaiser recipient and completed undergraduate studies in chemistry at Oxford University and Colorado College. Mr. Hata serves on the board of visitors of the Moores Cancer Center, at the University of California, San Diego. 

About Xencor, Inc.
Xencor is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing engineered monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of asthma and allergic diseases, autoimmune diseases and cancer. Currently, eight candidates that have been engineered with Xencor's XmAb^® technology are in clinical development internally and with partners. Xencor's internally-discovered programs include: XmAb5871, which completed a Phase 1b/2a clinical trial for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and is in preparation for a clinical trial in IgG4-related disease in 2015; XmAb7195 in Phase 1a development for the treatment of asthma; and XmAb5574/MOR208 which has been licensed to Morphosys AG and is in Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Xencor's XmAb antibody engineering technology enables small changes to the structure of monoclonal antibodies resulting in new mechanisms of therapeutic action. Xencor partners include Merck, Janssen R&D LLC, Alexion, Novo Nordisk and Boehringer Ingelheim. For more information, please visit www.xencor.com.    

Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in this press release regarding matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including any expectations relating to our business, research and development programs, partnering efforts or our capital requirements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements and the timing of  events to be materially different from those implied by such statements, and therefore these statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such risks include, without limitation, the risks associated with the process of discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing drugs that are safe and effective for use as human therapeutics and other risks described in Xencor's public securities filings. All forward-looking statements are based on Xencor's current information and belief as well as assumptions made by Xencor. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements and Xencor disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investor Contact:
John Kuch, Vice President Finance, Xencor
Tel: 626-737-8013
[email protected]

Corporate Communications Contact:
Jason I. Spark, Canale Communications for Xencor
Tel: 619-849-6005
[email protected]

SOURCE Xencor, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.xencor.com/