To create its XmAb antibody engineering platform, Xencor precisely alters the Fc domain — the stem of the antibody structure — to significantly enhance natural functions and performance. In some cases, these modifications create entirely new therapeutic mechanisms of action.
Xencor’s broad portfolio of optimized Fc domains can plug-and-play into nearly any antibody. XmAb Fc domains provide enhanced performance in 14 proprietary and partnered therapeutic antibody programs in clinical development for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune disorders, asthma and allergic diseases.
Management
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Bassil I. Dahiyat, Ph.D.President & Chief Executive Officer, Director -
John R. Desjarlais, Ph.D.Senior Vice President, Research & Chief Scientific Officer -
John J. KuchSenior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Bassil I. Dahiyat, Ph.D.
President & Chief Executive Officer, Director
Dr. Dahiyat has been Xencor’s president and chief executive officer since the Company’s incorporation in August 1997, and is the co-founder of Xencor, and co-inventor of Xencor’s breakthrough XmAb® technology. He has led the Company in raising over $700 million in public and private financing, creating a diverse portfolio of monoclonal antibody clinical programs for the treatment of life-threatening and debilitating diseases, and establishing alliances with leading biopharmaceutical companies that generated over $350 million in upfront payments. Dr. Dahiyat holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Caltech and B.S. and M.S.E. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University. He has co-authored numerous scientific papers in the fields of protein design and drug delivery, is an inventor of over 30 US and numerous foreign patents, and has received scientific awards from the American Chemical Society, the Controlled Release Society, the Protein Society and Caltech.
John R. Desjarlais, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Research & Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Desjarlais oversees all aspects of discovery and research at the company including technology development, protein and antibody engineering and generation of drug candidates. Prior to joining Xencor, Dr. Desjarlais was an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Penn State University, where he developed protein engineering methods similar to Xencor’s PDA® technology platform. Dr. Desjarlais received a B.S. in Physics from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Desjarlais has driven the company’s technology development and engineering efforts for over 5 years and participated in the business development and intellectual property strategies.
John J. Kuch
Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Kuch has primary responsibility for financial reporting, budgeting, cash-flow management, investments, and facility issues for the company. He has extensive experience working with emerging companies through the IPO process. Previously he worked over 15 years in public accounting most recently as a Director at Price Waterhouse. Mr. Kuch is a C.P.A. and received his B.S. and M.S. in Accounting from the University of Illinois.
Partnering
Partners Broaden the Pipeline of XmAb Drug Candidates
The plug-and-play nature of Xencor’s XmAb technology enables the rapid creation of more powerful, more effective antibodies by simply changing a few amino acids in the Fc domain to the amino acids identified by our structure-based design. Typically two amino acids are changed to create the XmAb Fc domain and dramatically enhance the biological function of the antibody. Xencor’s growing pipeline is based on this plug-and-play approach to creating differentiated antibody drug candidates.
Xencor extends the use of the XmAb technology through licenses of these high-performance Fc domains to partners interested in therapeutic targets outside of Xencor’s areas of focus. Currently, partners are advancing five programs in clinical trials and numerous pre-clinical programs that use XmAb Fc domains for bispecific structure, higher cytotoxicity, longer half-life or improved stability.
Please direct partnering inquiries to: collaborate@xencor.com
Xencor and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, are co-developing XmAb24306 and other potential novel IL15 cytokine therapeutics. XmAb24306 is an IL15/IL15Rα cytokine complex engineered with Xencor’s bispecific Fc domain and Xtend™ Fc technology. Additionally, the companies have engaged in a two-year research program to discover new IL15 drug candidates, including ones targeted to specific immune cell populations. The companies are will share development costs and profits. Genentech will commercialize medicines worldwide, and Xencor has the option to co-promote in the United States.
Novartis has licensed ex-U.S. commercial rights and entered a collaboration for the worldwide development of XmAb14045 and has entered into a collaboration to use XmAb bispecific Fc domains across four Novartis programs; Novartis also licensed various XmAb Fc domains to optimize the performance of therapeutic antibodies.
Amgen licensed worldwide rights to use XmAb bispecific Fc domains in multiple programs. AMG 424 is a CD38 x CD3 bispecific antibody being evaluated in an ongoing Phase 1 study in patients with multiple myeloma, and the bispecific antibody AMG 509 is being developed for patients with prostate cancer.
MorphoSys has licensed worldwide rights for tafasitamab (MOR208/XmAb5574), a B-cell targeting antibody with an XmAb Cytotoxic Fc Domain that is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials in non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Xencor discovered and developed tafasitamab through Phase 1 clinical trials.
CSL is using an XmAb cytotoxic Fc domain to enhance the ADCC effector function of a therapeutic antibody in Phase 2 testing, CSL362, for acute myeloid leukemia.
Alexion is using Xencor’s Xtend™ Fc domain to enhance the half-life of Ultomiris® (ravulizumab-cwvz), approved in the United States, the European Union and Japan for the treatment of adult patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), as well as in the United States for the treatment of adults and pediatric patients one month of age and older with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) to inhibit complement-mediated thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA).