Xencor welcomes new chief medical officer

Xencor has welcomed a new chief medical officer with the appointment of Jeffrey D Bloss who moves to the post from Onyx Pharmaceuticals.

With over 15 years of clinical practice, research and drug development experience, Dr Bloss will now direct Xencor’s clinical and preclinical development strategies.

Bassil Dahiyat, president and chief executive officer of Xencor, expressed his delight at the appointment, stating that the company were looking forward to the positive impact Dr Bloss would bring to its clinical development activities.

“Dr Bloss is a pivotal appointment for Xencor. He has a proven track record of success in advancing novel antibody and oncology drug candidates, managing both preclinical and clinical stage clinical development activities,” he said.

Most recently Dr Bloss had served as vice president for clinical development at Onyx Pharmaceuticals where led the development for sorafenib.

He has also worked as US director of oncology at Eli Lilly and as group medical director at Genentech.

Earlier this year, Boehringer Ingelheim and Xencor announced that they would jointly enter into a new antibody licence that saw the two companies collaborate on the development of monoclonal antibodies.