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Xencor Expands Management Team To Lead Drug Discovery And Protein Optimization Programs

(BW Healthwire)--October 09, 2001---Xencor today announced that Stephen K. Doberstein, Ph.D. has joined as Vice President, Chemical Biology and Robert E. Pacifici, Ph.D. has joined the company as Vice President, Discovery Technologies. The addition of Dr. Doberstein and Dr. Pacifici will enable Xencor to expand its platform technology base into small molecule drug discovery and further leverage its ProCode(tm) and Protein Design Automation ((PDA(tm)) technologies, according to Bassil Dahiyat, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Xencor. “Drs. Doberstein and Pacifici's knowledge in drug discovery and experience in managing partnerships and internal programs will be vital as we expand our focus to include compound-based functional genomics for small molecule drug discovery,“ said Dr. Dahiyat. “Dr. Doberstein's knowledge in functional genomics and drug discovery coupled with his business development experience will be essential in expanding and leading our therapeutic area and target identification and validation programs based on our ProCode technology. Dr. Pacifici's expertise in high throughput screening, assay development and protein discovery will be invaluable in leading our protein optimization efforts using PDA. He will also be in charge of expanding our automation and informatics technology base.“

Dr. Doberstein was previously with Exelixis, Inc., where he held several positions including Director, Pharmaceutical Target Research and Director, Cell Genetics and was successful in the initiation and management of functional genomics drug discovery programs. Dr. Doberstein's extensive experience in the development of internal research programs and in partnering with companies such as Pharmacia and Bristol-Myers Squibb will be important in discovering new drugs and creating drug discovery alliances for Xencor's ProCode technology. Dr. Doberstein received a B.S.ChE. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Pacifici joins Xencor from Amgen where he most recently held the position of Director of Research Information and Automation Technologies. He was integral in the creation of Amgen's automation and screening groups as well as forging relationships with Caliper Technologies, The Automation Partnership, and with Kinetix Pharmaceuticals. He brings to Xencor an extensive background in high throughput screening for small molecule drug discovery, assay development and expression cloning and will be instrumental in expanding Xencor's technology base. Dr. Pacifici received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Southern California.

Xencor, a privately held company, uses its cutting edge protein analysis and optimization technologies to accelerate the discovery and improvement of proteins, novel drug targets and new small molecule therapeutics. With its proprietary ProCode(tm) and Protein Design Automation(tm) (PDA(tm)) technologies, Xencor scientists can rapidly determine the interactions and functions of the cell's entire protein complement, identify novel drug targets and other proteins of interest, and then optimize key properties of these proteins to fit commercial applications. The use of these technologies alone or in combination will accelerate the discovery and development programs of Xencor's strategic partners in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural and chemical industries. Xencor is headquartered in Monrovia, California. Further information is available at www.xencor.com.