As Xencor ramps up, Chief Medical Officer Paul Foster exits

fiercebiotech | June 27, 2019

After nearly 10 years leading Xencors clinical development, Chief Medical Officer, Paul Foster, M.D., is calling it quits. The biopharma veteran is set to retire in October, capping a 35-year career in academia, medical practice and industry.  The announcement comes as the antibody specialist moves two more programs into the clinic and works to resume a phase 1 study of its Novartis-partnered blood cancer drug.�� Xencor didn’t have the best start to 2019, with Novartis handing back the rights to a bispecific antibody it licensed in a 2016 deal worth $150 million up front. One month later, a second asset from the deal—which came with a promise of up to $2.41 billion in milestones—ran into a clinical holdfrom the FDA due to a pair of patient deaths that were “at least possibly” treatment-related. That program, XmAb14045, was in a phase 1 study in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia and other blood cancers expressing CD123. The bispecific targets CD3 and CD123. The FDA placed the hold after Xencor submitted safety reports about two patient deaths—one patient had cytokine release syndrome (CRS) after the first dose of XmAb14045, while the other developed acute pulmonary edema after several doses.

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Life sciences is a blanket term used to describe the study of all things relative to living organisms, such as biology, physiology, and biochemistry.

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Life sciences is a blanket term used to describe the study of all things relative to living organisms, such as biology, physiology, and biochemistry.

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