Xencor announced the appointment of Ellen G. Feigal, M.D., to its board of directors. Dr. Feigal is currently a partner at NDA Partners, a strategy consulting firm, where she leads efforts in designing and executing product development and regulatory strategies in the areas of cell therapies, medical imaging, hematology and oncology. She is also adjunct faculty at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University, where she teaches FDA drug law and medical research ethics and law.

"Dr. Feigal's exceptional career as an oncologist in clinical development spans 30 years across leadership roles in industry, academia, public service and nonprofits, and she has accrued a unique perspective from this wealth of experience," said Bassil Dahiyat, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer at Xencor. "We are excited to benefit from her contributions to the board as we advance our pipeline of XmAb antibodies in autoimmune disease and oncology, grow our pipeline with novel bispecific antibodies and continue to expand the potential of our bispecific antibody technologies."

"With twelve clinical programs engineered using Xencor's innovative technology, the company has a tremendous opportunity to potentially improve the treatment of patients who have limited options, and I look forward to serving on the board of directors as the company continues to advance its programs," said Dr. Feigal.

Dr. Feigal was formerly senior vice president of research and development at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine; executive medical director, global development, at Amgen; and chief medical officer at Insys Therapeutics. She was a founding director of the American Course on Drug Development and Regulatory Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to UCSF, Dr. Feigal was director of medical devices and imaging at the Critical Path Institute and vice president of clinical sciences at the Translational Genomics Research Institute. From 1992 to 2004, she held leadership roles at the National Cancer Institute, where she directed the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis after serving as deputy director of the division and as a senior investigator in the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program. Dr. Feigal received her M.D. from the University of California, Davis and completed an internal medicine residency at Stanford University and a hematology/oncology fellowship at University of California, San Francisco.