XOMA Corporation (NASDAQ: XOMA) announced today Heather L. Franklin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Blaze Bioscience, Inc., has joined the Company's Board of Directors. Ms. Franklin has significant experience in corporate development and strategy, including over 10 years of experience founding and leading Blaze and 10 years of business development experience prior to that at ZymoGenetics.

"We warmly welcome Heather to the XOMA Board of Directors. Heather is a highly regarded C-level executive leading Blaze, a development-stage oncology company. Heather has structured and negotiated deals across the product development spectrum from research through commercialization. Her background in business development and program management will benefit the XOMA team as we execute on our royalty aggregator business model and continue to grow our royalty portfolio," said Jim Neal, Chief Executive Officer at XOMA.

"I am excited to join XOMA with it's clear focus on expanding its portfolio of potential royalty assets via acquisition transactions. The XOMA strategy fits nicely with my licensing and transactions background and experience. I look forward to joining the Board and helping the Company provide an innovative financing alternative for early to mid-clinical stage biotechnology companies," commented Ms. Franklin.

Ms. Franklin has over 20 years of broad biotechnology expertise. She founded Blaze Bioscience in 2011 and has led the company from its infancy to become a clinical-stage company. Prior to establishing Blaze, Ms. Franklin spent 10 years at ZymoGenetics in positions of increasing responsibility, ultimately serving as senior vice president, business development, where she was a member of the executive management team and was responsible for business development, alliance management, strategic planning, portfolio management, and pipeline marketing. Ms. Franklin was the architect of the $1.1 billion deal with Bristol Myers Squibb for interferon lambda, which at the time was the largest single-molecule Phase 1 deal ever consummated and ultimately led to the subsequent acquisition by BMS. Earlier in her career, she held roles in program management at Amgen and Targeted Genetics. Ms. Franklin has her Masters in Business and Administration from The Warton School of the University of Pennsylvania, her Masters of Science from the University of Washington, and her bachelors of science from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About XOMA Corporation

XOMA is a biotechnology royalty aggregator playing a unique role in helping biotech companies achieve their goal of improving human health. XOMA acquires the potential future economics associated with pre-commercial therapeutic candidates that have been licensed to pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies. When XOMA acquires the future economics, the seller receives non-dilutive, non-recourse funding they can use to advance their internal drug candidate(s) or for general corporate purposes. The Company has an extensive and growing portfolio with more than 70 assets (asset defined as the right to receive potential future economics associated with the advancement of an underlying therapeutic candidate).