Heather L. Franklin Joins XOMA's Board of Directors

Heather L. Franklin will expand XOMA’s portfolio of potential royalty assets via acquisition transactions.

FREMONT, CA: XOMA Corporation announces that Heather L. Franklin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Blaze Bioscience, Inc., has joined the company’s Board of Directors. Ms. Franklin has notable experience in corporate development and strategy, including over ten years of experience founding and leading Blaze and ten years of business development experience before 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 its 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 CompanyCompany 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 established Blaze Bioscience in 2011 and has led the company from its infancy to become a clinical-stage company. Before establishing Blaze, Ms. Franklin spent ten 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 held 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 was the largest single-molecule Phase 1 deal ever consummated and eventually led to the subsequent acquisition of BMS. Earlier in her career, she held roles in program management at Amgen and Targeted Genetics. Ms. Franklin has a Master’s degree in Business and Administration from The Warton School of the University of Pennsylvania, her Masters of Science from the University of Washington, and her bachelor of science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.