Tom Klein has been appointed chief commercial officer at XOMA Corp. In this newly created position, he reports to chief executive officer John Varian. Mr. Klein has more than 25 years of successful brand commercialization leadership, with an expertise in commercializing biologics. Mr. Klein joins the company from Genentech, where he was vice president, business unit head of Virology and Specialty Care.
 
“We created an executive-level position for commercial operations for two reasons. First, we are at the point where we are ready to begin building XOMA’s launch strategy and commercialization plans for gevokizumab. The importance of creating the sales and marketing plan for our first XOMA-developed product cannot be underestimated. We will build on Tom’s vast experience to develop a launch program that maximizes the commercial potential of gevokizumab,” said Mr. Varian.
 
He added, “The second reason was to fully integrate market analyses into our clinical development decisions. Tom will draw on his years of experience and to provide our team with the most accurate information that will guide our second, third and fourth gevokizumab indications. The team and I are looking forward to working closely with Tom to ensure gevokizumab is a commercial success.”