LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Xenetic Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: XBIO) (“Xenetic” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, research and development of next-generation biologic drugs and novel orphan oncology therapeutics, announced today that it has appointed Adam Logal, James E. Callaway, Ph.D., and Dmitry Genkin to the Company’s Board of Directors to fill the vacancies created by the resignations of three prior members of the Company’s Board of Directors.

Adam Logal joins the Xenetic Board of Directors with over 15 years of experience in the biopharmaceuticals industry. Since April 2014, Mr. Logal has served as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer and Treasurer of OPKO Health, Inc. and from March 2007 until April 2014 served as OPKO’s Vice President of Finance, Chief Accounting Officer and Treasurer. Mr. Logal is a director of VBI Vaccines, Inc. and serves as its Audit Committee Chairman. Prior to joining OPKO, Mr. Logal served in various financial management roles at Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, a commercial stage biopharmaceutical company. Mr. Logal is a strategic finance executive with extensive experience in SEC compliance and reporting, domestic and international finance, strategic planning, cash flow management, budgeting, taxation, treasury and business development.

James Eric Callaway, Ph.D., joins the Xenetic Board of Directors with over 30 years of experience in the execution of product development operations for biotherapeutics. Dr. Callaway has an established track record of achievement against challenging technologies and aggressive project timelines. He currently serves as a Corporate Strategy Consultant at Callaway Innovations. Dr. Callaway is a seasoned CEO within the venture-backed biotech community and over the course of his career he has built and operated two companies, transforming each from research companies to clinical stage operating entities. Prior to these efforts, Dr. Callaway held multiple senior leadership positions at Elan Pharmaceuticals, including simultaneously acting as Head of Development and overseeing the complex partnership with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in the Alzheimer’s disease immunotherapy program. He has developed antibodies for a wide-range of therapeutic applications over the past two decades, including treatments of multiple sclerosis (Tysabri^®: pharmaceutical development), Alzheimer’s disease (bapineuzumab: Program Executive), and blood-brain barrier transport, and has worked with the United Stated Food and Drug Administration on multiple orphan drug development programs.

Dmitry Genkin currently serves on the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board and previously served on the Company’s Board of Directors from 2004-2016. He has the Russian equivalent of an MD in Internal Therapy and studied drug delivery under Professor Gregory Gregoriadis at The School of Pharmacy, University of London in 1992, as well as the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm from 1992 until 1993. Since 1993, Dr. Genkin has headed a number of Russia's largest pharmaceutical companies including Pharmavit, which had 27% of the Russian pharmaceutical market. In 1998, he was awarded the silver medal by the Russian Natural Science Academy. Dr. Genkin is currently Chairman of PJSC Pharmsynthez, a public company listed on the Moscow Stock Exchange and Xenetic’s majority stockholder.

About Xenetic Biosciences

Xenetic Biosciences, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, research and development of next-generation biologic drugs and novel orphan oncology therapeutics. Xenetic's proprietary drug development platforms include PolyXen™, which enables next-generation biologic drugs by improving their half-life and other pharmacological properties. Xenetic's lead investigational product candidates include oncology therapeutic XBIO-101 (sodium cridanimod) for the treatment of progesterone resistant endometrial cancer (“EC”), and a polysialylated form of erythropoietin for the treatment of anemia in pre-dialysis patients with chronic kidney disease.

Xenetic is party to an agreement with Baxalta US Inc. and Baxalta AB (wholly owned subsidiaries of Shire plc) covering the development of a novel series of polysialylated blood coagulation factors. This collaboration relies on Xenetic's PolyXen technology to conjugate polysialic acid (“PSA”) to therapeutic blood-clotting factors, with the goal of improving the pharmacokinetic profile and extending the active life of these biologic molecules. Shire is a significant stockholder of the Company, having invested $10 million in the Company during 2014. The agreement is an exclusive research, development and license agreement which grants Shire a worldwide, exclusive, royalty-bearing license to Xenetic's PSA patented and proprietary technology in combination with Shire's proprietary molecules designed for the treatment of blood and bleeding disorders. The first program under this agreement was a next generation Factor VIII, and this program was terminated by Shire following a Phase 1/2 trial. Xenetic and Shire are currently exploring whether to engage in further development of other blood coagulation factors. Additionally, Xenetic has previously received strategic investments from OPKO Health (Nasdaq: OPK), Serum Institute of India Limited and PJSC Pharmsynthez.

Xenetic is also developing a broad pipeline of clinical candidates for next-generation biologics and novel oncology therapeutics in a number of orphan disease indications. For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.xeneticbio.com and connect on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+.

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