Immune Design Appoints William Ringo to Board of Directors

SEATTLE and SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Immune Design, a clinical-stage immunotherapy company focused on the development of novel immune-based therapies for cancer and other chronic conditions, today announced the appointment of biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry veteran William ("Bill") R. Ringo to the company's board of directors.

Mr. Ringo brings more than four decades of biopharmaceutical experience in a variety of leadership and advisory roles. He currently serves as a senior advisor with Barclays Capital, the global investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC, and as a strategic advisor with California-based Sofinnova Ventures, whose investment focus includes life sciences startup companies in the United States and Europe.  Prior to this, Mr. Ringo served as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development for Pfizer, where he led the company's overall strategic planning and business development efforts until his retirement in 2010.

"Bill's breadth and depth of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry will be invaluable to Immune Design," said Carlos Paya, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer at Immune Design.  "We are pleased to have him join our distinguished board of directors and know he will be a helpful advisor as we continue to mature our immunotherapy product pipeline."

Mr. Ringo's experience includes nearly 30 years with Eli Lilly and Company, where he served in multiple executive roles. Mr. Ringo also has served in numerous leadership roles within the biotechnology industry. From 2004 to 2006, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Abgenix, which focused on developing human antibodies as agents to treat cancer and other diseases. Amgen purchased the company in 2006 for $2.2 billion. From 2001 to 2007, he served on various boards of directors, including Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and InterMune, Inc. where he was the non-executive chairman of the Board of Directors after serving as interim Chief Executive Officer from June to September 2003.  Mr. Ringo also served on the Onyx Pharmaceuticals board of directors from 2010 until 2013.   Mr. Ringo currently serves as chairman of Sangamo BioSciences and a board member for Ascendis Medical Technology and BioCrossroads.  Mr. Ringo earned a B.S. in Business Administration and an M.B.A. from the University of Dayton. 

"Immune Design is developing an impressive pipeline of in vivo cancer immunotherapeutics through the application of its innovative discovery platforms," said Mr. Ringo. "The company has distinct clinical approaches that may result in multiple meaningful therapeutics.  I'm pleased to be joining the board of directors and look forward to assisting the team in advancing this next-generation strategy."

About Immune Design

Immune Design is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company employing leading-edge technologies that target dendritic cells in vivo to generate and expand strong cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) for the treatment of cancer and other chronic diseases.  The company has a multi-faceted set of clinical programs on going that are the product of its two synergistic discovery platforms: DCVex^TM, a novel lentiviral vector platform engineered to deliver antigen-encoding nucleic acids directly to dendritic cells in vivo; and GLAAS^TM, a TLR4-agonist platform that activates dendritic cells by up-regulating key molecules for efficient antigen presentation and produces Th1 cytokines to enhance the immune response. Immune Design has offices in Seattle, Washington and South San Francisco, California.  For more information, visit www.immunedesign.com.

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SOURCE Immune Design